Carol Thatcher

Carol Jane Thatcher (born 15 August 1953) is an English journalist, author and media personality. She is the daughter of Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister from 1979 to 1990, and Denis Thatcher.
She has written biographies of both her parents and also produced a documentary about her father which contained his only public interview. She won the fifth series of the reality show "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!"
Early life.
Thatcher was born at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, on 15 August 1953. She and her twin brother, Mark, were born six weeks prematurely by C-section. According to Margaret Thatcher, her husband Denis Thatcher responded to seeing their children for the first time by saying, "My God, they look like rabbits. Put them back." Thatcher's mother was selected for the constituency of Finchley in north London in 1958 and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1959.
In 1960, Thatcher was sent to Queenswood School, a girls' boarding school near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, before attending St Paul's Girls' School. She graduated with a law degree from University College London, before moving to Australia in 1977 to begin a journalism career. While she was there, her mother was elected prime minister. Thatcher later said, "You need quite good shock absorbers and a sense of humour to be the prime minister's child."
Journalism career.
Thatcher began her career as a journalist in Australia, working on the "Sydney Morning Herald" from 1977 to 1979. She became a TV reporter at Channel Seven, also in Sydney, and later a reporter on its news morning show, "11AM". On her return to Britain, she worked as a presenter for LBC, BBC Radio 4, TV-am and wrote travel articles for "The Daily Telegraph". Due to her mother's high-profile political position, many newspapers refused to publish work with her byline.
Her first book, "Diary of an Election: with Margaret Thatcher on the campaign trail", was published in 1983. Her second book, a collaboration with tennis player Chris Evert Lloyd called "Lloyd on Lloyd", was released three years later. It became Thatcher's first best-seller.
Later publications included a 1996 best-selling biography of her father, "Below the Parapet". In 2003, Thatcher produced a Channel 4 documentary about him called "Married to Maggie". Thatcher captured the only public interview Denis Thatcher gave in his lifetime; he died shortly after its release. Thatcher's freelance career has included contributing articles to magazines and papers as well as television work.
Reality shows.
"I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!".
In November 2005 Thatcher was selected to appear with a number of fellow celebrities on the ITV television show "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" The format of the show meant that she would be forced to spend at least a week in the Australian rainforest with a minimal supply of food in basic living conditions.
She had to undergo one of the more infamous "Bushtucker Trials" during her stay in the jungle – which saw her eat jungle bugs and kangaroo testicles as a challenge to earn food for her fellow celebrities. Ultimately, she emerged as the fifth series winner and second 'Queen of the Jungle'.
"Most Haunted".
Thatcher appeared on Living TV's "Most Haunted" on 13 February 2007 as a celebrity guest alongside presenter Yvette Fielding and medium David Wells as well as Joanne Gregory to search for paranormal activity at Tatton Hall in Cheshire.
"Mummy's War".
In 2007, Carol Thatcher travelled to the Falkland Islands and Argentina for the documentary "Mummy's War", in order to explore the legacy of the Falklands War. She received a positive reception from the pro-British islanders who regard her mother as a heroine. Her reception in Argentina provoked protests and demonstrations (including the cry "Your mother is a war criminal!"). During her stay in Argentina, she met a group of mothers who lost their sons during the conflict and stated, "We were fighting a war; we won, you lost," and reminded them that it was their country that invaded the islands, thus initiating the conflict. The interview ended with one of the women claiming that "God will punish her (Margaret Thatcher)".
"The One Show".
From 2006 to 2009, Thatcher was a freelance contributor to the BBC One magazine programme "The One Show", making filmed reports and joining the presenters and guests in the studio for discussions.
On 3 February 2009, British media reported that during the 2009 Australian Open Thatcher had, in a conversation in the show's green room, referred to a black tennis player, reportedly Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, as a golliwog. According to "The Times", Thatcher called Tsonga "half-golliwog" and "the golliwog Frog". Presenter Adrian Chiles, comedian Jo Brand, journalists and several guests were with Thatcher when she made the remark. The BBC stated that Thatcher would not work again on "The One Show" unless she made a more sincere apology. Thatcher refused, saying "I stand by what I said. I wasn't going to apologise. I never meant it in a racist way. It was shorthand. I described someone's appearance colloquially—someone I happen to greatly admire."
Personal life.
Thatcher had a relationship with Jonathan Aitken, which ended in 1979. As this happened just after the Conservatives won the general election, Aitken's breaking up with Thatcher is alleged to have been the reason for his being bypassed for a ministerial career; Thatcher's mother, the Prime Minister at the time, reportedly told cabinet colleagues that she was "damned" if she was going to give a job to a man "who had made Carol cry".
Thatcher lives with ski instructor Marco Grass in Klosters-Serneus, Switzerland.


Tardunni

Tar...dun...ni (Cuneiform: , "tar...dun...ni", or Tar…ni, …birini, …irpirin) son of Ikki (also reads Ikkibshakhmat, or Ikkipshakhmat), was a king, prince, ruler, or high-ranking official of the Zagros mountains area, circa 2000 BC. Although "Tardunni" is the way his name has been traditionally deciphered, he may have been called differently: it has been proposed that he was rather called Lisir Pirini, son of Ikkid Samad.
He is mainly known from a rock relief discovered in the valley of the Diyala river, in the Belula Pass, near the Lake of Darbandikhan, on the Horen Shekhan mountain (Kurdish: هۆرێن و شێخان; Arabic هورين- شيخان), in the extreme northeast of Iraq, near the border with Iran.
Very little is known about Tardunni. He was probably a ruler of the Lullubi mountain tribe. Some of their reliefs are known about 55 kilometers away, such as the Anubanini rock relief, which are very similar to the relief of Tardunni. Another opinion suggests that he was a Gutian.
In his relief, he is seen wearing weapons and trampling enemies. On the side, the relief has an inscription in the Akkadian language, invoking the protection of the deities Shamash and Adad:


Jules Fontaine Sambwa

Jules-Fontaine Sambwa (12 November 1940 – 4 March 1998) was a Zairean political officeholder and economist.
Biography.
Jules-Fontaine Sambwa Pida Nbagui was born in Mbandaka, on 12 November 1940. He died on 4 March 1998. After graduating in Economy and Finance at the University of Brussels in 1967, he exercised the following high offices in the Republic of Zaire:
At the same time, he was also a professor at the University of Kinshasa where, as part of the Faculty of Economy, he was "titular to the class of international economy".
Visiting Europe since 1991, Jules-Fontaine Sambwa carried on his research and studies on the development of Sub-Saharan Africa until his death.
His care for a positive contribution to the reflection of diverse intellectuals on the emergence of rules of law in Sub-Saharan Africa made him accept the office of President of the “Zaire Club 2000” in 1994.
Awards.
He had been promised to the following honorary distinctions:


Muhammadu Sanusi I

Muhammadu Sanusi I, KBE was the Emir of Kano from 1954–1963. He was the eldest son of Emir Abdullahi Bayero. He was a powerful Emir that had substantial influence in the colonial Northern Nigeria. He hosted a grand durbar festival for Elizabeth II when she visited Kano in 1956. The power tussle between him and his distant cousin Sir Ahmadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto and accusations of financial malfeasance led to his abdication, and subsequent self-exile in Azare 1963. His grandson, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria was Emir of Kano from 2014–2020. Sanusi belonged to the reformed Tijaniyya order of Ibrahim Niass
Life.
Sanusi was born to the large family of Abdullahi Bayero, Emir of Kano, among his brothers was future Emir, Ado Bayero. He was the second son of Bayero but his elder brother died at an early age. He was educated at Kano Middle School. Prior to becoming Emir, Sanusi held the title of Ciroma Kano and in 1947, he became a member of the regional House of Assembly. Sanusi was closely affiliated with Ibrahim Niass and the Tijani Sufi, for a while, he accompanied Niass on pilgrimages to Mecca and was later the appointed Caliph of the tijaniyyah order in Nigeria. He was also appointed a minister without portfolio in 1958 alongside other emirs like Usman Nagogo. In his memoir
'An Imperial Twilight', Sir Gawain Bell narrates how he appointed Emir Sanusi to act in his stead as Governor of Northern Nigeria for six months in 1957.


Mohammed Farashuddin

Mohammed Farashuddin is a Bangladeshi economist who served as the seventh Governor of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh. He served during 1998–2001. He is the founder of East West University (EWU) where he was the founding vice-chancellor during 1995-1998. He is currently the chairperson of the board of trustees of the university.
Early life.
Farash was born in the village of Ratanpur in Nayapara Union, Madhabpur, Habiganj District(The then undivided Sylhet)


Taxation in Iceland

Taxes in Iceland are levied by the state and the municipalities. Property rights are strong and Iceland is one of the few countries where they are applied to fishery management. Taxpayers pay various subsidies to each other, similar to European countries that are welfare states, but the spending is less than in most European countries. Despite low tax rates, overall taxation and consumption is still much higher than in countries such as Ireland. Employment regulations are relatively flexible. The tax is collected by Skatturinn, the Iceland Revenue and Customs Agency and is due in March each year.
Income tax.
Income tax is deducted at the source, which is called pay-as-you-earn (PAYE). Each employee has a personal tax credit of 53,895 ISK per month (2018) which is deducted from calculated taxes. Unused credit may be transferred to one's spouse. Mandatory employee pension insurance is 4% of gross income (employer provides a minimum of 8%) and another 4% of total income may be deducted for private pension insurance (if so, the employer is obliged to pay additional 2% premium for the benefit of the employees) .
Before the year 2016 Iceland used a 3-tier income tax system base on the individual's level of income. Since 2016, Iceland uses a 2-tier system.
In 2018 income tax consisted as follows
If the annual income of an individual is below 1,750,782 ISK there must not be any income or municipal tax paid. The annual personal tax credit (646,740 ISK, 2018) equals to non-taxation of the first 1,750,782 ISK
Children under 16 years must pay 6% income tax if their annual income exceeds 180,000 ISK.
Tax on capital gains.
Individuals in Iceland pay 22% capital gains tax (2018)
Corporate tax.
The corporate income tax rate in Iceland stands at 20% since 2011, one of the lowest in the world. These 20% stand for limited liability companies and limited partnership companies. Corporate income tax for other types of legal entities (e.g. partnerships) is assessed at a rate of 37.6%. Non-resident corporations doing business in Iceland are subject to the same rate as applies to resident corporations.<graph>{"version":2,"width":885,"height":249.194,"data":[{"name":"table","values":[{"x":1994,"y":33},{"x":1995,"y":33},{"x":1996,"y":33},{"x":1997,"y":33},{"x":1999,"y":30},{"x":2000,"y":30},{"x":2001,"y":30},{"x":2002,"y":18},{"x":2003,"y":18},{"x":2004,"y":18},{"x":2005,"y":18},{"x":2006,"y":18},{"x":2007,"y":18},{"x":2008,"y":15},{"x":2009,"y":15},{"x":2010,"y":18},{"x":2011,"y":20},{"x":2012,"y":20},{"x":2013,"y":20},{"x":2014,"y":20},{"x":2015,"y":20},{"x":2016,"y":20},{"x":2017,"y":20},{"x":2018,"y":20}]}],"scales":[{"name":"x","type":"ordinal","range":"width","zero":false,"domain":{"data":"table","field":"x"}},{"name":"y","type":"linear","range":"height","nice":true,"domain":{"data":"table","field":"y"}}],"axes":[{"type":"x","scale":"x"},{"type":"y","scale":"y"}],"marks":[{"type":"rect","from":{"data":"table"},"properties":{"enter":{"x":{"scale":"x","field":"x"},"y":{"scale":"y","field":"y"},"y2":{"scale":"y","value":0},"fill":{"value":"steelblue"},"width":{"scale":"x","band":"true","offset":-1}}}}],"padding":{"top":20,"bottom":30,"left":30,"right":30}}</graph>
Value-added tax.
The standard rate of value-added tax is 24%. A number of specific consumer goods and services are subject to a reduced VAT rate of 11% (e.g. food, hotels, newspapers, books, and energy like electricity, heating and fuel).
Residence in Iceland.
For taxation purposes a resident of Iceland is anyone who is present in Iceland for 183 days during any 12-month period. An individual that stays in Iceland for longer than 183 days is considered to be a resident from the day of arrival. After leaving Iceland tax liability of an individual ends.
Non-residents staying in Iceland for a period shorter than 183 days are subject to national income tax on any income. They are also subject to municipal income tax as well as residents.


A Privataria Tucana

A Privataria Tucana is a book written by journalist Amaury Ribeiro Jr., a former special reporter of weekly magazine "ISTOÉ" and daily newspaper "O Globo" who has won several Esso Journalism Awards. The Portuguese title comes from "privataria", a neologism combining "privatization" and "piracy" and "tucano" is a common nickname given to members of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party from one of the symbols of the party, the toucan bird.
Synopsis.
The book highlights documents that show supposed irregularities in privatizations that occurred during the administration of the PSDB under former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and that friends and relatives of the PSDB's ex presidential candidate José Serra held companies in tax shelters and moved millions of dollars between 1993 and 2003.
It contains about 140 pages of photocopied documents trying to demonstrate that President Cardoso's Minister of Planning and later Minister of Health José Serra received kickbacks from businessmen that participated in the privatization process.
Controversy.
The books is one of the biggest Brazilian publishing phenomenon in recent years. Although not too explored by Brazil's mainstream media, it sold 15,000 copies in one day (the whole first edition becoming a best seller by Brazil's editorial standards) and 120,000 copies in a month. It produced waves in social media and among bloggers and alternative media publications, which questioned the silence of mainstream media.
José Serra called as soon as the book was published and strongly requested the bookselling company to set apart their entire stock of the book. According to an employee who preferred not to be identified, they refused to accede to Serra's request. According to the book, Serra's entire family was involved in a corruption scheme of diverting public funds to offshore financial centres in fiscal paradises and money laundering.
Dep. Delegado Protógenes Queiroz (PCdoB) presented a petition to install a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry in the Chamber of Deputies to investigate privatizations carried out by the Cardoso administration (1995–2002). His motivation was the book.


Government Savings Bank (Thailand)

Government Savings Bank (GSB) () is a state-owned Thai bank headquartered in Phaya Thai District, Bangkok. GSB's Swift code is GSBATHBK.
History.
King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) introduced a means to save money to Thailand in 1913. His purpose was to introduce Thai people to banking services and to promote a habit of thrift and saving. King Vajiravudh issued an act, effective 1 April 1913, to formally set up a "Savings Office" which began its operations under the Royal Treasury.
In 1929, in a period of economic depression, King Rama VII permitted the transfer of the bank to the Post and Telegraph Department of the Ministry of Commerce and Transportation to make it more convenient for citizens. The bank established new businesses such as travel savings, capital accumulation savings, and house deposit savings. By the end of 1936, a total of 104 branches of the Government Savings Bank around the country. After World War II, the government, recognizing the benefits of savings as well as the role that the Savings Office played in financial development, transformed it into a juristic person, to be operated independently under the supervision of a board of directors appointed by the finance minister as mandated by the Government Savings Bank Act B.E. 2489 (1946). The office was renamed the Government Savings Bank (GSB), effective 1 April 1947.
GSB is now a juristic person and state enterprise operating as a financial institution guaranteed by the government under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance. GSB operates 1,141 branches throughout the country.
Performance.
The bank showed total assets of 2,259,016 million baht as of 31 December 2014, ranked number four in the Thai banking sector. Net profit was 22,231 million baht, increasing 322 million baht or 1.5 percent over the previous year.


Paul Acquah

Paul Amoako Acquah is a Ghanaian economist and a former Deputy Director for the Africa Department of the International Monetary Fund from 1998 to 2001. He is also a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana (2001-2009). During his tenure as Governor of the Bank of Ghana he implemented the re-denomination of the Ghanaian cedi. Https/wa.me/+233542542913
Early life and education.
He was born in Juabo in the Western Region of Ghana. Acquah had his secondary education at St. Augustine's College. He later obtained his degree in Economics from the University of Ghana, Legon. He proceeded to obtain his master's degree from Yale University and his PhD from University of Pennsylvania.
Career.
Acquah joined the International Monetary Fund as an economist. He worked for the fund and served in various capacities till 1998 when he became the fund's deputy director of its Africa department. In 2001 he resigned from the IMF and was appointed by the then President of Ghana, John Kufuor as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana until 2009.
Acquah became Governor of the Bank of Ghana in 2001. One of his major achievement was the re-denomination of the cedi and the introduction of the Pesewa in 2007. Four zeros were knocked off the then currency, this led to the reintroduction of the pesewa which is the basic unit of the Ghanaian cedi.
After leaving the Bank of Ghana, Paul Acquah joined a new team setup to oversee the restructuring and development of Tema Oil Refinery and Ghana's crude oil supply. Other team members were Kwabena Duffuor, Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman, and Minister of Energy Joe Oteng-Adjei.
Awards.
In 2005, Acquah won the Emerging Markets award for Africa Central Bank Governor of the Year.


Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle

Lieutenant-General Willem (or William) Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (5 June 1702 – 22 December 1754) was a British soldier, diplomat and courtier.
He held various roles in the household of George II (1683-1760), who was a personal friend, participated in negotiations to end the 1718 to 1720 War of the Quadruple Alliance and was British Ambassador to France from 1748 to 1754.
During the 1740 to 1748 War of the Austrian Succession, he commanded troops in Flanders and was transferred to Scotland following the outbreak of the Jacobite rising of 1745. After Culloden, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Scotland before returning to Flanders in 1747.
Despite his many offices and inheriting a large fortune, he was known as the 'Spendthrift Earl' and died in 1754 leaving his family nothing but debts.
Life.
William (or Willem) Anne van Keppel was born 5 June 1702 at Whitehall Palace in London, only son of Arnold, 1st Earl of Albemarle (1670-1718) and Geertruid van der Duyn (died 1741). His father was popular with both William III and Queen Anne, who was his godmother.
In 1722, he married Anne Lennox (1703 – 1789), daughter of the Duke of Richmond, an illegitimate son of Charles II. She was Lady of the Bedchamber to Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737); she was reputedly a great favourite of George II, who paid her a pension of £1,500 per annum when Albemarle died in 1754.
They had over fifteen children, of whom six survived to adulthood; George, 3rd Earl of Albemarle (1724-1772), Augustus (1725-1786), William (1727-1782), Frederick (1728–1777), Caroline (1733–69) mother of Sir Robert Adair and Elizabeth (1739-1768).
Career.
Albemarle was educated in the Dutch province of Gelderland, where the family originated. After returning to England in 1717, he was commissioned in the Coldstream Foot Guards and succeeded his father as Earl of Albemarle in 1718. Over the next few years, he and a colleague John Huske accompanied the Earl of Cadogan in meetings with the Dutch over the War of the Quadruple Alliance; financially exhausted by the War of the Spanish Succession, they were anxious to avoid another. The Treaty of The Hague was agreed in 1720, although negotiations continued with Austria.
Like his father, Albemarle appears to have had a talent for making powerful friends; his marriage in 1722 was held at Cadogan's house near Caversham, outside Reading. He was also made Lord of the Bedchamber to the future George II, then Prince of Wales, a position he retained until 1751. The role provided proximity to the monarch; its holder was a trusted confidant and often extremely powerful.
In 1737, he was appointed Governor of Virginia, which he retained until his death, despite never setting foot in it. As was common, the administrative work was done by his deputy Sir William Gooch, although the two frequently clashed over appointments. Albemarle County, Virginia was named after him; it is better known as the location of Monticello, the estate built by Thomas Jefferson.
Between 1713 and 1739, Britain was mostly at peace; Albemarle was Colonel of the 29th Regiment of Foot from 1731 to 1733 before transferring to the Royal Horse Guards. As personal escort to the king, they rarely left London but Albemarle commanded them at Dettingen in 1743, when George II became the last British monarch to command troops in battle. He became Colonel of the Coldstream Guards in 1744 and fought under the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy in April 1745.
With the outbreak of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, Albemarle was sent to Newcastle as deputy to the elderly George Wade. He commanded the government front line at Culloden in April 1746 and subsequently appointed Commander-in-Chief, Scotland, despite referring to it as "this cursed country". He told the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary of State for the Southern Department that "my predecessors have split against a sharp rock". The appointment of a senior and trusted subordinate reflected a widespread perception among both government officials and Jacobite rebels that another landing was imminent.
The immediate focus was capturing the fugitive Charles Stuart but despite a reward of £30,000, he evaded Albemarle's patrols and escaped to France in September. In 2018, previously unknown records from 1746 and 1747 were discovered in Ipswich; these include intelligence reports on the search and details showing that after Culloden, Albemarle received a thousand guineas and the Prince's silver-gilt travelling canteen.
With his headquarters in Edinburgh, Albemarle divided Scotland into four military districts and carried out measures intended to bring the Highlands under control. They included extending the military road network begun in 1715 and placing permanent garrisons at key points, whose role was to enforce the 1746 Disarming and Dress Acts. In February 1747, he was relieved as commander in Scotland and rejoined the army in Flanders, commanding the British infantry at Lauffeld in July. Although this was a decisive French victory that effectively ended the War of the Austrian Succession, his troops' disciplined fire helped the Pragmatic army make an orderly retreat.
After the war ended with the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, he was sent to Paris as Ambassador, where he was a great success, entertaining on a lavish scale and sharing a mistress with Giacomo Casanova. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1750, then a Privy Counsellor the following year.
Albemarle died aged 52 in Paris on 22 December 1754, returning home from a pre-Christmas supper; he was buried on 21 February 1755 in Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street in London. When his long-term colleague and friend John Huske died in 1761, he instructed his coffin be placed next to that of Albemarle.
Notoriously extravagant, he died leaving nothing but debts, although his sons had successful careers; in 1740, Augustus Keppel participated in Anson's capture of the Manila galleon, which made the officers wealthy men in their own right.
In her biography of Madame de Pompadour, the writer Nancy Mitford remarks given his love of all things French, it was a blessing Albemarle died before the Seven Years' War broke out. She records that the French admired his love of life and wit; when a rapacious mistress admired the beauty of the stars, he replied that unfortunately he was unable to buy them for her.
External links.


Lee Ju-yeol

Lee Ju-yeol (; born 24 July 1952) is a South Korean economist and technocrat who was appointed Governor of the Bank of Korea, the South Korean central bank, on 1 April 2014. He was re-nominated for the governorship by President Moon Jae-in and the nomination was confirmed by the National Assembly, thus renewing his governorship to March 2022 and becoming the first central bank Governor to be appointed for a second term throughout the history of the nation. He also serves as the Alternate Governor representing South Korea on the IMF Board.
Lee received his BA in Business Management from Yonsei University in 1977 and MA in Economics from Pennsylvania State University in 1988. He first worked at the Bank of Korea in 1977 and served as Senior Deputy Governor from 2009 to 2012. Afterwards, he retired to work as an Economics professor at Yonsei University.
Lee is married and has a son and a daughter.


Bill Friend

William C. Friend (born July 14, 1949) has served as an Indiana State Representative since 1992. He is currently Majority Leader of the State House. In January 2018, Friend announced that he would not be running for reelection.
Education.
Friend graduated from North Miami High School in 1967. He has a B.A. in biology from the University of Indianapolis.
Early career.
He previously served as Allen Township Trustee/Assessor, a member of the Miami County Council, and Miami County Auditor.
State House.
Friend has served in the Indiana House of Representatives since 1992. He is currently House Majority Leader. His district includes parts of Elkhart, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall and Miami Counties. He serves on the Agriculture and Rural Development committees.
Personal life.
Friend lives in Macy, Indiana with his wife, Ann Friend. They have three children and two grandchildren.


Nina Miglionico

Nina Miglionico (September 14, 1913 – May 6, 2009) was an American lawyer and clubwoman in Birmingham, Alabama. She was the first woman to serve on the Birmingham City Council, where she held a seat from 1963 to 1985.
Early life.
Miglionico was born in Birmingham, the daughter of Joseph and Mary Miglionico. Her parents were both born in Italy, and ran a delicatessen. She attended Howard College (now known as Samford University), graduating in 1933. She earned her law degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1936, one of five women in her graduating class.
Career.
In 1958, Miglionico was elected president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. She also served on the tax committee of the American Bar Association. As a tax expert, she served on the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and was appointed to the President's Commission on the Status of Women.
In Alabama, she was president of the Alabama Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, the Alabama Women Lawyers Association, the Alabama League of Municipalities, the Alabama Merit System League, and the Birmingham Zonta Club. She ran for the Birmingham School Board in 1958. She was the first woman to serve on the Birmingham City Council, a seat she held for over twenty years, from 1963 to 1985. She worked against the poll tax and child labor, and for prison reform, and food safety.
Miglionico was targeted several times with violent warnings for her work on civil rights and women's rights. In 1965, a bomb was placed on the porch of her home; it did not explode. In 1974, when she ran for a Congressional seat, a cross was burned in front of her house.
In 1963, Miglionico was named Birmingham Woman of the Year. In 1996, she was honored by the American Bar Association with a Margaret Brent Award, for her lifetime of accomplishments.
Personal life.
Miglionico died in 2009, aged 95 years, in Birmingham. She was inducted into the Alabama Lawyers' Hall of Fame in 2011, and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 2012. There is a statue of Nina Miglionico in Birmingham's Linn Park. Her papers are collected at the Birmingham Public Library and the law library at the University of Alabama. The Women Lawyers Section of the Birmingham Bar Association presents a Nina Miglionico "Paving the Way" Award. The first recipient of the Miglionico Award was judge Inge Prytz Johnson, in 2006.
In 2016, a documentary, "Stand Up, Speak Out: The Nina Miglionico Story" was released. In 2020, Miglionico was featured in a virtual exhibit to mark the centennial of women's suffrage in Alabama.


Philippe Takla

Philippe Takla (3 February 1915 – 10 July 2006) was a Lebanese lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as foreign minister.
Early life.
Takla was born into a Greek Catholic family on 3 February 1915.
Career.
Takla was a lawyer by profession. He was elected to parliament in the general elections held in 1945, 1947 and 1957. He was the Minister of Finance from June 1951 to February 1952. He was appointed minister of economy in 1959. He was then named as minister of foreign affairs and of tourism in 1960. In 1964, he was holding the post of economy minister. Takla was the governor of the Central bank of Lebanon from 1963 to 1967.
In 1967, Takla began to serve as Lebanon's representative to the U.N. and then as ambassador in Paris from 1968 to 1971. In addition, he served seven times as foreign minister in various cabinets from 1952 to 1976, last of which was from July 1975 to June 1976.
Death and burial.
Takla died on 10 July 2006 at the age of 91. His body was buried in Zouk Mikhael.


Liu Shan

Liu Shan () (207–271), courtesy name Gongsi, was the second and last emperor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. As he ascended the throne at the age of 16, Liu Shan was entrusted to the care of the Chancellor Zhuge Liang and Imperial Secretariat Li Yan. His reign of 40 years was the longest of all in the Three Kingdoms era. During Liu Shan's reign, many campaigns were led against the rival state of Cao Wei, primarily by Zhuge Liang and his successor Jiang Wei, but to little avail. Liu Shan eventually surrendered to Wei in 263 after Deng Ai led a surprise attack on the Shu capital Chengdu. He was quickly relocated to Luoyang, capital of Wei, and enfeoffed as "Duke Anle". There he enjoyed his last years peacefully before dying, most probably of natural causes, in 271.
Widely known by his infant name "Adou / Edou" (), Liu Shan was commonly perceived as an incapable, even mentally handicapped ruler. He was also accused of indulging in pleasures while neglecting state affairs. However, some modern scholars have taken a different opinions on Liu Shan's capability, as Liu Shan's long reign in Shu Han was free of bloody court coups and bloodshed and was the only court in the Three Kingdoms era to remain relatively bloodless. Nevertheless, the name "Adou" is today still commonly used in Chinese to describe incapable people who would not achieve anything even with significant assistance.
As Chen Shou, the author of "Records of Three Kingdoms", noted, contrary to tradition, Zhuge Liang banned official historians at Liu Shan's court, and after Zhuge's death, it appeared Liu did not revive that post. Therefore, many of the events during his reign were unrecorded, causing limited details about Liu Shan's reign in historical records.
Early life.
Liu Shan was the eldest son of the warlord Liu Bei and was born to Liu Bei's concubine Lady Gan. In 208, Liu Bei's rival Cao Cao, who had by then occupied most of northern China, launched a campaign on Jing Province. During his retreat south, Liu Bei was caught up by an elite cavalry force led by Cao Cao at the Battle of Changban, and forced to leave behind Lady Gan and Liu Shan to resume his escape. Liu Bei's general Zhao Yun stayed behind to protect the family members of Liu Bei. Holding the infant Liu Shan in his arms, Zhao Yun led the mother and child to safety. (It appears likely that Lady Gan had died sometime before 209, because when Liu Bei's wife Lady Sun effectively divorced Liu Bei in 211, Liu Shan was in her custody.)
An alternative story of Liu Shan's early life was given in "A Brief History of Wei" by Yu Huan. It was said that Liu Shan, then already several years old, was separated from Liu Bei when the latter was attacked by Cao Cao in Xiaopei in 200. He somehow landed in Hanzhong and was sold by slave traders. Only when Liu Bei declared himself emperor in 221 was Liu Shan reunited with his father. However, this story was rejected by Pei Songzhi, who made annotations to "Records of the Three Kingdoms", taking into account various other sources.
After Liu Bei declared himself emperor of Shu Han in 221, Liu Shan was formally made the crown prince. In the following year, Liu Bei left the capital Chengdu on a campaign against Sun Quan, who had sent his general Lü Meng to invade and seize Jing Province from Liu Bei in 219. Liu Bei was defeated at the Battle of Xiaoting and, having retreated to the city of Baidicheng, eventually died in 223. Before his death, Liu Bei entrusted the young Liu Shan to the care of his chancellor Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei even told Zhuge Liang to take the throne if Liu Shan proved to be incapable.
Reign.
Zhuge Liang's regency.
During the early years of his reign, Liu Shan was not an unwise ruler. While Zhuge Liang was alive, Liu Shan treated him as a father figure, allowing Zhuge to handle all state affairs. Zhuge Liang recommended many trusted officials, including Fei Yi, Dong Yun, Guo Youzhi and Xiang Chong into key positions. Under Zhuge Liang's advice, Liu Shan entered into an alliance with the state of Eastern Wu, helping both states to survive against the much larger state of Cao Wei. During Zhuge Liang's regency, the government was largely efficient and not corrupt, allowing the relatively small state of Shu to prepare itself for military campaigns.
In 223, Liu Shan married Zhang Fei's daughter, Empress Zhang.
In the aftermath of Liu Bei's death, the southern Nanman tribes had peeled away from Shu dominion. In 225, Zhuge Liang headed south and was able to, by both military victories and persuasion, reintegrate the southern region into the empire. For the rest of Zhuge Liang's regency, the southern Nanman people would be key contributors to Shu's campaigns against Wei.
Starting in 227, Zhuge Liang launched his five Northern Expeditions against Wei, but all except one were military failures (albeit not military disasters) in that his forces ran out of food before they were able to inflict significant damage on Wei and therefore were forced to withdraw. It was during one of Zhuge Liang's campaigns that the only real political crisis during Zhuge's regency would occur. In 231, unable to supply the troops sufficiently, Zhuge Liang's co-regent Li Yan forged an edict by Liu Shan, ordering Zhuge Liang to retreat. When Zhuge Liang discovered this, he recommended that Li Yan be removed from his office and put under house arrest, and Liu Shan accepted the recommendation.
In 234, while Zhuge Liang was on his final campaign against Wei, he grew seriously ill. Hearing about Zhuge's illness, Liu Shan sent his secretary Li Fu () to the front line to visit Zhuge Liang and to request Zhuge to leave instructions on important state matters. Among other things, Zhuge Liang recommended that Jiang Wan succeed him, and that Fei Yi succeed Jiang Wan. Zhuge Liang refused to answer Li Fu's next question — who should succeed Fei Yi. Zhuge Liang died soon thereafter. Liu Shan followed Zhuge's instructions and installed Jiang Wan as the new regent.
Jiang Wan's regency.
Jiang Wan was a capable administrator, and he continued Zhuge Liang's domestic policies, leaving the government largely efficient. He was also known for his tolerance of dissension and his humility. Not having much military aptitude, however, he soon abandoned Zhuge Liang's aggressive foreign policy towards Wei, and indeed in 241 withdrew most of the troops from the important border city of Hanzhong to Fu County (涪縣; in present-day Mianyang, Sichuan). From that point on, Shu was generally in a defensive posture and no longer posed a threat to Wei. According to histories of the Wu court, Shu's defensive posture was interpreted by many Wu officials as a sign that Shu was abandoning the alliance and had entered into a treaty with Wei; but Wu's emperor Sun Quan correctly identified it as merely a sign of weakness, not an abandonment of the alliance.
In 237, Empress Zhang died. That year, Liu Shan took her younger sister as a consort, and in 238 created her empress. Her title remained the same as her sister, Empress Zhang.
In 243, Jiang Wan grew ill and transferred most of his authority to Fei Yi and Fei's assistant Dong Yun. In 244, when Wei's regent Cao Shuang attacked Hanzhong, it was Fei Yi who led the troops against Cao Shuang and dealt Wei a major defeat in the Battle of Xingshi. Jiang Wan, however, remained influential until his death in 245. Soon after Jiang Wan's death, Dong Yun also died — allowing the eunuch Huang Hao, a favourite of Liu Shan's, whose power Dong Yun had curbed, to start aggrandising his power. Huang Hao was viewed as corrupt and highly manipulative in domestic matters, and the governmental efficiency that was achieved during Zhuge Liang's and Jiang Wan's regencies began to deteriorate.
Fei Yi's regency.
After Jiang Wan and Dong Yun's deaths, Liu Shan named Jiang Wei as Fei Yi's assistant, but both were largely involved only in military matters, as Liu Shan gradually became more self-assertive in non-military matters. It was also around this time that he became more interested in touring the countryside and increasing the use of luxury items, both of which added stress on the treasury, albeit not cripplingly so. Jiang Wei was interested in resuming Zhuge Liang's policies of attacking Wei aggressively, a strategy that Fei Yi partially agreed with — as he allowed Jiang Wei to make raids on Wei's borders, but never gave him a large number of troops, reasoning that Shu was in no position for a major military confrontation with Wei.
In 253, Fei Yi was assassinated by the general Guo Xun () -- a former Wei general who had been forced to surrender but who secretly maintained his loyalty to Wei. Fei Yi's death left Jiang Wei as the "de facto" regent, but with a power vacuum in domestic affairs, as Jiang Wei continued to be on the borders, conducting campaigns against Wei. Huang Hao's influence increased greatly as a result.
Jiang Wei's semi-regency.
After Fei Yi's death, Jiang Wei assumed command of Shu's troops and began a number of campaigns against Wei—but while they were troubling to the Wei regents Sima Shi and Sima Zhao, the attacks largely inflicted no real damage against Wei, as Jiang Wei's campaigns were plagued by one problem that had plagued Zhuge Liang's -- the lack of adequate food supply—and largely had to be terminated after a short duration. These campaigns instead had a detrimental effect on Shu, whose government no longer had the efficiency that it had during Zhuge Liang's and Jiang Wan's regencies, and therefore was unable to cope with the drain of resources that Jiang Wei's campaigns were having.
In 253, Jiang Wei made a coordinated attack on Wei, along with Wu's regent Zhuge Ke, but was eventually forced to withdraw after his troops ran out of food supplies — allowing Sima Shi to concentrate against Zhuge Ke, dealing Wu forces a devastating defeat that eventually caused so much resentment that Zhuge Ke was assassinated. This was the last of the coordinated attacks by Shu and Wu on Wei in the duration of the Shu-Wu alliance.
In 255, on one of Jiang Wei's campaigns, he dealt Wei forces a major defeat in the Battle of Didao, nearly capturing the important Wei border city Didao, but in 256, as he tried to again confront the Wei forces, he was instead dealt a defeat by Deng Ai, and this was a fairly devastating loss that left Jiang Wei with a weakened standing with the people. Many officials now openly questioned Jiang Wei's strategy, but Liu Shan took no actions to stop Jiang. Further, in 259, under Jiang Wei's suggestion, Liu Shan approved a plan where the main troops were withdrawn from major border cities to try to induce a Wei attack, with troops positioned in such a way as to intend a trapping of the Wei troops — a strategy that would be used several years later, in 263, when Wei did attack, but which would prove to be a failure.
By 261, Huang Hao's power appeared paramount. Among the key domestic officials, only Dong Jue and Zhuge Liang's son Zhuge Zhan were able to maintain their posts without flattering Huang Hao. In 262, Huang Hao would in fact try to remove Jiang Wei and replace him with his friend Yan Yu (). Upon hearing this, Jiang Wei advised Liu Shan to execute Huang Hao, but the emperor denied the request, saying that the eunuch was but a servant who ran errands. Fearing retaliation, Jiang Wei left Chengdu to garrison troops at Tazhong (沓中; northwest of present-day Zhugqu County, Gansu).
According to the Wu ambassador Xue Xu, who visited Shu in 261 at the order of the Wu emperor Sun Xiu, the status that Shu was in at this point was:
Fall of Shu.
In 262, aggravated by Jiang Wei's constant attacks, Wei's regent Sima Zhao planned to carry out a major campaign to terminate the Shu threat once and for all. Upon hearing rumours of this plan, Jiang Wei submitted a request to Liu Shan, warning him about the mustering of Wei troops under the generals Deng Ai, Zhuge Xu, and Zhong Hui near the border. However, Huang Hao persuaded Liu Shan with fortunetelling to take no action on Jiang Wei's requests for war preparations.
In 263, Sima Zhao launched his attacks, led by Deng Ai, Zhuge Xu, and Zhong Hui. Liu Shan followed Jiang Wei's previous plans and ordered the border troops to withdraw and prepare to trap Wei forces, rather than to confront them directly. The plan, however, had a fatal flaw — it assumed that Wei forces would siege the border cities, which, instead, Deng Ai and Zhong Hui ignored, and they advanced instead on Yang'an Pass (陽安關; in present-day Hanzhong, Shaanxi), capturing it. Jiang Wei was able to meet their troops and initially repel them, but Deng Ai led his army through a treacherous mountain pass and deep into Shu territory. There he launched a surprise attack on Jiangyou (江油; in present-day Mianyang, Sichuan). After defeating Zhuge Zhan there, Deng Ai had virtually no Shu troops left between his army and the Shu capital Chengdu. Faced with the prospect of defending Chengdu against Deng Ai's troops with no defences, Liu Shan took the advice of Secretary Qiao Zhou and promptly surrendered. While the surrender was criticised by many, the historian Wang Yin (), in his "Records of Shu" (), described the move as a policy that placed the welfare of the people on top.
In 264, Zhong Hui would carry out an attempt to seize power — which Jiang Wei, who had surrendered to Zhong Hui, tried to take advantage of to revive Shu. He advised Zhong Hui to falsely accuse Deng Ai of treason and arrest him, and, with their combined troops, rebel against Sima Zhao. Zhong Hui did so, and Jiang Wei planned to next kill Zhong Hui and his followers, and then redeclare Shu's independence under emperor Liu Shan, and had in fact written to Liu Shan to inform him of those plans. However, Zhong Hui's troops rebelled against him, and both Jiang Wei and Zhong Hui were killed in battle. Liu Shan himself was not harmed in the disturbance, although his crown prince Liu Xuan was killed in the confusion.
Life after the fall of Shu.
In 264, Liu Shan with Empress Zhang and his entire family was relocated to the Wei capital Luoyang. On 11 April 264, he was enfeoffed as the "Duke of Anle" (安樂公; literally meaning "duke of peace and comfort") while his sons and grandsons became marquises. This practice was referred to as "er wang san ke" (二王三恪).
The "Spring and Autumn Annals of Han and Jin" () by Xi Zuochi records an incident which has become the most famous tale to be associated with Liu Shan: One day, the Wei regent Sima Zhao invited Liu Shan and his followers to a feast, during which Sima Zhao arranged to have entertainers perform traditional Shu music and dance. The former Shu officials present were all saddened, but Liu Shan was visibly unmoved. When asked by Sima Zhao if he missed his former state, Liu Shan replied:
I enjoy life here and do not think of Shu at all. (此間樂，不思蜀)
This phrase has become a Chinese idiom - "le bu si shu" (樂不思蜀), figuratively meaning "[he is] joyful and does not think of home" or "[he is] joyful and does not think of his past". The phrase has a negative connotation with regards to the person's character.
According to the Annals, former Shu official Xi Zheng advised Liu Shan that the appropriate response was to lament how far he had been removed from his family tombs. Liu Shan followed the advice when he was asked the same question later, however Sima Zhao quickly guessed that he had been coached in his answer, and Liu Shan admitted as much. This was noted by Sima Zhao as a sign that Liu Shan was an incompetent fool; however, some later historians believed that it showed Liu Shan's wisdom in intentionally displaying a lack of ambition so that Sima Zhao would not view him as a threat.
Liu Shan died in 271 in Luoyang, and was given the posthumous name "Duke Si of Anle" (安樂思公; literally "the deep-thinking duke of Anle"). His dukedom lasted several generations during Wei's successor state, the Jin Dynasty, before being extinguished in the turmoils caused by the Wu Hu. Liu Yuan, the founder of Han Zhao, one of the states in the Sixteen Kingdoms, claimed to be a legitimate successor of the Han Dynasty. He gave Liu Shan the posthumous name "Emperor Xiaohuai" (孝懷皇帝; literally: "the filial and kind emperor").
Assessment.
Liu Shan is traditionally considered as an incompetent rulers who trusted evil courtiers (such as Huang Hao), was responsible for Shu Han's fall, and behaved despicably in front of Sima Yao. He is also criticized for not timely awarded posthumous Marquis title to Zhao Yun, the one who saved his life and also contributed greatly to Shu Han (he only did so after the complaint of Jiang Wei and others).
However, several opinions cast doubt on this assessment. First, even competent emperors like Emperor Wu of Han had evil courtiers beside him, Liu Shan is not the only case. And surrounding Liu Shan were not only evil courtiers, but also many competent and talented officers like Jiang Wan, Fei Yi and Dong Yun. Liu Shan surrendered without much fighting is blameworthy, but the fall of Shu Han was actually due to many reasons. Third, for the case of Zhao Yun, Zhao's official position during his life was actually lower than Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong, hence Liu Shan's award of posthumous Marquis title to the latter four but not timely to Zhao Yun was understandable, although not acceptable. And finally Liu Shan's behavior in front of Sima Yao was purposeful, he pretended to be stupid and despicable so that Sima Yao would ignore him and spare his family, and Liu Shan was successful. Being able to fool the distrustful Sima Yao, that means Liu Shan was actually not a fool.
Moreover, there were notable signs of Liu Shan's competence during his reign. First was about how he cleverly retook direct control of the state affairs after the death of Zhuge Liang and how he appointed Jiang Wan and Fei Yi so that the two could supervised and checked each other. Second, in 238, Cao Wei made war with Gongsun Yuan and many people in Shu Han believed that was a great chance for northern expedition. However, Liu Shan carefully instructed Fei Yi to attack only in combination with Eastern Wu, and only when Cao Wei was unprepared. Several historical commentators thus compare Liu Shan's caution favorably with that of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang's costly and ineffective campaigns. Finally, Liu Shan's surrender in 262-263 has been viewed with sympathy as an inevitable choice by commentators in both historical records and contemporary times, due to the vast difference in population and military capability between the two states, as well as the tendency of victors to massacre the citizens of enemy states that had refused to surrender. In particular, Liu Shan's surrender is often compared favorably with that of Gongsun Yuan, a regional warlord who attempted to retake power by allying with Eastern Wu, which eventually resulted in the extermination of his clan, and a bloody massacre of his population base at Liaodong. In contrast, Liu Shan's surrender led to a peaceful transfer of power to the Wei kingdom, with most of the population unharmed, except during the week of unrest caused by Jiang Wei's plotting.
In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Liu Shan appears as a character in the historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by Luo Guanzhong, which romanticises the historical events before and during the Three Kingdoms period. In the novel, Liu Shan is generally portrayed as an incapable ruler who was easily swayed by words, especially those from the eunuch Huang Hao, whom he favoured.
See the following for some fictitious stories in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" involving Liu Shan:
In popular culture.
Liu Shan is first introduced as a playable character in the seventh instalment of Koei's "Dynasty Warriors" video game series, as well in "Warriors Orochi 3".


William Debonaire Haggard

William Debonaire Haggard FSA, FRAS (2 Feb 1787 – 4 Apr 1866) was a numismatist and an expert on bullion. He was the Principal of the Bullion Office of the Bank of England in the 1840s.
Life.
Haggard was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 28 February 1833, described as "a gentleman peculiarly conversant in the numismatic antiquities of this country". He was also a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, and the Royal Numismatic Society. He was President of the Royal Numismatic Society from 1847 to 1849.
His collection was sold at auction by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge on 22-23 August 1866.
There is a portrait of Haggard, by Leonard Charles Wyon, 1844, in the British Museum.


F. G. Morley

Francis George Morley (16 June 1873 – 18 May 1955) was a British colonial administrator who served as the 26th Colonial Auditor of Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon). He was appointed on 1 March 1922, succeeding Wilfrid Wentworth Woods, and held the office until 25 June 1931. He was succeeded by Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke.


McCallum rule

In monetary policy, the McCallum rule specifies a target for the monetary base (M0) which could be used by a central bank. The McCallum rule was proposed by Bennett T. McCallum at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. It is an alternative to the well known Taylor rule and performs better during crisis periods.
Rule.
The rule gives a target for the monetary base in the next quarter (about 13 weeks). The target is:
where
Explanation.
Let us define the velocity of (base) money, "V", by
where: "M" is the money supply (in our case, the monetary base, M0); and "X" is the aggregate money traded for goods or services (in our case, the nominal GDP for the quarter in question).
Let us define the price level, "P", (in our case, the GDP deflator divided by 100) by
where "Q" is the quantity of goods or services exchanged (in our case, the real GDP during the quarter).
Together, these definitions yield the so-called equation of exchange
Now, define "m", "v", "x", "p", and "q" as the natural logarithms of "M", "V", "X", "P", and "Q". Then the equation becomes
These quantities are functions of time, "t", which we will take to be an integer which counts the quarters of years. So "m""t" means the (average) value of "m" during the "t" quarter. The forward difference operator, formula_11 is defined by
If we apply the forward difference operator, we get
and so
The velocity of money changes due to changes in technology and regulation. McCallum assumes that these changes tend to occur at the same rate over a period of a few years. He averages over four years to get a forecast of the average growth rate of velocity over the foreseeable future. Thus one approximates
The velocity term is not intended to reflect current conditions in the business cycle.
We assume that when the rate of inflation is held near its desired value, formula_16 for an extended period, then the growth rate of real GDP will be near to its long-run average, formula_17 And thus that the growth rate of nominal GDP will be close to their sum
However, it is not obvious what that desired value of inflation should be.
McCallum takes the long-run average rate of growth of real GDP to be 3 percent per year which amounts to
on a quarterly basis. He expects the Federal Reserve to choose an inflation target of 2 percent per year which amounts to
on a quarterly basis (although he would personally prefer a lower inflation target).
So the target for the monetary base should be given by a rule of the form
where formula_22 is a correction term which can only depend on information available at time "t". The correction term is intended to compensate for current cyclical conditions. It should be positive when recent growth of output and the price level has been slow.
If one takes the correction to be
then the result is McCallum's rule. A large resulting increase in M0 tends to generate or support a rapid rate of increase in broader monetary aggregates and thereby stimulate aggregate demand for goods and services.
The figures used for the monetary base (M0) should be the adjusted base as calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. The adjustments serve to take account of changes in legal reserve requirements that alter the quantity of medium-of-exchange money (such as M1) that can be supported by a given quantity of the base.


Equation Group

The Equation Group, classified as an advanced persistent threat, is a highly sophisticated threat actor suspected of being tied to the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) unit of the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Kaspersky Labs describes them as one of the most sophisticated cyber attack groups in the world and "the most advanced ... we have seen", operating alongside but always from a position of superiority with the creators of Stuxnet and Flame. Most of their targets have been in Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Syria, and Mali.
The name originated from the group's extensive use of encryption. By 2015, Kaspersky documented 500 malware infections by the group in at least 42 countries, while acknowledging that the actual number could be in the tens of thousands due to its self-terminating protocol.
In 2017, WikiLeaks published a discussion held within the CIA on how it had been possible to identify the group. One commenter wrote that "the Equation Group as labeled in the report does not relate to a specific group but rather a "collection of tools" used for hacking.
Discovery.
At the Kaspersky Security Analysts Summit held in Mexico on February 16, 2015, Kaspersky Lab announced its discovery of the Equation Group. According to Kaspersky Lab's report, the group has been active since at least 2001, with more than 60 actors. The malware used in their operations, dubbed EquationDrug and GrayFish, is found to be capable of reprogramming hard disk drive firmware. Because of the advanced techniques involved and high degree of covertness, the group is suspected of ties to the NSA, but Kaspersky Lab has not identified the actors behind the group.
Probable links to Stuxnet and the NSA.
In 2015 Kaspersky's research findings on the Equation Group noted that its loader, "Grayfish", had similarities to a previously discovered loader, "Gauss", from another attack series, and separately noted that the Equation Group used two zero-day attacks later used in Stuxnet; the researchers concluded that "the similar type of usage of both exploits together in different computer worms, at around the same time, indicates that the EQUATION group and the Stuxnet developers are either the same or working closely together".
Firmware.
They also identified that the platform had at times been spread by interdiction (interception of legitimate CDs sent by a scientific conference organizer by mail), and that the platform had the "unprecedented" ability to infect and be transmitted through the hard drive firmware of several major hard drive manufacturers, and create and use hidden disk areas and virtual disk systems for its purposes, a feat which would require access to the manufacturer's source code to achieve, and that the tool was designed for surgical precision, going so far as to exclude specific countries by IP and allow targeting of specific usernames on discussion forums.
Codewords and timestamps.
The NSA codewords "STRAITACID" and "STRAITSHOOTER" have been found inside the malware. In addition, timestamps in the malware seem to indicate that the programmers worked overwhelmingly Monday–Friday in what would correspond to a 08:00–17:00 (8:00 AM - 5:00 PM) workday in an Eastern United States time zone.
The LNK exploit.
Kaspersky's global research and analysis team, otherwise known as GReAT, claimed to have found a piece of malware that contained Stuxnet's "privLib" in 2008. Specifically it contained the LNK exploit found in Stuxnet in 2010. Fanny is classified as a worm that affects certain Windows operating systems and attempts to spread laterally via network connection or USB storage. Kaspersky stated that they suspect that the Equation Group has been around longer than Stuxnet, based on the recorded compile time of Fanny.
Link to IRATEMONK.
F-Secure claims that the Equation Group's malicious hard drive firmware is TAO program "IRATEMONK", one of the items from the NSA ANT catalog exposed in a 2013 "Der Spiegel" article. IRATEMONK provides the attacker with an ability to have their software application persistently installed on desktop and laptop computers, despite the disk being formatted, its data erased or the operating system re-installed. It infects the hard drive firmware, which in turn adds instructions to the disk's master boot record that causes the software to install each time the computer is booted up. It is capable of infecting certain hard drives from Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, Samsung, IBM, Micron Technology and Toshiba.
2016 breach of the Equation Group.
In August 2016, a hacking group calling itself "The Shadow Brokers" announced that it had stolen malware code from the Equation Group. Kaspersky Lab noticed similarities between the stolen code and earlier known code from the Equation Group malware samples it had in its possession including quirks unique to the Equation Group's way of implementing the RC6 encryption algorithm, and therefore concluded that this announcement is legitimate. The most recent dates of the stolen files are from June 2013, thus prompting Edward Snowden to speculate that a likely lockdown resulting from his leak of the NSA's global and domestic surveillance efforts stopped The Shadow Brokers' breach of the Equation Group. Exploits against Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances and Fortinet's firewalls were featured in some malware samples released by The Shadow Brokers. EXTRABACON, a Simple Network Management Protocol exploit against Cisco's ASA software, was a zero-day exploit as of the time of the announcement. Juniper also confirmed that its NetScreen firewalls were affected. The EternalBlue exploit was used to conduct the damaging worldwide WannaCry ransomware attack.


North-Eastern Space Applications Centre

North-Eastern Space Applications Centre is a regional space centre established in September, 2000 by joint initiative of Department of space, Government of India and North Eastern Council to expedite the usage of remote sensing technology to discover natural minerals uncovered in the North-Eastern states of India and to promote overall growth of North Eastern states of India using space science and technology.
History.
North-Eastern Space Applications Centre was set up with a joint initiative of DOS and NEC in September, 2000 at Shillong in Meghalaya, India. The centre has been declared a protected area by the state government.
Objectives.
The objective of NESAC is to search and utilize the natural resources present in the region using remote sensing, provide the North-Eastern states access to satellite services, and promote research in the space technology in the region by tying up with the academic institutions in the region.
Programmes.
The centre presently focuses on Remote sensing and Geographic information systems, a satellite communication programme and space science research programmes
Facilities.
The centre is equipped with modern GIS software like Erdas, Geomatica, eCognition, ESRI ArcGIS, and the like.
Its equipment includes:
Projects.
It has undertaken projects on the land mapping of North-Eastern States on 1:50,000 scale, and wasteland and wetland monitoring. It developed the FLEWS or Flood Early Warning System for the areas which are likely to be the worst affected by floods. It also developed touch input-based information kiosks to provide information about the state of Meghalaya.
Finances.
The funding for the centre is divided in 50:50 ratio between Government of India and North-Eastern council. The centre has been allocated a budget of Rs. 8 crore for the financial year 2012–13 by the central government.


Skver (Hasidic dynasty)

Skver (also Skvir, Skvere, or Skwere; ) is the name of a Hasidic dynasty founded by Rebbe Yitzchok Twersky in the city of Skver (as known in Yiddish; or Skvyra, in present-day Ukraine) during the mid-19th century. Followers of the rebbes of Skver are called "Skverer Hasidim".
The dynasty of Skver is a branch of the Chernobyl dynasty. Its founder, Rebbe Yitzchok, also known as Reb Itzikl, was one of the eight sons of Rabbi Mordechai, the Maggid of Chernobyl.
There are currently three offshoots of the Skverer dynasty. First is the famous one led by Grand Rabbi David Twersky, and is headquartered in New Square, New York. The second is led by Grand Rabbi Yechiel Michl Twersky, son of the late Grand Rabbi David Twersky of Skwer, who lived in Borough Park. The third one is led by Grand Rabbi Yitzcok Twersky, son of the late Grand Rabbi Mottel Twersky of Skver, who lived in Flatbush. These two are sons of Reb Itzikl of Skver from Borough Park.
Philosophy and lifestyle.
Skverer Hasidism stresses Torah study, prayer, and abstention from excessive earthly pleasures, in order to achieve purity of heart and mind. To that end, the village of New Square was established, where residents are sheltered from influences deemed decadent.
A central part of the lifestyle is the attachment to the Rebbe. As with most Hasidic groups today, the Rebbe's position is generally attained through his lineage. However, to be accepted by the masses, the Rebbe is expected to display behaviors such as humility, love for fellow Jews, and general devotion to God's service. The rebbe, as "tzadik", or righteous person, is seen as a conduit to God for the masses.
Modes of dress for Skverer Hasidim are generally similar to those of other Hasidic groups, especially that of Vizhnitz, Belz, and Klausenberg. Weekday attire for men consists of long coats, called "rekels", and velvet hats. On Shabbos (the Jewish Sabbath), Jewish holidays, and special occasions, the men wear long black coats made of silk (or imitation silk made from polyester), called "bekishes". Today, married men also wear fur hats, called "shtreimels", and knee-high leather boots known as "shtievl".
Married women usually wear a wig, often with an additional covering over it, such as a scarf or a hat, and wear modest clothing, with long, conservative skirts, long sleeves, fully covered necklines, and stockings.
History.
The first Rebbe of Skver was Rabbi Hershele of Skver (Reb Hershele Skverer), a direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov. When Rabbi Hershele settled in Skver (Skvira), he was elected to become the town rabbi in the "shtutishe shil" ( = main shul in the city). Rabbi Hershele's daughter later married Rabbi Yitzchok Twersky, called Reb Itzikl, the seventh son of Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl.
Reb Itzikl, founder of the dynasty.
After Reb Hershele died on Chol Hamoed Succos 5548 (1788), the townspeople chose Rabbi Itzikl, the seventh son of Rabbi Mordechai of Chernobyl and Reb Hershele's son-in-law, as the next rabbi of Skver. According to Hasidic legend, Reb Itzikl was given the honor of leading the "Atoh Horeiso" prayer on the night of Shemini Atzeres, and his prayers moved the townspeople so much that he was immediately chosen to be the next rabbi. The election of a successor to Reb Hershele as the town rabbi, which had been scheduled to take place after the Sukkot holiday, was canceled, as the townspeople had already agreed on their rabbi.
Rabbi Itzikl was married three times. He married his first wife, who was a granddaughter of Rabbi Yitzchok of Radvil and the Apter Rov, in 1783. They had two sons: Avrohom Yehoshua Heshil of Makhnovka, and Menachum Nochum of Shpikov. His second wife, Chaya Malka, was a daughter of Rabbi Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhin. His third wife, Chana Sima, was the daughter of Rabbi (Tsvi) Hershele of Skver.
Unlike his father, Itzikl was a reticent sort, and did not deliver public discourses, as was common among other Hasidic rebbes. His successors generally did the same. The philosophy of general reticence and under-statement in devotional behavior characteristic of Skver can be traced to this practice.
While Reb Itzikl was not a preacher, people traveled from afar to discuss their personal matters privately with Reb Itzikl. He established his Hasidic court in the center of the city, occasionally traveling to other towns in Ukraine.
Reb Itzikl is known in Hasidic legend as the "filozof eloki", the Godly philosopher. He is said to have studied the works of Maharal extensively. There is evidence that he also studied medieval and pre-medieval works of Jewish philosophy, in departure from the practice of some other Hasidic sects to shun philosophical studies of fundamental faith issues.
The Haskala movement (the "Jewish Enlightenment", not to be confused with the more general Age of Enlightenment), was sweeping through Eastern Europe in the late eighteenth century, and Reb Itzikl frequently attempted to debate and confront the Maskilim. A well-known tale relates that Reb Itzikl engaged in a fierce debate with a "Maskil", and won the debate after citing an argument from "Sefer Haikarim".
There are no published works by Reb Itzikl himself, although a collection of oral teachings called "Yalkut Meorei Or" (among other books) has been published by Skverer Hasidim in recent years, under the imprint of "Mechon Mishkenos Yakov".
Reb Dovidl.
Rabbi Itzikl's son by his third wife Chana Sima, Reb Dovidl, succeeded his father as Skverer Rebbe. He was known to be ascetic and exceedingly reticent. He once said, "Men shvagt un men shvagt, dernoch riet men abisl un men shvagt vater" ("We keep silent, and we keep silent; then we rest a bit, and go on keeping silent").
In 1919, Rebbe Dovidl left Skvira for Kiev due to the Bolshevik revolution, which left smaller cities and towns unsafe. He stayed in Kiev until his death (on 15 Kislev 5680) later that year. He left no published works.
Skver in the U.S.: The New Square Faction.
Reb Yakov Yosef.
Rebbe Dovidl's son, Rebbe Yakov Yosef (1899–1968), was revered as an exceptionally pious man. In 1925, he married Trana, the daughter of Rabbi Pinye of Ustilla and granddaughter of Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach of Belz. As a young man, he lived in Belz, and later adopted some of the Belzer customs. A few years later, he set up court in Kalarash, Romania (now Călăraşi, Moldova), and later in Iaşi. After World War II, he lived in Bucharest.
In 1948, after surviving the war in Romania, Rabbi Yakov Yosef came to the United States. Disappointed with American materialism and decadence, he was immediately overcome by a desire to create a rural community far from the hustle and bustle of New York life. It is said that soon after he arrived on American shores, he said to his followers: "If I weren't so embarrassed, I'd turn around and head back immediately."
Building a shtetl.
After spending a few years in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where his home and synagogue became a beacon for many who sought his counsel, he established a community in what was then rural Rockland County, New York, and named it New Square. Establishing the village and its institutions became his life's work. It was the first such "Shtetl" in America, and was later emulated by a number of other groups.
In 1956, with a handful of followers, Rabbi Yakov Yosef moved to New Square.
The present rebbe: Reb Duvid Twersky.
After Reb Yakov Yosef's death in 1968, his son, Rabbi Duvid Twersky, took over the community's leadership. The community grew to new prominence under his guidance. To this day, Rabbi Twersky counts close to twenty-thousand followers, with institutions all over the world. Aside from its headquarters in New Square and its branches in New York City, the group maintains institutions in Canada, England, and Israel. Its school in New Square counts close to five-thousand students. Each Shabbos, he runs three tishn, and his Hasidim file past him five times.
Due to immense population growth in New Square (close to 1,800 families), the new village of Kiryas Square was planned in Spring Glen, New York. The plans of expansion were most probably canceled.
Skver in the U.S.: Other branches.
Reb Itzikl Skverer.
Rebbe Dovidl's eldest son, Rabbi Mordechai Twerski, died in the same year, before his father in Kiev. During those difficult times, many Jews fled Ukraine and came to America.
Rabbi Mordechai's son, Rabbi Yitzchak Twersky, also left Bessarabia and came to America, arriving in 1923. Eventually, he settled in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and opened his shul on 47th Street, between 13th and 14th Avenue.
Rabbi Yitzchak Twersky died while his son Rabbi Dovid Twersky was still young. Although there were not many vibrant Hasidic communities in America in those days, he was raised in a Hasidic atmosphere in his mother's house where he was guarded against what they considered the "harmful influences" of American culture. Rabbi Dovid Twersky was known for his expertise and influence with many in the medical field, and consequently, was often sought out for advice. He died in 2001, and was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Yechiel Mechel Twersky, the Skwerer Rebbe.
Family tree.
Institutions of Skver.
Institutions of Skver include:
There are also summer camps for the boys and girls where they enjoy a range of programs in the summer months.


Wanhua Industrial Group

Wanhua Industrial Group Co., Ltd. is a Chinese holding company. It was the parent company of Wanhua Chemical Group and BorsodChem until 2018. Yantai Municipal People's Government, via "Yantai Guofeng", still owned 39.497% stake of the company as of 2017. The government also sold 25% stake of the company to a consortium of Pemex and Deutsche Bank in 2007.
History.
Predecessors.
Yantai synthetic leather factory.
The predecessor of Wanhua Group Corporation, was Yantai synthetic leather factory ( or ). The plan to built the factory was approved by the in 1978. The construction started in 1980 and completed in 1983. The manufacturing technology was imported from Japan (from according to "C&EN") and was the first synthetic polyurethane leather factory of China.
In 1988, the ownership of the factory was transferred from the to the Yantai Municipal People's Government.
Wanhua Group Corporation.
In 1995, the factory was re-incorporated as a limited company as , or in short, Wanhua Group Corporation ().
In 1998, a subsidiary Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane (now Wanhua Chemical Group) was formed. The subsidiary owned the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate production line of the factory. However, Wanhua Group Corporation retained several production line such as the supply chain of liquid chlorine, sodium hydroxide, pure water, steam vapour and electricity. The subsidiary became a listed company in January 2001.
In October 2001, Wanhua Group Corporation formed another subsidiary Wanhua Industrial Group (see section below). In 2015, 39.497% shares of Wanhua Industrial Group was transferred from Wanhua Group Corporation to its parent State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the Yantai Municipal People's Government, making Wanhua Group Corporation and Wanhua Industrial Group were sister companies.
As of 2019, Wanhua Group is a live company. It owned the shares of Yantai Wanhua Hospital as well as other assets.
Wanhua Industrial Group.
Foundation and privatization.
In October 2001, Wanhua Group Corporation formed another subsidiary Wanhua Industrial Group (founded as , known as since 2008) as part of a debt-to-equity swap. Central Government owned bad banks managers China Huarong () and China Cinda () were the minority shareholders. Cinda and Huarong later sold the shares of Wanhua Industrial Group.
According to the company itself, Wanhua Group Corporation injected all the assets to Wanhua Industrial Group at the time of the debt-to-equity swap, which including the shares of Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane, Yantai Huali (), Wanhua Microfiber (), etc.
Wanhua Industrial Group was the direct parent company of the listed company Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane since 2001 and effective in March 2003. Wanhua Industrial Group still owned 47.92% shares of the listed company as of 31 December 2017, before another company shake up in January 2018.
Yantai Huali was a combined steam and electric power supplier of the listed company.
In 2007, the Yantai city-owned Wanhua Group Corporation sold a further 25% stake of Wanhua Industrial Group to a consortium of Pemex, Deutsche Bank and one other investor. After the deal, as of 2007, Wanhua Group Corporation owned 50.50% shares of Wanhua Industrial Group, the aforementioned consortium, via a BVI company Prime Partner International Limited, owned 25%, and the rest (24.58%) was owned by Yantai Huali.
By 2005, Yantai Huali was significantly (37.60%) owned by Wanhua Industrial Group. It was followed by Wanhua Group Corporation for 31.94% shares as well as employee stock ownership for the rest of the shares. But since December 2006, Yantai Huali was majority owned by the managers of the listed company. Yantai Huali acquired 15.04% shares of Wanhua Industrial Group from Huarong in 2005 and 9.54% shares from Cinda in 2006. The change in ownership of Yantai Huali, as well as acquiring the shares of Wanhua Industrial Group, was considered as an indirect employee stock ownership of the listed company.
In 2013, Wanhua Industrial Group recapitalized another RMB4 billion and diluting the stake of the existing shareholders.
BorsodChem acquisition.
Wanhua Industrial Group was interested to buy Hungarian company BorsodChem in the late 2000s. By 2009, Wanhua Industrial Group already acquired about two-thirds of mezzanine capital of the BorsodChem.
In 2011, Wanhua Industrial Group formally acquired BorsodChem. It was the biggest Chinese outbound investment deal in Hungary. The buyout of BorsodChem from private equity firms Permira and Vienna Capital Partners came at a financially bleak time for BorsodChem and allowed the company to avoid laying off its 2700 employees. The parent companies of the listed company, also hired the listed company to manage BorsodChem from 2011 to circa 2019.
split and reverse IPO.
In 2017, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the Yantai Municipal People's Government, transferred 39.497% stake of Wanhua Industrial Group to another city government-owned company "Yantai Guofeng" (). Yantai's SASAC acquired the aforementioned stake from its subsidiary Wanhua Group Corporation in 2015. (see above section)
In January 2018 Wanhua Industrial Group was split into two companies: the surviving Wanhua Industrial Group as well as (). The latter became the new largest shareholder of the listed company instead. The latter also owned the assets that directly related to polyurethane production, including BorsodChem. However, the latter also reverse merged with the listed company in February 2019.
As of 31 December 2018, after the split, Wanhua Industrial Group had a net assets of RMB4.930 billion. It owned 33.07% shares of Wanhua EnergySave Science and Technical Group ( or known as WanhuaEnergySav Science Technical Group) The shares of that company were formerly traded in Chinese OTC system National Equities Exchange and Quotations as NEEQ:838261 until June 2018.
The company also owned 15.56% shares of Wanhua Microfiber as of 2018.


Southport Offshore Rescue Trust

Southport Offshore Rescue Trust (SORT) is the registered charity that runs the Southport Independent Lifeboat, a marine and land based search and rescue organisation on the Sefton coastline.
Independent of the RNLI, the Trust relies on donations and fundraising to support itself to provide a first class life saving service in an area of coast and water covering between the River Mersey to the River Ribble, and up to offshore, including Southport Marine Lake.
It is one of many Independent lifeboats in Britain and Ireland not supported by the RNLI.
The Southport Lifeboat have helped in the safe return of over 250 people since being formed in 1988, and aim to give the crew the best equipment possible to help save lives on the coastline.
The crew currently operate two lifeboats, three ATV quad bikes, Drones, mud rescue equipment and a land based search team from the old RNLI boathouse, built in 1886, and are trained to deal with a wide range of incidents.
The Southport Offshore Rescue Trust has declared facility status with UK Coastguard.
History.
Early History.
Southport Lifeboat has a proud and dramatic history, the earliest service, crewed and organised by local fishermen, was saving lives 20 years before the formation of the RNLI.
A lifeboat station was established in Southport in 1840.
RNLI in Southport and the Mexico Disaster.
December 1886 saw the worst ever lifeboat disaster in British history, the Southport and St Anne's lifeboats disaster or the Mexico Disaster.
Closure by RNLI in 1925.
The station was closed in 1925 by the RNLI.
The Lifeboat house was used by the council for storage and Southport was provided lifeboat cover by New Brighton to the South, and Lytham to the North.
Reformation as Independent Lifeboat.
Southport Lifeboat was reformed following accidents off the coast where local men lost their lives. After the accidents in 1987, bereaved relatives started a campaign to bring a lifeboat back to Southport. In December 1988 the first boat since 1925 came on station at Southport.
She was a Carson rigid inflatable (RIB), originally powered by twin Mariner outboards, but refitted in 1995 with a single Suzuki and a auxiliary engine. She had self-righting capability, integral fuel tanks and a top speed of around 30 knots. She was named the "Geoff Clements" after one of the young men who perished in the 1987 accidents.
In 1995 a new Lifeboat was brought into service. The "Bessie Worthington" was a RIB manufactured by Delta Power Services in Stockport for the Southport Lifeboat’s requirements, meeting all the necessary specifications including SOLAS (The international organisation for Safety of Life at Sea). The boat was originally powered by twin 90HP Suzuki outboard engines. These were changed to 90HP Mariners in 1998. The "Bessie Worthington" had full self-righting capability activated by the crew after the unlikely event of capsize by pulling handles on the outside of the transom. Delta were responsible for supplying all the electrics and navigation systems (GPS Radio, echo sounder, EPIRB).
During the years following the millennium two quad bikes & an ex RNLI D Class were added to the equipment. The bikes are invaluable for fast response and for searching large areas of beach quickly. The D class allows a good platform for crew training as well as for searching the shallow waters north of Southport Pier and providing invaluable backup to the main boat.
In early 2005 a campaign was launched to replace the "Bessie Worthington". An ambitious target of £120,000 was set to purchase a VTHalmatic Arctic 24. By September 2006 enough money had been raised to commission VTHalmatic to start building the boat. Unfortunately whilst the remainder of the funds were being raised the price had gone up and by the time delivery was made the boat had cost around £140,000. The "Heather White" came into service in May 2007.
Present.
With the opening of a charity shop in Birkdale in 2005, the Southport Lifeboat have been able to continually update the kit available for the crew.
The Heather White's engine's were upgraded from twin to twin outboards, and are now continually replaced after three years of service. The Honda ATV quad bikes used are also replaced every three years before signs of corrosion from the harsh environment cause problems. In 2018 the trust switched to Can-Am ATVs, adding a third quad to the team in January 2021.
SORT are now in the construction phase of a new lifeboat house on Marine Drive. The project will see the Lifeboat move from the 130-year-old building with no toilet, washing or heating facilities it is currently housed in, to a modern building in a location closer to the beach.
In 2010, Southport joined LifeboatLotto.


A Defeated People

A Defeated People is a 1946 British documentary short film made by the Crown Film Unit, directed by Humphrey Jennings and narrated by William Hartnell. The film depicts the shattered state of Germany, both physically and as a society, in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The narration explains what is being done – and what needs to be done – both by the occupying Allied forces and the German people themselves to build a better Germany from the ruins.
Synopsis.
The film opens with a map of the German zones of occupation with the British zone highlighted. Voiceovers in a variety of English class accents offer a snapshot of what is being said about Germany in Britain ("They asked for it and they got it!", "You can't let them starve", "As far as I can see it'd be a good thing if some of them did die"). A series of images shows the country's shattered infrastructure, with destroyed roads, bridges, railway lines and factories. This is followed by shots of missing persons noticeboards and posters with the information that 30 million Germans – almost half the population – are still looking for lost relatives and friends.
Destitute children are seen sitting aimlessly in the streets. A shot of a woman nursing a baby is accompanied with the statement "We can't wash our hands of the Germans, because we can't afford that new life to flow in any direction it wants". The military authorities are shown mobilising civilians to begin the task of cleaning up and rebuilding, and it is explained that the aim is to prevent not only starvation and epidemics, but also "diseases of the mind", i.e. "new brands of Fascism".
People are shown living in the cellars of bombed buildings, without heat, light, water or sanitation. Coal is singled out as the single most vital resource, with the British "Coal Control" unit organising the output and distribution of the Ruhr coalfield production. A Catch-22 situation is detailed, whereby coal is needed for power and transport, but without the power and transport infrastructure already in place the coal cannot be moved to where it needs to be. There is no coal to spare for civilian use, so the populace have to forage for timber as a power source. Civilian railway travel on what survives of the network is only possible with a permit issued by the military authorities, but the volume of passengers still overwhelms the capacity. A train is seen leaving Hamburg for Kiel with dozens of people riding the buffers or hanging on the outside, ignoring loudhailer announcements that this is forbidden.
The establishment of a new German police force is outlined, with the explanation that henceforth the policeman "must understand that he is the servant of the public, and not its master". Civilians receive food rations of between 1000 and 1200 calories per day. Survey teams from the Red Cross carry out tests on health to check whether the rations are adequate to keep people fit enough to work. Education is mentioned as a particular headache, as "you will never get Nazi ideas out of the heads of some of the adults". Children are seen playing among the ruins, but a new breed of teacher is being recruited to teach the next generation that "there are other things in life beyond Nazism and war". However schools and teachers are too few and children too many. The problem is that children are growing up "and getting more like their fathers".
The Krupp family industrial dynasty is singled out for mention as "just as responsible for killing Allied soldiers as Hitler and Göring". Footage is shown of their destroyed ammunition and armaments factories. Surviving members of the Wehrmacht are seen being processed. These men must be reassimilated into society somehow, "not only their bodies, but also their minds". If so much as one man or woman is appointed to office while still believing in Nazi values and German supremacy, "you have the beginnings of another war". Therefore, they are all put through a rigorous demobilisation screening process. Anyone who is on the wanted list, or otherwise suspect in any way. is rejected for demobilisation and sent "back to the cage".
When the nightly curfew falls, the civilian population must get off the streets and fix for themselves as best they can. Air-raid sirens sound "to remind them that it is up to them to regain their self-respect as a nation". The film ends with images of children dancing in a ring accompanied by the statement that the Allies will remain until they can be sure that the next generation will represent "a Germany of light and life and freedom...truth, tolerance and justice".
Production.
Footage for "A Defeated People" was shot in the British Zone of Occupation, covering the north-west of Germany. Filming started in August 1945. The main location chosen for filming was the area in and around the devastated city of Hamburg, with scenes of Cologne, Essen and Aachen also used.
The film was one of the first to show the consequences of World War II for ordinary German civilians, made at a time when the prevailing attitude towards them in the Allied nations was still of hostility and suspicion, alongside a desire for retribution and a sense that they were now justly reaping what they had sown and deserved every hardship that had come their way. Jennings acknowledged this in the film, while also trying maintain a neutral, non-punitive tone to highlight that attempts by the Allies to rebuild post-war Germany were vital to minimise the risk of future conflict. He admitted that it was extraordinarily difficult to find a narrative middle ground which was neither vengeful towards the German people, nor exculpatory of them. Writing to his wife from Germany, he said: "They certainly don't behave guilty or beaten. They have their old fatalism to fall back on: 'Kaput' says the housewife finding the street water pipe not working...'Kaput ... alles ist kaput.' Everything's smashed...how right – but absolutely no suggestion that it might be their fault – her fault. 'Why' asks another woman fetching water 'why do not you help us?' 'You' being us. At the same time nothing is clearer straight away than that we cannot – must not leave them to stew in their own juice ... well anyway it's a hell of a tangle."
Modern analyses of the film tend to point up a dichotomy between the narration and the images it accompanies. There are some points in the narrative which overtly state that Germany as a nation must accept collective guilt for the outcome of a war they started; the images however show people as individuals and offer a measure of sympathy for their situation and hope for a better future. The British "Moving Picture Archive" suggests that here Jennings as a director shows an "interest in, and concern for, common humanity (which) cannot be repressed even in such a context".
Score.
Muir Mathieson was the musical director and the music was composed by Guy Warrack. Both were uncredited. It was Warrack's second documentary score for Crown following "The Last Shot" of the year before. Mathieson wrote:
Critical reception.
"A Defeated People" received a very favourable reaction from contemporary critics, who viewed it as an important film on a vital subject of its day, which would answer many of the questions being asked by its audience about the reality of life in defeated Germany. Comments included: "Once again the Crown Film Unit do an inspired job of reporting." ("Sunday Dispatch"); "This film will stay in your mind and that is high praise of any film. Though it reeks of desolation and defeat it is infused with purpose. You will never obtain from any written or spoken narrative such an effect of empty misery and crushed aggressiveness, of a country so lost it is ripe for anything." ("News Chronicle"); "A grim panorama of destruction and ruin, of shattered industries, of tattered people living in cellars and searching for lost relatives." ("The Star") and "All the more impressive for its restraint. The tone is agreeably free from gloating." ("Daily Telegraph").
The main shortcoming of the film was cited as its brevity (18 minutes), meaning that it could only skim over the surface of the complex and intractable issues involved. The "Daily Worker" noted "It is a fine piece of screen-craft...but how the subject screams for a wider, deeper approach". The "Glasgow Herald" agreed that while it was "a fine example of British production", it gave the impression of having been "cut down to the bone". The "Sunday Times" too felt that in such a short running-time "the attempt to cover...the whole task of the Military Government in the British zone is hopeless".
Copyright status.
"A Defeated People" is attested to be in the public domain in the United States, and is available for viewing or free download on the Internet Archive.


Warnasena Rasaputra

Dr Warnasena Rasaputra (formerly known as Warnasena Rasaputram) (6 September 1927 – 25 June 2003) was a Sri Lankan economist and the seventh Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Biography.
Warnasena Rasaputram was born on 6 September 1927 in the village of Yatiyana, near Matara, Sri Lanka, the son of Don Nicholas and Jane née Ratnayake. He was educated at Ananda College, Colombo.
After graduating from the University of Ceylon with a degree in economics with honours, specialising in statistics, Rasaputra joined the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 1951. In the late 1950s, he was successful in obtaining a Smith-Mundt Scholarship offered by the Institute of International Education and the United States Educational Foundation, and subsequently a Fulbright grant. He attended the University of Wisconsin, where in 1957 he obtained a master's degree in statistics and then doctor of philosophy in economics in 1959. He returned to the Central Bank and in 1968 was appointed director of economic research. In 1974 Rasaputram was appointed assistant to the governor and then deputy governor in 1975.
on 15 February 1979 Rasaputram became the seventh governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, a position that he held for almost nine years. He assisted in guiding the country from a closed economy to an open market orientation. He also promoted the decentralisation of the Central Bank, setting up regional branches in Matara, Anuradhapura and Matale, and was also instrumental in establishing the Regional Development Banks. It was during his tenure that he changed his name to Rasaputra.
In November 1988 he resigned from his post as governor and was appointed as the Sri Lankan ambassador to France. He subsequently served as high commissioner to Malaysia and the permanent representative to the UN offices in Geneva and Vienna and also ambassador to the Vatican. His last posting was as ambassador to the United States. He resigned from this position in 2001 due to serious heart condition.
Personal life.
Rasaputra married Jayanthi Sriya, with whom he had one child, Jaliya Gajaba. Following Jayanthi's death he remarried Seetha Gopalan on 28 October 1977.


Amir Yaron

Amir Yaron (born 1964) is an American-Israeli economist and governor of the Bank of Israel. He was announced as governor-designate of the bank by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 9 October 2018. He was sworn into office on 24 December 2018 at the residence of Israel's president.
Early life.
Amir Yaron was born in Israel in 1964. He grew up in Ramat Hasharon and Ramat Gan. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Tel Aviv University. He also holds a master's degree from the University of Chicago, received in 1992. He received a Ph.D from the University of Chicago in 1994.
Academic career.
Yaron was assistant Professor of Economics and Finance at Carnegie Mellon University from 1994 until 1997. From 2009, he worked as Robert Morris Professor of Banking and Professor of Finance at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Governor of the Bank of Israel.
On October 9, 2018, Yaron was chosen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be the next governor of the Bank of Israel, subject to governmental approval. He succeeded Karnit Flug, whose five-year tenure ended in November, 2018. Until he assumed office, Nadine Baudot-Trajtenberg served as acting governor from November 2018.


Liberbank

Liberbank is a Spanish financial services company constituted by a merger of Group Cajastur, Caja de Extremadura and Caja Cantabria. It was established from the combination of the assets and liabilities of the banking business (excluding those pertaining to the social work of each savings bank).
Liberbank has a national presence and is a leader in the retail markets of Asturias, Cantabria, Castile-La Mancha and Extremadura.
On 23 May 2011, Effibank was established as a bank SIP Group Cajastur, Caja de Extremadura and Caja Cantabria. From 19 July 2011, the bank operated under the brand Liberbank. Subsequently, the trade name of Effibank (Effibank SA) was also replaced and became Liberbank SA.
On 29 May 2012, Banco Caja3 and Ibercaja merged. Thus born the seventh Spanish financial institution. However, the merger was canceled in October 2012 as a result of the stress test of Oliver Wyman and capital requirements Liberbank scenarios shown in this document.
On 20 December 2012, the European Commission approved the restructuring plan Liberbank, so that this entity to go public in the first half of 2013, reducing its size by 25% compared to 2010. In return, Liberbank received 124 million euros in aid in the form of contingent convertible bonds (cocos) subscribed by the FROB with a maximum repayment term of two years. A drastic reorientation of the business of the bank is also required: must leave in practice real estate, focusing on the credit support to SMEs in their areas of influence and primarily engage in the retail business, limiting their presence in the business of wholesale banking .
On 16 May 2013, Liberbank went public with a sale of redeemable preference shares and subordinated shares in the company and closed the session with a capitalization of 734 million Euro.
On 30 December 2020, it was announced Unicaja is buying Liberbank. The new merged company will be the fifth largest of Spain.


Juan Bravo (navy officer)

Juan Bravo (Llico, Arauco, 1865 - ?) was a Chilean Navy sailor of mapuche origin, hero of the naval Battle of Punta Gruesa during the War of the Pacific. Juan Bravo distinguished himself in the Battle of Punta Gruesa where he while onboard of the schooner Covadonga sniped down numerous Peruvians on board of the ironclad "Independencia".
Early years.
He was born in Llico (Arauco). His parents were both mapuches, and the name of his father probably was Manuel Millacura. Juan escaped from home along with his friends when he was 12 years old. He changed his surname to Bravo and enlisted in the Chilean Navy as Cabin Boy in 1877.
War of the Pacific.
In 1879, the War of the Pacific broke out the war of Chile against Bolivia and Perú. The Cabin Boy Bravo was part of the crew of the schooner Covadonga, a ship that participated in the blockade of city of Iquique.
On May 21, 1879, two Peruvians ships, the monitor and the armored frigate Independencia, arrived to Iquique with the intention of lifting the siege to the port. Both ships fought against the two Chilean ships in charge of the blockade: the wooden-hulled steam corvette and the schooner Covadonga, commanded by Captains Arturo Prat Chacón and Carlos Condell, respectively.
While the Esmeralda faced the Huáscar in the naval Battle of Iquique, the Covadonga headed south and moved towards the Cheurañete Bay, being pursued by the Independence frigate. Finally, the two containers met in the so-called naval combat of Punta Gruesa. Bravo climbed into the top of the mast of the Covadonga and used his Comblain rifle to contain the artillerymen of the Independence, killing 16 Peruvian sailors, leaving the cannon of the bow unused until the surrender of the Peruvian ship. Upon arriving in Valparaíso, he was rewarded for his participation in combat. At that time he was only 14 years old.