Ireland v Commission

On 29 August 2016, after a two-year investigation, Margrethe Vestager of the European Commission announced: "Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple". The Commission ordered Apple to pay €13 billion, plus interest, in unpaid Irish taxes from 2004–14 to the Irish state. It was the largest corporate tax "fine" (in fact a recovery order, technically not a fine) in history. On 7 September 2016, the Irish State secured a majority in Dáil Éireann to reject payment of the back-taxes, which including penalties could reach €20 billion, or 10% of 2014 Irish GDP. In November 2016, the Irish government formally appealed the ruling, claiming there was no violation of Irish tax law, and that the commission's action was "an intrusion into Irish sovereignty", as national tax policy is excluded from EU treaties. In November 2016, Apple CEO Tim Cook, announced Apple would appeal, and in September 2018, Apple lodged €13 billion to an escrow account, pending appeal. In July 2020, the European General Court struck down EU tax decision as illegal, ruling in favor of Apple.
The issue was Apple's variation of the 'double Irish' tax system, which, from 2004 to 2014, Apple used to shield €110.8 billion of non–US profits from tax. Apple did not use the standard "two separate Irish companies", as Google and other Irish-based US multinationals employ with their 'double Irish' tax systems, but instead received two rulings from the Irish Revenue Commissioners (in 1991, and again updated in 2007), that it could use a single Irish company, split into "two branches". These were private rulings to Apple, not given to other Irish-based US multinationals, and thus charged as illegal Irish state aid by the commission.
On 9 January 2015, Apple informed the Commission that it closed its hybrid–Double Irish, base erosion and profit shifting ("BEPS") tool. In Q1 2015, Apple restructured into a new Irish BEPS tool called the Capital Allowances for Intangible Assets (CAIA) tool, also called the "Green Jersey". Apple's Q1 2015 restructuring required a 12 July 2016 restatement of Irish 2015 GDP, which increased it by 26.3 percent (later revised to 34.4 percent); the restatement was called "leprechaun economics", and led to new EU inquiries in 2017, and accusations in June 2018, that Ireland was the world's largest tax haven.
Ireland's rejection of the EU Commission's "windfall" in back-taxes surprised some. However, in , US-controlled multinationals are 25 of Ireland's top 50 companies; pay over 80% of all Irish corporate taxes ("circa" €8 billion per annum); directly employ 10 percent of the Irish labour force which rises to 23 percent when public sector, agri and finance jobs are excluded (and indirectly pay half of all Irish salary taxes); and are 57 percent of all non-farm OECD value-add in the Irish economy. In June 2018, the American–Ireland Chamber of Commerce estimated the value of US investment in Ireland was €334 billion, exceeding Irish GDP (€291 billion in 2016).
On 15 July 2020, the European General Court ruled that the Commission "did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard" that Apple had received tax advantages from Ireland, and ruled in favour of Apple.
On 25 Sept 2020, Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said they would appeal the decision before the European Court of Justice as the Commission believes the General Court has made a number of errors of law.
Background.
History of Apple in Ireland.
On 23 December 1980, Apple opened production facilities in Holyhill, Cork. By 1990, the number of jobs had grown from 700 jobs to 1000 permanent jobs, as well as 500 sub-contractors. Interview excerpts, published by European Commission, found that this information was used in the way of background information by a tax adviser representing Apple during meetings with Apple in 1990.
By November 2016, Apple employed 6,000 people in Ireland, almost all of whom were in the Apple Hollyhill Cork plant. The Cork plant is Apple's only self-operated manufacturing plant in the world (Apple otherwise always contracts to third-party manufacturers). Holyhill is considered a low-technology facility, building iMacs to order by hand, and in this regard is more akin to a global logistics hub for Apple (albeit located on the island of Ireland). No research is carried out in the facility. Unusually for a plant, over 700 of the 6,000 employees work from home (the largest remote percentage of any Irish technology company).
Apple's unusual Cork plant should be seen in the context of the job thresholds Ireland places on US multinationals making use of the main Irish BEPS tools, discussed here, which provide "effective Irish tax rates" of 0–2.5%, but require specific employment quotas; and give more "substance" to the BEPS tool.
Apple's Irish structure.
In 2014, Apple's Irish structure consisted of two subsidiaries; Apple Operations Ireland ("AOI") an Irish-registered holding company which acts as an internal financing company. AOI claimed tax residence in Bermuda and thus, is not an Irish tax resident (the use of such a company in corporate tax structuring is sometimes referred to as a "Bermuda Black Hole"). The EU Commission State Aid recovery order does not pertain to AOI.
Apple Sales International ("ASI"), on the other hand, is the focus of the EU Commission's recovery order(and was the focus of 2013 Senate Investigation). ASI is an Irish-registered subsidiary of Apple Operations Europe ("AOE"). Both AOE and ASI are parties to an Irish advanced pricing agreement which took place in 1991. This agreement was updated in 2007. ASI is the vehicle through which Apple routed €110.8 billion in non–US profits from 2004 to 2014, inclusive.
ASI's 2014 structure was an adaptation of a Double Irish scheme, an Irish IP–based BEPS tool used by many US multinationals. Apple did not follow the traditional Double Irish structure of using two separate Irish companies. Instead, Apple used two separate "branches" inside one single company, namely ASI. It is this "branch structure" the EU Commission alleged was illegal State aid, as it was not offered to other multinationals in Ireland, which had used the traditional "two separate companies" version of the Double Irish BEPS tool.
Under the Double Irish structure, one Irish subsidiary (IRL1) is an Irish registered company selling products to non–US locations from Ireland. The other Irish subsidiary (IRL2) is "registered" in Ireland, but "managed and controlled" from a tax haven such as Bermuda. The Irish tax code considers IRL2 a Bermuda company (used the "managed and controlled" test), but the US tax code considers IRL2 an Irish company (uses the registration test). Neither taxes it. Apple's subsidiary, ASI, behaved like it was IRL2, it was "managed and controlled" via ASI Board meetings in Bermuda, so Irish Revenue did not tax it. But ASI also did all the functions of IRL1, making "circa" €110.8 billion of profits from non–US sales. The EU Commission contest IRL1's actions made ASI Irish, and the functions of IRL1 over-rode the Bermuda Board meetings in deciding the "managed and controlled" test. The commission had not brought any cases against US multinationals using the standard double "two separate companies" Irish BEPS tool.
Apple's unique ASI structure, is believed to be the reason why Apple never had an Apple retail store in the Republic of Ireland (it even has one in smaller Belfast).
EU investigation.
Opening (2014).
In May 2013, Apple's tax practices were examined by a US bipartisan investigation of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation. The investigation aimed to examine whether Apple used offshore structures, in conjunction with arrangements, to shift profits from the US to Ireland. Senators Carl Levin and John McCain drew light on what they referred to as a special tax arrangement between Apple and Ireland which allowed Apple to pay a corporate tax rate of less than 2%.
In June 2014, an investigation was opened by the European Commissioner for Competition on behalf of the EU Commission (SA 38373). The Ireland case was opened in conjunction with two other similar cases; involving Starbucks (Netherlands) and Fiat (Luxembourg). A small team of four people conducted the investigation by the European Commission.
The Commissioners noted concerns that discretion in transfer pricing rules had been used to give Apple selective advantage. They believed that this violated Article 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Article 107(1) states that aid granted by member states cannot threaten to distort competition. They examined Irish tax rulings from 1991 and 2007 by the Irish Office of the Revenue Commissioners. The Commission referred to taxable profit allocated to the Irish branches of AOE and ASI. The Commission claimed the pricing arrangement between Apple and Ireland was not supported by an economic assessment and was in part supported by employment considerations.
Finding (2016).
On 30 August 2016, the Commission released a 4-page press release describing its decision and rationale. The EU Commission's full 130-page report on its State aid findings, including partially redacted information on Apple's Irish business (e.g. profits, employees, Board minutes etc.), was released on 30 August 2016.
According to the commission, the tax arrangement between Ireland and Apple qualifies as state aid as it meets the European Union's four criteria:
The 30 August 2016 press briefing summarised the following findings from the main report:
The 30 August 2016 press briefing made the following statements regarding the financial implications:
Recovery order (2016).
The recovery order for €13 billion was an estimate subject to final ASI accounts. It covers the period 2004 to 2014 inclusive, as the commission is permitted to order a full recovery within a 10-year period from the start of an investigation. The January 2018 updated estimate of the recovery order had risen to €13.85 billion. The Commission recovery order is simply the estimated profits of, mainly, ASI applied, at the prevailing Irish corporate tax rate of 12.5% (see Table 1 above; and full EU Commission report). In addition, Apple will also owe interest penalties at the Irish Revenue penalty rate (was 8% in 2016), which would total circa €6 billion, giving a total recovery order of circa €20 billion.
A fallback position of the EU Commission's State aid case is that if ASI is not an Irish company, then it was a "stateless" company (given it was "legally" registered in Ireland), and Apple has been remitting royalty payments from EU–28 countries to a company in a jurisdiction with no EU tax treaty. Apple would, therefore, owe back-taxes to each individual EU country, from which these royalties were paid (and not to Ireland). As all other EU countries have corporation tax rates materially in excess of Ireland's 12.5% corporation tax rate, the total Apple effective taxes owned, in this scenario, would be materially in excess of €13 billion. Margrethe Vestager appealed to individual EU taxing authorities to assess this aspect of Apple's State aid case for themselves, on a case-by-case basis.
Appeal (2016–2020).
In November 2016, in a letter to the Apple community in Europe, Tim Cook said the company would appeal. In the immediate aftermath of the commission's 29 August 2016 ruling, Ireland's finance minister Michael Noonan stated that Ireland would be appealing the decision, subject to cabinet approval. On 2 September 2016, the Irish cabinet voted to approve the appeal. The minority Fine Gael–led government also had to secure a general Dáil Éireann vote on the matter, which it did on 7 September, by a majority of 93 to 36, securing the support of the other main Irish political party, Fianna Fáil. In November 2016, the Irish government also formally notified the EU Commission it would appeal and reject any claim to the €13 billion "windfall".
The appeal will firstly be heard in the EU's General Court, with any further appeal being taken to the EU's highest court; the European Court of Justice.
In August 2018, it was reported that the appeal would begin before the end of 2018, but could take over 5 years, and that Apple had begun to lodge the €13 billion into an escrow account during Q2 2018. On 18 September 2018, it was reported that Apple had lodged the €13 billion, plus another €1.3 billion, into the Irish State's escrow account. In October 2018, the commission announced that it would drop its legal action against Ireland for failure to recover the amount owed by the deadline laid down in the Commission decision (the deadline was 3 January 2017).
In May 2019, the Irish Public Accounts Committee was told by officials from the Department of Finance that defending the Apple case (i.e. to prevent the payment of the fine to Ireland), had cost the Irish state €7.1 million in mostly legal fees, and that the final case may take a decade to reach a final verdict.
On 15 July 2020, the European General Court (EGC) ruled that the Commission "did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard" that Apple had received tax advantages from Ireland, and ruled in favour of Apple. The EGC noted that their ruling can be appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which could take several more years; Apple funds would remain in escrow until such an appeal was concluded.
In September 2020, the European Commission appealed against the court ruling by the European General Court that said Apple did not have to pay €13 billion because the Commission considered that in its judgment the General Court has made a number of errors of law.
Further controversy.
The EU Commission's findings cover the period from 2004 to end 2014, and its report notes that Apple had informed it at the start of 2015 that the controversial hybrid–Double Irish BEPS tool, ASI, had been closed down; which enabled the commission to complete its State aid report, and finalise the recovery order of €13 billion.
In January 2018, economist Seamus Coffey, Chairman of the State's Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, and author of the State's 2017 "Review of Ireland's Corporation Tax Code", showed Apple restructured ASI into another Irish IP–based BEPS tool, the Capital Allowances for Intangible Assets ("CAIA"), in Q1 2015.
It is specifically prohibited under Ireland's own corporation tax code (Section 291A(c) of the Irish Taxes and Consolation Act 1997) to use the CAIA BEPS scheme for reasons that are not "commercial bona fide reasons" and in particular for schemes where the main purpose is "... the avoidance of, or reduction in, liability to tax". Given that the CAIA scheme is a deliberate IP–based BEPS tool, it is Ireland tripping over itself trying to maintain OECD-compliance.
The November 2017 Paradise Papers leaks revealed that Apple and its lawyers, Applebys, were looking for a replacement for the ASI structure in 2014. They considered a number of tax havens (especially Jersey). Some of the disclosed documents left little doubt as to the key drivers of Apple's decision making.
If the Irish Revenue waived Section 291A(c) for Apple's 2015 restructuring, it could result in a further EU Commission State Aid investigation.
In January 2018, in a series of articles in The Sunday Business Post, Mr Coffey estimated that since the 2015 restructuring, Apple has avoided Irish corporate taxes totalling circa at €2.5–3bn per annum (at the 12.5% rate). Mr Coffey calculated the potential second EU Apple State aid recovery order for the 2015–2018 (inclusive) period, would therefore reach circa €10bn, excluding any interest penalties.
The Irish financial media further noted that the then Finance Minister Michael Noonan, had increased the tax relief threshold for the Irish CAIA scheme from 80% to 100% in the 2015 budget (i.e. reduce the effective Irish corporate tax rate from 2.5% to 0%). This was changed back in the subsequent 2017 budget by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, however firms which had started their Irish CAIA scheme in 2015 (like Apple), were allowed to stay at the 100% relief level for the duration of their scheme, which can, under certain conditions, be extended indefinitely.
In November 2017, it was reported that the EU Commission had already asked for details on Apple's Irish structure post its January 2015 ruling.
The April 2017 release of Irish corporation tax returns showed an equivalent "leprechaun economics"–like jump. It led some to wonder whether Apple decided, given the exposure of its CAIA BEPS tool, and the controversy of "leprechaun economics", to "still pay tax in Ireland".
In February 2019, Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy discussed Apple's use of the CAIA Irish BEPS tool with Margrethe Vestager.
Irish decision.
After 29 August 2016 ruling, the EU Commission followed up on 31 August to counter statements from the Irish Government that Ireland would have to use the proceeds of any Apple recovery to pay down public sector debt (in line with agreed EU budgetary rules), and to clarify that Ireland could allocate the money in whichever way the Irish Government lawfully saw fit. Regardless however, on 7 September, the Irish minority Government, with material opposition support, rejected the EU Commission's ruling on Apple, and the payment of €13 billion, plus penalties, to the Irish State.
Economic model.
American multinationals play a substantial role in Ireland's economy, attracted by Ireland's BEPS tools, that shield their non–US profits from the historical US "worldwide" corporate tax system. In contrast, multinationals from countries with "territorial" tax systems, by far the most common corporate tax system in the world, don't need to use corporate–tax havens such as Ireland, as their foreign income is taxed at much lower rates.
For example, in 2016–17, US–controlled multinationals in Ireland:
From the above table:
Irish media.
The role of the Irish media in "framing" the debate around the ethical issues of helping global multinational corporations avoid taxes has been noted. In April 2019, academic research found that "Irish respondents exposed to treatments questioning the morality and fairness of Ireland’s facilitation of Apple tax avoidance are more likely to acknowledge the negative impact on Ireland’s EU neighbours".


Philip Ndegwa

Philip Ndegwa was a Kenyan economist, entrepreneur, former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, and patriarch of one of the country's wealthiest families.
Education.
Born in Kirinyaga County, Ndegwa was educated at Alliance High School, Makerere University College and Harvard University.
Work.
In 1965, he joined the civil service as an advisor on planning and economic issues. He would later serve as a Permanent Secretary in the Ministries of Agriculture, Finance and Economic Planning. Ndegwa became the third Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya in December 1982, an office he held until January 1988. He was appointed Executive Chairman of the Kenya Commercial Bank in November 1987. In the same year, the United Nations Secretary General appointed him to a panel of international economic experts charged with examining Africa's debt crisis and recommending policies to address it.
Mr. Ndegwa played a key role in the privatization of Kenya Airways. He wrote several books, the last of which was "Africa to 2000: Imperative Political and Economic Agenda", published in 1994 and coauthored with Mr. Reginald Herbold Green.
Other offices Ndegwa held included:
First Chartered Securities.
Philip Ndegwa founded First Chartered Securities in 1974 with 20 other shareholders.
Insurance - Its first major acquisition was a 100% purchase of the Insurance Company of East Africa (ICEA). Following the merger of ICEA and the Lion of Kenya Insurance to form the ICEA Lion Group (which is one of Eastern Africa's largest insurance companies), First Chartered Securities now owns an 80% stake in the new entity, with the remaining 20% held by Kenya Holding Limited.
Banking - First Chartered Securities has a stake of a 24.98% stake in NIC Bank that was valued at 5.22 billion Kenyan shillings as at December 28, 2012 (US$64 million at the exchange rate then).
Real Estate - First Chartered Securities real estate assets include Riverside Park and AMBank House, both in Nairobi.
Others - First Chartered Securities made forays into other sectors, including logistics, agriculture, milling and beverages. It owned Inchcape Shipping but sold its interests. It also had interests in catering firm Nairobi Airport Services (NAS), in which a French multinational, Servair, acquired a 59% stake in December 2012, estimated at more than Sh2.25 billion (US$26 million).
Personal life.
Two of Philip Ndegwa's children became officials at NIC Bank and First Chartered Securities: James P. M. Ndegwa (Chairman of the Board), and Andrew S. M. Ndegwa (Non-Executive Director).
Death.
Philip Ndegwa died on 7 January 1996. As a tribute, the United Nations released the multi-author research volume "Renewing Social and Economic Progress in Africa: Essays in Memory of Philip Ndegwa" in the year 2000.


Vittorio Corbo

Vittorio Corbo Lioi (born 22 March 1943) is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Chile, who held the post since May 2003 until December 2007.
Biography.
Corbo studied economics at the "University of Chile" in 1967 and has a PhD in economics from MIT which he gained in 1971. He taught at Concordia University in Canada between 1972 and 1979. He was appointed a Professor at the Universidad de Chile (1979 - 1981) and at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica (1981 - 1984) and (1991 - present), and a Professorial Lecturer at Georgetown University in the United States (1986-1991). Mr. Corbo worked at the World Bank from 1984 to 1991 as Head of the Macroeconomic Development and Growth Division.
He is also member of the Management Council of the "Fundación Chilena del Pacífico" (Chilean Pacific Foundation), the International Advisory Council of the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE) in Warsaw, Poland, and from 1999, a member of the Advisory Board of the Stanford Center for International Development. He has also served as a Vice-President of the International Economic Association (1998-2002). In recent years he has been advisor to the World Bank, the IADB and the International Monetary Fund.
He was Economic Advisor to the Santander-Chile Group (1991-2003), Director of the Santander-Chile Bank (1995-2003), Director of the Universidad de Chile (2000-2003), member of the Management Council of the Global Development Network (1993-2003) and he has been consultant to important national and international firms (1979-1984 and 1991-2003).
Corbo was also Senior Research Fellow at the Research Center for Economic Development and Policy Reform of the Stanford University in California (Summer 1999) and of the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund (Summers 2000 and 2003). He has worked in more than ten countries, lectured at seminars in more than twenty countries and at the most important universities worldwide.
He is author of nine books and over a hundred articles published in books and international periodicals specialising in economic affairs. He is a recognized authority on macroeconomics, international trade and economic development and economic tightness processes. He is also member of the editorial committee of the Journal of Development Economics and of the Journal of Applied Economics.


Immigration law

Immigration law refers to the national statutes, regulations, and legal precedents governing immigration into and deportation from a country. Strictly speaking, it is distinct from other matters such as naturalization and citizenship, although they are sometimes conflated. Countries frequently maintain laws that regulate both the rights of entry and exit as well as internal rights, such as the duration of stay, freedom of movement, and the right to participate in commerce or government.
Immigration laws vary around the world and throughout history, according to the social and political climate of the place and time, as the acceptance of immigrants sways from the widely inclusive to the deeply nationalist and isolationist. National laws regarding the immigration of citizens of that country are regulated by international law. The United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights mandates that all countries allow entry to their own citizens.
Control measures.
To control immigration, many countries set up customs at entry points. Some common location for entry points are airports and roads near the border. At the customs department, travel documents are inspected. Some required documents are a passport, an international certificate of vaccination and an onward ticket. Sometimes travelers are also required to declare or register the amount of money they are carrying.
Immigration visa categories by country or territory.
This section is an attempt to classify and bring together information about immigration legislation on a number of countries with high immigration.


William Wallace Lincoln

William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln (December 21, 1850 – February 20, 1862) was the third son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was named after Mary's brother-in-law Dr. William Wallace.
Biography.
Willie and his younger brother Tad were considered "notorious hellions" when they lived in Springfield. Their father's law partner William Herndon said they pulled books off their shelves while their father appeared oblivious.
When Abraham Lincoln took office as President of the United States, Willie and Tad moved into the White House. To give them playmates, Mary Todd Lincoln asked Julia Taft to bring her younger brothers, 14-year-old "Bud" (Horatio Nelson Taft Jr., 1847–1915) and 12-year-old "Holly" (Halsey Cook Taft, 1849–1897) to the White House.
Willie and Tad became ill in early 1862, possibly with typhoid fever. Tad was relatively lightly affected but Willie gradually weakened; his parents spent much time at his bedside. He died on February 20.
Both parents and Tad were deeply affected. Lincoln said, "My poor boy. He was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him so much. It is hard, hard to have him die!"; after the burial, he shut himself in a room and wept alone. Mary Lincoln remained in bed for three weeks and was unable to attend Willie's funeral or look after Tad.
Abraham Lincoln took solace in caring for and comforting Tad, who remained very ill and was grieving himself for his brother's death. Tad also lost the companionship of Bud and Holly, whom Mary refused to allow in the White House anymore, as they reminded her too much of Willie.
Willie was interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. After Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865, he was re-interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, first in a temporary tomb and in 1871 in a state tomb alongside his father and his brother Eddie. Tad and Mary Todd Lincoln were also later placed in the crypt of the Lincoln Tomb.
In fiction.
The 2017 novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" by George Saunders takes place during and after Willie's death and depicts Abraham Lincoln's grief. The novel won the 2017 Man Booker Prize and was the "New York Times" bestseller the week of March 5, 2017.
See also "The Murder of Willie Lincoln" by Burt Solomon (Forge, 2017, ).
A fictional version of the death of Willie Lincoln is also depicted in the novel and its subsequent movie "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter".


UK Citizens Online Democracy

UK Citizens Online Democracy (or UKCOD) is a registered charity in England and Wales, number 1076346.
At present, UKCOD's main activity is running the mySociety project. mySociety builds websites which give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. It also aims to teach the public and voluntary sectors, through demonstration, how to use the internet most efficiently to improve lives.
History.
Early history.
UKCOD was founded in 1996. This initiative was not associated with any political party although politicians and citizens of all political persuasions were invited to participate, and this has remained true of all UKCOD's projects.
UKCOD’s first project, commissioned by the EU office of the European Parliament, was to host and manage an online discussion on whether Britain should join the European Monetary Union. UKCOD was also heavily involved in research work contributing to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, including the Have Your Say website.
More recently.
UKCOD fell dormant around 1999, and was revived in 2003 by a new generation of trustees and volunteers, many of whom had previously worked together on independent online democratic projects such as Stand.org.uk and FaxYourMP, the predecessor to WriteToThem.
In Autumn 2003, UKCOD started a new project called mySociety which aimed to build more sites in the tradition of FaxYourMP. Over the next three years, mySociety developed and launched a series of projects; "see mySociety".
In 2006, UKCOD established a subsidiary trading entity, mySociety Ltd, to manage commercial activity. UKCOD is the sole shareholder of mySociety Ltd and retains any surplus generated by mySociety Ltd.
Trustees.
, the trustees and directors of UKCOD are:
Owen Blacker and James Cronin are, with mySociety CEO Mark Cridge (and Tom Steinberg before him), also directors of mySociety Ltd.
Former trustees and directors include:


Office of Global Partnerships

The Office of Global Partnerships (E/GP) is a small office within the U.S. Department of State reporting to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. Launched in 2008 by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, it self-describes as serving as "the entry point for collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, the public and private sectors, and civil society".


USAID Meritorious Honor Award

The Meritorious Honor Award is an award of the United States Agency for International Development. Similar versions of the same award exist for the former U.S. Information Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and Department of State. It is presented to groups or individuals in recognition of a special act or service or sustained outstanding performance.
The award consists of a certificate signed by an assistant secretary, an official of equivalent rank or the Mission Director. While some medal sets are still available, medals are no longer issued.
Criteria.
The following criteria are applicable to granting a USAID Meritorious Honor Award:
Nominating and Approval Procedures.
Nominations for USAID employees are submitted on Form JF-66, Nomination for Award, through supervisory channels to the Joint Country Awards Committee for review and recommendation to the Mission Director for final action.
Nominations initiated in Washington are reviewed by the USAID bureau/office with final approval by the appropriate assistant administrator or office head.
Military Use.
Upon authorization, members of the U.S. military may wear the medal and ribbon in the appropriate order of precedence as a U.S. non-military personal decoration.


Eurobank Ergasias

The Eurobank Group is a financial organisation that operates in Greece, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Serbia, Bulgaria and UK. As of December 2018, the Eurobank Group counts, in assets, 653 customer service locations in Greece and abroad, and 13,162 employees.
History.
The Euromerchant Bank SA (, ) was founded in 1990. It took over 75% of EFG Private Bank (Luxembourg) S.A.'s operations, which was integrated into it 1994. Acquisitions in Greece included Interbank Greece S.A. in 1996-97 and the branch network of Credit Lyonnais Greece S.A., 99.8% of Cretabank in 1998, Bank of Athens in 1999 and 50.1% of Ergobank.
In 1997, the Euromerchant Bank SA changed its name to EFG Eurobank S.A. and in 2000 to EFG Eurobank Ergasias S.A. after taking over the renowned Ergasias Bank. A financial products subsidiary was founded in 2007 (49.9% owned by employees). In 2012, the bank sold 70% of the Polish branches called "Polbank" to Raiffeisen Bank International.
After the Greek financial crisis and bailouts of Greek banks in 2012, Swiss-Luxembourg based EFG Group—the then owner of Eurobank—was told to separate the Greek bank from the rest of its business. In July of that year Eurobank was deconsolidated from the group and its shares sold to the Greek Latsis family and it was renamed Eurobank Ergasias.
In January 2013, the National Bank of Greece made an offer, which ultimately did not go through, to take over Eurobank Ergasias; 64,000 Eurobank shareholders and the Greek capital market commission agreed. A few weeks after the buyout proposal NBG presented plans to reduce the staff of the new banking group, especially by means of encouraging early retirement.
The bank was the third largest in Greece by total asset by total loans and total deposits, and the fourth by market capitalisation—as at December 2014.
Since 1 February 2015, the chairman and non-executive director of Eurobank Ergasias has been Nikolaos Karamouzis; Fokion Karavias has been the CEO and executive director since the same day.
Canadian fund Fairfax Financial are major shareholders.
In the end of year 2015 results, total net loans were (non performing 43.8%, of which provisions were at 53.3%), customer deposits , and central bank funding was .
Branches.
Eurobank a.d. is a bank founded in 2006, with headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia. It is a subsidiary Eurobank Ergasias; and has 80 branches in Serbia. Eurobank started operating in Serbia in 2003. The first five years were marked by the acquisition of Postbanka, followed by the merger with Nacionalna štedionica Banka. In October 2006, the bank began operating under a single brand, name and visual identity. In 2016, the bank had €1.337 billion in assets and revenue of €18.42 million.


Hector Laing, Baron Laing of Dunphail

Hector Laing, Baron Laing of Dunphail, (12 May 1923 – 21 June 2010) was a British businessman.
The son of Hector Laing and Margaret Norrie Grant was educated at the Loretto School in Musselburgh and Jesus College, Cambridge. Laing served as a tank commander in the Scots Guards between 1942 and 1947, and reached the rank of a Captain. He was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the US Bronze Star during campaign in France in 1944–45.
Laing followed his father, and grandfather Alexander Grant, inventor of the digestive biscuit, into the McVitie & Price biscuit business and in 1947 became a director. The company merged to form United Biscuits, and Laing became managing director in 1964 and served as chairman from 1972 to 1990.
From 1973 to 1991, Laing was Director of the Bank of England. He was Director of the Exxon Corporation from 1984 to 1994.
Laing married Marian Clare, daughter of John Emilius Laurie in 1950; they had three sons.
He was knighted in 1978 and was created a Conservative life peer as Baron Laing of Dunphail, of Dunphail in the County of Moray on 8 February 1991. Laing was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Laing also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1986.
Lord Laing died on 21 June 2010 after a short illness.
Lady Laing died in 2020.
References.


Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act

The Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005 (Title II, subtitle B of , with a companion statute, Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Conforming Amendments Act of 2005, ), was an act of the United States Congress on banking regulation. It contained a number of changes to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).


Karakalpakstan

Karakalpakstan ( / ; ), officially the Republic of Karakalpakstan ( / ; ), is an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan. It occupies the whole northwestern end of Uzbekistan. The capital is Nukus ("" / ). The Republic of Karakalpakstan has an area of . Its territory covers the classical land of Khwarezm, which in classical Persian literature the area was known as ().
History.
From about 500 BC to 500 AD, the region of what is now Karakalpakstan was a thriving agricultural area supported by extensive irrigation. It was strategically important territory and fiercely contested, as is seen by the more than 50 Khorezm Fortresses which were constructed here. The Karakalpak people, who used to be nomadic herders and fishers, were first recorded by foreigners in the 16th century. Karakalpakstan was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Khanate of Khiva in 1873. Under Soviet rule, it was an autonomous area within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic before becoming part of Uzbekistan in 1936. The region was probably at its most prosperous in the 1960s and 1970s, when irrigation from the Amu Darya was being expanded. Today, however, the drainage of the Aral Sea has rendered Karakalpakstan one of Uzbekistan's poorest regions. The region is suffering from extensive drought, partly due to weather patterns, but also largely because the Amu and Syr Darya rivers are exploited mostly in the eastern part of the country. Crop failures have deprived about 48,000 people of their main source of income and shortages of potable water have created a surge of infectious diseases.
Geography.
Karakalpakstan is now mostly desert and is located in western Uzbekistan near the Aral Sea, in the lowest part of the Amu Darya basin. It has an area of 164,900 km2 and is surrounded by desert. The Kyzyl Kum Desert is located to the east and the Karakum Desert is located to the south. A rocky plateau extends west to the Caspian Sea.
Politics.
The Republic of Karakalpakstan is formally sovereign and shares veto power over decisions concerning it with Uzbekistan. According to the constitution, relations between Karakalpakstan and Uzbekistan are "regulated by treaties and agreements" and any disputes are "settled by way of reconciliation". Its right to secede is limited by the veto power of Uzbekistan's legislature over any decision to secede. Article 74, chapter XVII, Constitution of Uzbekistan, provides that: "The Republic of Karakalpakstan shall have the right to secede from the Republic of Uzbekistan on the basis of a nationwide referendum held by the people of Karakalpakstan."
Demographics.
The population of Karakalpakstan is estimated to be around 1.7 million and in 2007 it was estimated that about 400,000 of the population are of the Karakalpak ethnic group, 400,000 are Uzbeks and 300,000 are Kazakhs. Their name means "Black Hat", but Karakalpak culture was so lost through Sovietization that the original meaning of the black hat is now unknown. The Karakalpak language is considered closer to Kazakh than to Uzbek. The language was written in a modified Cyrillic in Soviet times and has been written in the Latin alphabet since 1996.
The population grew to 1.8 million in 2017. The crude birth rate is 2.19%: approximately 39,400 children were born in 2017. Nearly 8,400 people died in the same period. The crude death rate is 0.47%. The natural growth rate is 31,000, or 1.72%.
The median age was 27.7 years old in 2017, which is younger than the rest of Uzbekistan (median age of 28.5 countrywide). Men are 27.1 years old, while women are 28.2 years old.
Other than the capital Nukus, large cities include Xojeli (Cyrillic: ), Taxiatosh (), Shimbai (), Konirat () and Moynaq (), a former Aral Sea port now completely dried up according to NASA.
Economy.
The economy of the region used to be heavily dependent on fisheries in the Aral Sea. It is now supported by cotton, rice and melons. Hydroelectric power from a large Soviet-built station on the Amu Darya is also important.
The Amu Darya delta was once heavily populated and supported extensive irrigation based agriculture for thousands of years. Under the Khorezm, the area attained considerable power and prosperity. However, the gradual climate change over the centuries, accelerated by human induced evaporation of the Aral Sea in the late 20th century has created a desolate scene in the region. The ancient oases of rivers, lakes, reed marshes, forests and farms are drying up and being poisoned by wind-borne salt and by fertilizer and pesticide residues from the dried bed of the Aral Sea. Summer temperatures have risen by and winter temperatures have decreased by . The rate of anemia, respiratory diseases and other health problems has risen dramatically.
Media.
Radio.
In 2009, the first radio station of Karakalpakstan was opened. The station is called Nukus FM, which broadcasts on radio frequency 100.4 MHz, only in Nukus.


Charlotte Clayton, Baroness Sundon

Charlotte Clayton, Baroness Sundon (11 December c.1679 – 1 January 1742) was a British Lady in Waiting. She is known as the influential favorite of queen regent Caroline.
Life.
Charlotte Dyve was the granddaughter of Sir Lewis Dyve of Bromham in Bedfordshire. She married William Clayton, a Treasury official, at some date before 1715. In 1735 she became Lady Sundon when her husband was made first Baron Sundon.
Charlotte Clayton was a woman of the bedchamber to Queen Caroline from 1714 until 1737. She enjoyed a lot of influence with the Queen, who served as regent during the absence of the king, and she was mistrusted by Robert Walpole who suspected that it was her opinions that were making the Queen uncooperative in state affairs. It was alleged that she even proposed that she and Walpole could rule the country.


Ben Quayle

Benjamin Eugene Quayle (born November 5, 1976) is an American lawyer and politician who is a former U.S. Representative for . A member of the Republican Party, he is the son of the 44th Vice President of the United States, Dan Quayle.
Before serving in Congress, Quayle worked as an associate lawyer and founded a security company. In the 2010 Republican primary he defeated 10 other candidates before winning the general election. In his first bid for reelection, due to redistricting, he faced a Republican challenge from fellow Representative David Schweikert and lost the seat in the primary.
After leaving Congress, Quayle joined the lobbying firm Clark Hill. He now works for advocacy firm Hobart Hallaway Quayle.
Early life, education, and career.
Quayle was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on November 5, 1976, three days after his father was first elected to the United States House of Representatives. As a child, Quayle frequently visited the White House with his family during the Reagan administration.
Quayle moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area with his family in 1996. He graduated from Duke University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and earned his Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2002. Quayle has been admitted to the Arizona, New York, and California bar.
Quayle worked as an associate lawyer at Schulte Roth & Zabel from 2004 to 2005, and Snell & Wilmer from 2006 to 2007. In 2007 Quayle founded Tynwald Capital, a firm specializing in the acquisition and nurturing of small businesses. He was a founding member of APG-Southwest, a full-service provider of security services for businesses, for which he served as the managing partner of its Arizona branch.
U.S. House of Representatives.
Elections.
Quayle was a member of the Tea Party movement, which had many of its members swept into office during the 2010 elections. After Republican Congressman John Shadegg decided to retire, Quayle launched his campaign following his father's announcement on "America Live with Megyn Kelly" that Ben was a candidate for . On August 11, 2010, Quayle released an advertisement in which he called Barack Obama the "worst President in history".
Quayle's prior involvement with the controversial rumor and gossip website "DirtyScottsdale.com" complicated his run for office. According to the site's founder, Quayle was one of the "original contributors" to the site, which covered Scottsdale nightlife with features including sexy photos of women, and was the predecessor to the gossip website TheDirty.com. Quayle initially denied the rumors, before admitting several weeks later that he did, in fact, write material for the site under the pen name Brock Landers.
Quayle won the 10-candidate Republican primary on August 24, 2010 with a plurality of 23% of the vote. In the general election in November, Quayle defeated Democratic candidate Jon Hulburd 52%–41%.
After redistricting, Quayle's district was renumbered the , while his home in Phoenix was drawn into the . But Quayle's home was just a few yards outside the 6th, leading a source close to Quayle to tell "National Journal" that Quayle would run in his original district. While the 6th is as heavily Republican as its predecessor, the 9th was drawn as a fair-fight district.
On February 6, 2012, Quayle confirmed that he would run in the 6th. He faced fellow freshman Republican Congressman David Schweikert in the Republican primary—the real contest in this heavily Republican district. In an unusual twist, Schweikert's home in Fountain Hills had been drawn into the 6th, while Quayle's home had been drawn into the 9th, the geographic successor to Schweikert's 5th.
During the bitter primary campaign, Schweikert was widely criticized for a mailer that accused Quayle of "going both ways", suggesting that he was bisexual. On the reverse, the mailer listed issues on which it claimed Quayle had taken both liberal and conservative positions. Senator Jon Kyl said that "such campaign tactics insult the voters, degrade politics and expose those who stoop to them as unworthy of high office" and Senator John McCain said the mailer was one of the "worst that I have seen" and that it "crosses the boundary of decent political dialogue and discourse". Quayle's spokeswoman called the mailer "utterly false" and "a sleazy smear tactic". Schweikert's spokesman responded that people "should get their minds out of the gutter" because the mailer was "obviously" referring to "both ways—as in liberal and conservative". "The Arizona Republic" asked two political scientists to review the mailer, who both said that they had "never seen anybody accuse someone of flip-flopping [on political issues] that way" and said it was "difficult to believe" that the sexual suggestion was unintentional.
Although the 6th contained almost two-thirds of Quayle's constituents, Schweikert defeated Quayle in the Republican primary with 53% of the vote. Matt Jette, a business professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management who ran for governor of Arizona as a Republican in 2010, won the Democratic nomination. Schweikert defeated Jette in the November 6 general election with 62% of the vote.
Tenure.
After being elected to Congress, Quayle announced that he would opt out of the taxpayer-funded congressional health care and pension plan.
In 2012 Quayle was named "The Most Conservative Member of the House of Representatives" by the National Journal. He was awarded the 2011 "National Taxpayers’ Friend Award" by the National Taxpayers Union, the "Spirit of Enterprise Award" by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and was given a 98% scorecard by the Club for Growth.
Controversy arose after a bill to increase combat pay for military personnel was rejected, and Quayle and David Schweikert high-fived, happy about the bill's failure. After the incident, Maria Meacham, the mother of an active-duty soldier upset about the vote, began shouting from the gallery, and was removed by security.
Quayle introduced legislation related to border security, guns, small business, government transparency, and health care and successfully sponsored H.R. 3862, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act "to impose certain limitations on consent decrees and settlement agreements by agencies that require the agencies to take regulatory action in accordance with the terms thereof, and for other purposes". According to the Congressional Budget Office, "Under the bill, complaints against federal agencies, the terms of the consent decrees or settlement agreements, and the award of attorneys’ fees would need to be published in an accessible manner, including electronically. The legislation would require that any proposed consent decree or settlement agreement be published in the Federal Register for 60 days of public comment prior to filing with the court."
Committee assignments.
Quayle served on the following committees during his tenure.


Domingo Pelliza

Domingo Pelliza (c. 1700 – c. 1770) was a politician and merchant of Genoese ancestry. He held several council posts in the City Council of the Viceroyalty of Peru, serving as Alcalde (Mayor) of "Hermandad" and Mayordomo of Buenos Aires.
Biography.
Domingo Pelliza was born in La Spezia, Genoa to Giuseppe Brignole and Maria Pelliza. He was married to Magdalena Comparetti on 10 October 1700 in the church of San Andres de Panigaglia in La Spezia.
After the death of his first wife, Pelliza settled in Buenos Aires around 1738 and formed a family with María Rosa de Rubio y Rodriguez Carrillo, a woman from a well-known creole family.
In 1747, he married María Thomasa de Morales, daughter of José de Morales and Dionisia de Gil. In 1749, he became Prior of the Third Order of Saint Dominic at the Saint Dominic Church in Buenos Aires.
The Mayordomo of Buenos Aires was the person in charge of the administration of the local economy in colonial Argentina. In 1757, Domingo Pelliza was replaced by Justo de Robles. in 1766, Pelliza was appointed as alcalde of campaign, serving in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
In addition to carrying out police and militia tasks in the Río de la Plata, Pelliza also engaged in trade and agriculture, as he owned several lots of land and properties in Buenos Aires.
Descendents.
Pelliza and Comparetti produced a son, Juan Felix Pelliza Comparetti, who became the Captain of the Royal Army of Spain and Governor of the Castle of Alconchel in Murcia. Juan Felix married Maria de Videla y Correa de Saa of Mendoza City, the daughter of a prominent family.
Another of the Domingo Pelliza's sons, Antonio Pelliza de Morales, married María Lorenza de Acasuso, the granddaughter of Domingo de Acassuso, the founder of San Isidro.
Maria Magdalena Pelliza de Echeverria, the daughter of Capitan Felix Pelliza Comparetti and the granddaughter of Domingo Pelliza, became Dame of the Royal Order of Noble Dames of Queen Maria Luisa de Bourbon Parma, wife to Charles IV. Maria Magdalena married Brigadier General Jose Alvarez de Faria y Sanchez Zarzosa de Madrid.
Pelliza's grandson Pedro Joseph Pelliza de Videla y Correa de Saa was a governor of Mendoza City from 1833 to 1836.


Shaktikanta Das

Shaktikanta Das (born 26 February 1957) is a retired 1980batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Tamil Nadu cadre. Currently serving as the 25th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), he was earlier a member of the FifteenthFinance Commission and India's Sherpa to the G20.
During his career as an IAS officer, Das served in various capacities for Indian and Tamil Nadu governments, including as Economic Affairs Secretary, Revenue Secretary, Fertilizers Secretary. He has also served as India’s Alternate Governor in the World Bank, ADB, NDB & AIIB. He has represented India in various international forums like the IMF, G20, BRICS, SAARC, etc.
On October 25, 2020, Das announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and is isolating himself during the quarantine period.
Early life and education.
Born in Bhubaneswar, Das was schooled at the Demonstration Multipurpose School, Bhubaneswar, and then obtained bachelor's (BA) and master's degrees (MA) in history from the St. Stephen's College at the University of Delhi. He was awarded D.Litt. by Utkal University in 2021.
Career.
As an IAS officer.
Das served in various positions for both the Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu, like as Principal Secretary (Industries), Special Commissioner (Revenue), Secretary (Revenue), Secretary (Commercial Taxes), the project director of Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society and as the district magistrate and collector of Dindigul and Kancheepuram districts in the Tamil Nadu government; and as Union Economic Affairs Secretary, Union Revenue Secretary, Union Fertilizers Secretary, Special secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance and as a joint secretary in the Department of Expenditure of the Ministry of Finance in the Indian government.
Das also had a stint with Mahindra Industrial Park Ltd (Mahindra World City), on deputation to a private sector company under Rule6(2)(ii) of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954.
Revenue Secretary.
Das was appointed Union Revenue Secretary by the prime minister-led-Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) in June 2014, he assumed the office of Secretary on 16 June 2014, and demitted it on 31 August 2015.
Economic Affairs Secretary.
Das was appointed Union Economic Affairs Secretary by the ACC in August 2014, he assumed the office of Secretary on 31 August 2015, and admitted it and simultaneously superannuated from service on 28 May 2017, after being given a three-monthextension by the government.
During his tenure as Union Economic Affairs Secretary, Das was widely regarded as one of the most powerful civil servants in India.
Post retirement.
Post his retirement from the IAS, Das was appointed a member of the FifteenthFinance Commission by the ACC. In addition, he was appointed as India's Sherpa to the G20 by the ACC. In December 2018, on his appointment as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Das resigned from his position in the FifteenthFinance Commission.
Governor of Reserve Bank of India.
Das was appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of India by the ACC on 11 December 2018 for a period of threeyears, replacing Urjit Patel who had resigned the day before.
Das' appointment as RBI governor received mostly positive responses, with DBS Bank's head of markets for India at Singapore, Ashish Vaidya, saying that previous governors of the RBI with an IAS background, such as Y. Venugopal Reddy and Duvvuri Subbarao, had been successful and that Das' "cordial relations with the government [...] [would] likely help policy negotiations." S. S. Mundra, a former deputy governor of the RBI, said Das was a "good and balanced choice" for RBI governorship and had "a good understanding of the whole of the financial sector both from the ministry and also in his interactions with the RBI." A former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India C. Rangarajan, said Das had "experience in economic affairs" and would "make a good governor". Gaurav Shah, a senior vice president at Geojit Financial Services, said "a name like Shaktikanta Das carries track record, experience, credentials, credibility and respect along with him."
On the other hand, Nobel laureate and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Abhijit Banerjee, said Das' appointment posed a lot of "frightening" questions on governance of autonomous public institutions. Subramanian Swamy, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the largest party of the ruling National Democratic Alliance coalition, and a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha (Council of the States), criticised Das, calling him a "corrupt person" at an event at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.
Das assumed charge as RBI governor on 12 December 2018. Reactions of the markets to Das' appointment was positive, with BSE SENSEX gaining 629points and NIFTY 50 increasing by 188points.
As RBI governor, Das serves as the "ex-officio" chairperson of the Monetary Policy Committee of the central bank.
He was conferred the 'Central Banker of the Year, Asia-Pacific 2020' award by the London based magazine-The Banker for his efforts to make the banking system more robust.
On October 25, 2020, he said that he has tested positive for COVID-19.


Technology Tax Relief

Technology Tax Relief is the generic name for the programme of tax incentives implemented in the UK to incentivise companies to invest in high-value-add R&D and IP commercialisation.
History.
The new approach began in 2000 with the launch of the R&D Tax Credit for small and medium enterprises.
Overview.
Technology Tax Relief now encompasses the following main tax reliefs:


Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (; born 30 April 1972) is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates. He is the son of the founder of UAE, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Personal life.
Abdullah bin Zayed was born in Abu Dhabi on 30 April 1972. He holds a degree in Political Science from UAE University. He is married to Sheikha Alyazia bint Saif Al Nahyan, who became an FAO Goodwill Ambassador extraordinary in 2010, and has five children: Fatima, Mohammad, Zayed, Saif and Theyab.
Career.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates on 9 February 2006.
During his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the UAE has witnessed a rapid expansion of its diplomatic relations with countries in Latin America, the South Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia as well as a consolidation and strengthening of its relations with Western countries.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah launched a number of international forums, including the Sir Bani Yas Forum the Global Forum on Relationships between the Arab World, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Arab League countries dialogue with Pacific Island States.
Abdullah attends the UNFCCC climate change negotiations; in 2011, he led the UAE delegation at the G20 Summit in Cannes, France; and he has supported UN Women since it was established. From 2010-2012, he served as a member of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, which issued the report "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing" in 2012.
He is a Global Champion of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, launched by William Hague, the UK Foreign Secretary in 2012.
He has advocated international action on countering piracy and supporting stability and development in Somalia. To further these goals, he established an annual high-level Counter Piracy Conference in the UAE.
In 2009, Sheikh Abdullah headed the UAE's international campaign to rally support for its successful bid to host the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). He supported Dubai's winning bid to host the World Expo 2020.
In 2017, leaked emails highlighted that Abdullah bin Zayed maintained close contacts with Tony Blair, who was being funded by the UAE as the Middle East peace envoy. Blair held a number of official meetings with the UAE Foreign Minister. The emails also revealed that Abdullah bin Zayed was one of the UAE royals who bankrolled the envoy. In 2011, Sheikh Abdullah’s office separately sent $2 million to Blair through Windrush Ventures, which channeled money for Tony Blair’s commercial advisory work. The UAE Foreign Ministry also transferred $12 million to Windrush for Blair consultancy work in Colombia, Vietnam and Mongolia.
In August 2017, Sheikh Abdullah urged Iran and Turkey to end what the UAE called their "colonial" actions in Syria, signaling unease about diminishing Gulf Arab influence in the war, and calling "the exit of those parties trying to reduce the sovereignty of the Syrian state." He added that "if Iran and Turkey continue the same historical, colonial and competitive behavior and perspectives between them in Arab affairs, we will continue in this situation not just in Syria today but tomorrow in some other country."
On 14 February 2019, Sheikh Abdullah said that Israel was justified in attacking Iranian targets in Syria.
On 15 September 2020, Sheikh Abdullah signed the official Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement in a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Other roles.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed is a member of the UAE's National Security Council, Deputy Chairman of the UAE's Permanent Committee on Borders, Chairman of the National Media Council, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Foundation for Youth Development, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) and Board Member of the National Defense College.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed served as Minister of Information and Culture from 1997 to 2006. Previously, he served as Chairman of Emirates Media Incorporated, Chairman of the UAE Football Association (1993–2001), and as the Under Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Culture from 1995 to 1997.
Social initiatives.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed is active on social media through his Twitter handle @ABZayed, under which he promotes social initiatives and interacts directly with tweets and mentions.
He is an ambassador of the Abu Dhabi Reads Campaign, which aims to encourage younger generations to read. As part of the campaign, he visited an elementary school in Abu Dhabi where he spent time interacting with students and reading stories to them.


Whitworths

Whitworths is a dried fruit, home baking and snack products company, established in 1886 based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, UK. As of March 2009 it employed 310 people.
The company was begun by the three Whitworth brothers John, Herbert and Newton trading under the name of Whitworth Bros.
In 1971 they were awarded the Royal Warrant by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and in 1974 by Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2016 they purchased Carr's Flour Mills Ltd for £36m from Carr's Group PLC, making them the market leader in the UK flour market.


Capital gains tax in the United Kingdom

Capital gains tax in the United Kingdom is a tax levied on capital gains, the profit realised on the sale of a non-inventory asset by an individual or trust in the United Kingdom. The most common capital gains are realised from the sale of shares, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property, so the tax principally targets business owners, investors and employee share scheme participants.
In the UK, gains made by companies fall under the scope of corporation tax rather than capital gains tax. Total capital gains tax receipts were £8.3 billion from 265,000 individuals and £0.6 billion from trusts on total gains of £58.9 billion in 2017–18.
The current operation of the capital gains tax system is a recognised issue. The Conservative government consulted on the issue in 2020.
Beginnings.
The capital gains tax system was introduced by Labour Chancellor James Callaghan in 1965. Prior to this, capital gains were not taxed. Channon observed that one of the primary drivers to the introduction of CGT in the UK was the rapid growth in property values post World War II. This led to property developers deliberately leaving office blocks empty so that a rental income could not be established and greater capital gains made.
Exemptions and allowances.
The main reliefs from capital gains tax in the UK is private residence relief, which brings an individual's principal residence out of scope of the tax, and personal possessions with a value of less than £6,000. There are also exemptions for holdings in ISAs or gilts. Certain other gains are allowed to be rolled over upon re-investment. Investments in some start up enterprises are also exempt from CGT. This means that most asset sales do not incur any capital gains tax. Allowable costs include the costs of sale of the asset and capital losses realised in the same year may be used to reduce capital gains made on other assets.
In 1977, there was a general exemption for individuals from paying any tax if gains were less than £1,000 in any given tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April in the United Kingdom. Now known as the Annual Exempt Allowance, this has generally risen steadily ever since and the rate for trusts has always been half of the threshold for individuals, so it was £500 in 1977. The rate for individuals in 2020–21 is £12,300 for individuals and £6,150 for trusts.
Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown replaced indexation allowance with taper relief in 1998 to reward risk taking and promote enterprise. Taper relief was abolished in 2008. Indexation allowance generally reduced the tax payable on a gain by increasing the cost of the asset in line with inflation. Taper relief reduced the tax payable on assets that were owned for longer periods of time and its removal was caused, at least in part, because the UK government felt that private equity firms were making excessive profits by benefiting from overly generous taper relief on business assets. The changes were criticised by a number of groups including the Federation of Small Businesses, who claimed that the new rules would increase the CGT liability of small businesses and discourage entrepreneurship in the UK. At the time of the proposals there was concern that the changes would lead to a bulk selling of assets just before the start of the 2008–09 tax year to benefit from existing taper relief.
Rates.
From 1965 to 1988, most gains suffered a 30% rate of capital gains tax. In 1988, Conservative Chancellor Nigel Lawson aligned rates with those for income tax this regime continued until 2008.
In 2008, Gordon Brown introduced a flat rate of 18% for all taxpayers alongside Entrepreneurs' Relief, which applied to some gains made on business assets and company shares. The rate on these gains was at a lower 10% rate.
In the March 2010 budget, Conservative Chancellor George Osborne introduced a rate of 28% for individuals paying the higher or additional rate of income tax, but it remained 10% under Entrepreneurs' Relief for those higher rate taxpayers. The limit for the relief was raised to £2 million. It was raised to £5 million three months later by the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government, who then raised it to £10m in the March 2011 budget
On 6 April 2016, new lower rates of 10% (for basic taxpayers) and 20% (for higher taxpayers) were introduced for non-property and non-carried interest disposals.
Entrepreneurs' Relief was renamed Business Asset Disposal Relief in 2020 Budget and the lifetime allowance under the relief was reduced from £10,000,000 to £1,000,000.
Demographics.
Between 2011 and 2019, very large gains have become more prevalent and make up a larger proportion of total net gains, while smaller gains are also on the rise albeit at a slower rate. A very small proportion of taxpayers pay capital gains tax in consecutive years and most gains are made on company shares. The majority of taxpayers are over the age of 55.
Example computation.
This is an example computation involving an individual that pays tax at the higher rate and has made a sale on a non-residential asset.
Reform.
Criticism.
In the opinion of the Resolution Foundation entrepreneurs' relief is expensive, regressive and ineffective. Scrapping the tax relief they argue could generate £2.7 billion that could be spent on the public sector. However, that figure supposes that the relief scheme has zero effect in encouraging entrepreneurship and that individuals who had worked hard to create wealth would not look to reduce their tax bills. The Resolution Foundation maintains this tax break is enough to give £100 per year to every household in the country if it is abolished. Roughly 52,000 individuals benefited from the tax break in 2015-16, but the chief financial gain was for a few very people, with about 6,000 claiming over £1m each. The overall cost of the tax relief over a decade was roughly £22bn though its effectiveness has not been seriously evaluated. Most entrepreneurs who claim the tax break say they did not know about it when they started their company, the foundation maintains.
2020 Government consultation.
In November 2020, a report into capital gains tax reform was published.
The report made the recommendation to consider aligning capital gains tax rates with income tax rates or addressing boundary issues between the two taxes.
Under the first option, there would need to be appropriate relief for indexation, adequate interaction with company tax positions and more flexibility for use of losses.
If there remained a disparity between the capital gains and income tax rates, the number of CGT rates should be reduced and there should be further consideration of the impact of an individual's other income. It should also be considered whether capital rewards for personal labour should be taxed at income tax rates, even if capital tax rates were to remain distinct.
In any case, it was concluded that consideration should be put towards reducing the Annual Exempt Amount from its current level of £12,300.
Under circumstances where an asset owner dies, they may benefit from a relief and exemption from inheritance tax, as well as benefiting from an uplift on the base cost of the capital gain. It was suggested that the base cost could remain at the cost of the person who died for capital gains purposes. This may require the rebasing of all assets perhaps to the year 2000.
It was concluded that the government should consider replacing Business Asset Disposal Relief, formerly Entrepreneurs' Relief, with a relief more focused on retirement by increasing the minimum shareholding, increasing the holding period of assets and introducing a minimum age limit at a high level.


Euromod

EUROMOD is an EU-wide tax-benefit model originally maintained, developed and managed by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. Since 2021 EUROMOD is maintained, developed and managed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, in collaboration with EUROSTAT and national teams from the EU countries. It belongs to the class of static microsimulation models and has modules for all 27 EU member states and the UK.
What is EUROMOD.
EUROMOD allows researchers and analysts to simulate, evaluate and compare the impact of tax-benefit policies in terms of households' disposable, as well as computing poverty, inequality and budgetary indicators. The model can be used for analysing the effects of already existing policies and to evaluate tax-benefit policy reforms. The model also offers extended functionalities that allow the user, among other features, to compute marginal tax rates and net replacement rates (as indicators of work incentives), apply tax compliance adjustments, construct hypothetical families or change labour market conditions. EUROMOD is highly standardized, as it is intended to produce models and results that are comparable across EU countries.
EUROMOD is an open access platform, with rapidly increasing active users across Europe. It is based on three key components: the software, the model (coded policy rules) and the input microdata. The policy rules embedded in EUROMOD are updated to the existing policies on the 30 June of each year. The underlying microdata are based on EU-SILC and set to EUROMOD's standard set of protocols.
Since April 2021, the EUROMOD website offers the EUROMOD-JRC Interface, a simplified version of EUROMOD in which users can change parameters of Personal Income Taxes and Social Insurance Contributions. Researchers and policy analysts can access it upon request.
Publications.
EUROMOD has been producing several studies and have released hundreds of publications about various policy changes across the EU. EUROMOD's most common types of publication are books, research papers, parliamentary papers and journal articles. The subjects of the publications vary from income dynamics and poverty, to welfare benefits and taxation.


Qadi Jahan Qazvini

Qadi Jahan Qazvini (1483 – 1552/3) was a Persian bureaucrat who served as vizier of the Safavid shah (king) Tahmasp I () from 1535 to 1551/1.
Biography.
Qadi Jahan was born in February 1483; he belonged to a well-known family of sayyids native to the city of Qazvin, located in Persian Iraq ("Erāq-e Ajam"), a region corresponding to western part of Iran. He was educated by the prominent philosopher Jalal al-Din Davani (died 1502) at the Madrasah-yi Mansuriyya in the southern city of Shiraz, and thus considered himself part of the Shirazi philosophical tradition.
In his early career, Qadi Jahan served as the "qadi" (chief judge) of his home city, and later as the vizier of the "vakil" (viceroy) Mirza Shah Hossein during the last years of the Safavid shah (king) Ismail I (). As a part of his plan to keep the Turkmen Qizilbash from the "divan", shah Tahmasp I () appointed Qadi Jahan as the new co-vizier together with Mir Enayat Allah Khuzani Isfahani in 1535. However, the two viziers were unable to cooperate, with Mir Enayat being executed a few months later. Qadi Jahan later retired in 1550 or 1551, and died a few years later, in 1552 or 1553.


Alexander Tishanin

Alexander Georgiyevich Tishanin (; born April 20, 1966) was the Head of the Administration of Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug from January 26 to December 31, 2007 and the Governor of Irkutsk Oblast from September 8, 2005 to April 15, 2008.
Tishanin was appointed by Vladimir Putin. Tishanin was working as a manager before he became governor. He graduated from Chelyabinsk railways technical school, the Urals Engineering Institute of railway transport, and State Railways University.


Eduardo Bolsonaro

Eduardo Nantes Bolsonaro (born 10 July 1984) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and federal police officer. He is the third child of Jair Bolsonaro, the 38th President of Brazil.
Career.
He has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2015, and is affiliated to the Social Liberal Party (PSL). In 2018, he was re-elected to a second term as Federal Deputy, being the most voted lawmaker in Brazil's history after he received 1.8 million votes.
In February 2019, it was reported that Bolsonaro was joining The Movement. The European-based organisation supports right-wing populism and was founded by former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. He is the representative for the group in South America.
In the Chamber of Deputies, Bolsonaro chairs the International Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Bolsonaro was invited by his father to become ambassador to the United States. The U.S. administration under Donald Trump formally endorsed Eduardo Bolsonaro's nomination. In October 2019, after being confirmed as leader of the PSL in the Chamber of Deputies, Bolsonaro withdrew from his nomination and President Bolsonaro nominated the Chargé d'Affaires Nesttor Forster.
On 31 October 2019, Bolsonaro threatened to introduce a "new AI-5" in response to accused left-wing radicalization. AI-5 or Institutional Act Number Five was the fifth of seventeen major decrees issued by the military dictatorship of Brazil that gave them the power to override the government and constitution.
Personal life.
His brothers are Flávio Bolsonaro, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro from 2003 to 2019 and currently member of the Federal Senate, and Carlos Bolsonaro, a member of the Rio de Janeiro City Council since 2001. He married the psychologist Heloísa Wolf on 25 May 2019, in Santa Tereza, Rio de Janeiro. The wedding was an intimate ceremony for 150 guests, including the father of the groom President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, and First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, who is the stepmother of the groom. She was one of the bridesmaids at the wedding. On 10 October 2020 the daughter of Eduardo and Heloísa is born the child is called Georgia Wolf Bolsonaro, the child was born at 5:25 am.
Awards.
In 2015, Eduardo Bolsonaro ranked first in the category "Combating Corruption and Organized Crime" of the Focus Awards 2015. Bolsonaro had 16,769 votes, more than 10 thousand ahead of the second place.
In 2017, Eduardo Bolsonaro ranked first in the category of "Best Deputy" of the Focus Awards 2017. He had 55,256 votes, almost three times ahead of the second place.
Critics.
New Ai-5.
In late October 2019, Eduardo said a "new AI-5" was a possibility in case of "left-wing radicalization" in Brazil. The speech took place in an interview with journalist Leda Nagle's YouTube channel after a question about the protests in Chile. Institutional Act No. 5 (AI-5) was edited in 1968, during the harshest period of the Brazilian military dictatorship and resulted in the dissolution of the National Congress and state legislative assemblies, in addition to suspending constitutional guarantees, allowing the rescission of political rights in a summary form and the end of habeas corpus. The period that followed AI-5 was marked by intensification of censorship and political repression, with torture and assassination of opponents of the regime.
Eduardo's statement generated widespread negative reaction from left, center and right parties, in addition to the judiciary. The opposition said it will denounce Eduardo to the Parliamentary Ethics and Decoration Council. Mayor Rodrigo Maia said in an official statement that the declaration on AI-5 was "repugnant" and that the "repeated apology for the instruments of the dictatorship is punishable by the tools that hold the Brazilian democratic institutions"
The Constitution guarantees Eduardo Bolsonaro not to be punished "for any of his opinions, words or votes", the so-called "parliamentary immunity" provided for in Article 53 of the Constitution. However, the Constitution itself also states in Article 55 that a parliamentarian may lose his or her mandate for "breach of decorum" if there is "abuse of the prerogatives (rights)" guaranteed to congressmen. Based on this, the opposition announced that it will ask for Eduardo's impeachment in the Council of Ethics and Parliamentary Decor.
After the strong negative reaction and being reprimanded by President Jair Bolsonaro, the deputy said he had been misinterpreted in the Brasil Urgente program, of Band, and apologized for the statement.


Pavao Rauch

Baron Pavao Rauch de Nyék (20 February 1865, Zagreb – 29 November 1933, Martijanec) was a Croatian politician who served as Ban (viceroy) of Croatia-Slavonia between 1908 and 1910.
Life.
His was the son of Baron Levin Rauch de Nyék, Ban (viceroy) of Croatia-Slavonia, and Countess Antonia Sermage von Szomszédvár et Medvedgrád (1826–1913). Pavao Rauch was appointed as vice-roy on 8 January 1908. Ten thousand protesters met Rauch upon his arrival in Zagreb on 15 January, hurling abuse and throwing spoiled eggs and pebbles at him. From the very beginning of Rauch's rule, the Croato-Serbian Coalition announced that it would refuse to co-operate in any manner with the new unionist vice-roy.
After the Croatian Parliament ("Sabor") had been disbanded on 12 March 1908 because of its refusal to co-operate with and the insults it directed at the Vice-Roy, Pavao Rauch ruled through decrees and civil servants.
Despite all opposition predictions, Rauch remained in power for two years. On 5 February 1910, he received the King's letter of dismissal. Nikola Tomašić had been immediately appointed as new vice-roy.


Phillip Turner (diplomat)

Phillip Turner (born 1960) MA (Hon) (History) (1986) "Auck" is a New Zealand public servant and diplomat. He spent his childhood in Auckland and was educated at St Peter's College and Auckland University. Turner worked for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1986 to 1999. He held various senior management positions in Fonterra from 2000, culminating as Fonterra director of global stakeholder affairs from 2015 to 2018. Turner became the New Zealand ambassador to Korea (North Korea and South Korea), resident in Seoul, in April 2018.


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Robert Skerne

Robert Skerne (died 1437) was MP for Surrey in 1420 and again in 1422.
Career.
There is difficulty in determining if the MP and a Robert Skerne of Yorkshire who served as royal clerk to both Richard II and Henry IV were the same individual. A Robert Skerne stood surety in Chancery for his friends during the two reigns. There are grounds to assume that the records relate to the same person.
The earliest record of Skerne's career come from 1389 when he was rewarded by the crown with the keepership of St. Ellen’s hospital ("Bracefordspittle") in Yorkshire and the farm of the manor of Willoughton in Lincolnshire which he was still paying rent for in November 1420. Skerne was appointed commissioner to audit the accounts of persons collecting pavage in London in October 1406. He was appointed Commissioner of Sewers in Surrey in December 1417. Skerne was a J.P. in Surrey from 28 October 1417, a post he held for fourteen years. He was made commissioner to raise a royal loan in November 1419 and was tax collector for Surrey in January 1420. That same year he became MP for Surrey in the 9th parliament of Henry V. His judicial career continued, being appointed commissioner of oyer and terminer in July 1421. Skerne was MP for Surrey again in 1422 in the first Parliament of Henry VI. In April 1431 he was commissioner to assess a royal loan and, in December that year, he retired as JP.
Marriage and property.
Skerne is noted for having married Joan, youngest daughter of Alice Perrers, mistress of Edward III, which implies that Skerne had connections at court. Joan profited little from her mother's estate following Perrers' death in 1400/1401 but acquired the manor of Compton Murdak in Warwickshire. Joan fought a series of sometimes protracted legal battles to support her claim to more of the estate. Skerne took seisin of Joan's mother’s Berkshire manor of East Hanney, and in 1406 Joan settled on a compromise with her sister, Jane, over property in Upminster, Essex, paying Joan an annuity of 4 marks for life. Joan and Skerne also eventually managed to reassert her title to some of the holdings purchased by Alice Perrers in Oxford.
Skerne, however, was not dependent on his wife's estate. He held "Downhall" in Guildford from Merton College, lands and rents in Kingston upon Thames and Thames Ditton, the manor of Freemantles, Windlesham and land in Hampshire. Bray says, in his "History of the County of Surrey" that Robert lived at "Downhall" in Canbury, Kingston upon Thames, styled a 'capital messuage' or 'manor', held of Merton Priory situated to the south of the present day railway bridge. Others have been unable to corroborate that this Robert Skerne lived there.
After Joan’s death, some time before January 1431, Skerne gifted one of the messuages to Osney Abbey in return for admission into the fraternity, and arrangements for prayers to be said in memory of his late wife. He retired from the bench at this time but was signatory to further legal documents dating up to 1435.
Death and legacy.
Robert Skerne died 9 April 1437. He was buried alongside his wife in a tomb in All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, marked by a monumental brass.
The brass bears the Latin inscription:
Following his uncle's death, his nephew, William, founded a chantry in his honour. William's son, also named Robert, inherited Downhall, Kingston, it subsequently passing to his son, Swithin, in 1485-6.


Government contract proposal

A government contract proposal, often called a government proposal in business, is a response to written requirements issued by a government entity that wants to buy something. All areas of government (national, state/provincial, and local) use written requirements to buy products or services to make purchasing fair and reduce costs. Outside of business circles, "government proposal" is commonly used to mean a legislative or other proposal by a government, in other words a legislative motion.
Governments request competitive contract proposals when they believe there are more issues than initial cost in buying a needed product or service. In addition to cost, governments often consider issues such as risk (i.e., Will the product or service meet the government need?), schedule (i.e., Will the product or service be delivered or finished in time?), quality (i.e., Will the product or service meet the need each time it is delivered or needed?), long-term cost (i.e., What is the total cost of a product or service over its lifetime?). Most governments use proposals to buy any product that is not a commodity or to buy services that are not routine.
In the United States, federal proposals are governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation, commonly referred to as the FAR. Most countries have at least some form of purchasing regulations that govern proposals. Regional and local governments have similar laws, although enforcement varies greatly.
Government proposals are written in response to specific requests for proposals (RFPs). The RFPs specify the government's requirements for the product or service it intends to buy. In the United States, federal RFPs also specify, in accordance with the FAR, how the proposal should be prepared (Section L in the RFP) and what criteria will be used to evaluate proposals (Section M) Federal Acquisition Regulations. Other countries, states and local governments may also provide requirements for proposal preparation and evaluation criteria, although this is not always the case.
Government proposal contents.
Most government proposals contain the following sections:
Most government proposals require a quality assurance plan, usually synonymous with AS9100.
Size.
Because government proposals are always produced in response to written requirements, the proposals are lengthy in order to address adequately each requirement and, in the case of competitive proposals, the vendor's need to differentiate its product or service from other vendors. Short government proposals, including cost data, are at least 10 pages. Large proposals can range up to thousands of pages.
Expense.
Government proposals are expensive to produce because of detailed requirements and necessary cost and scheduling information. Experts estimate the cost of producing a successful government proposal to be in the range of 0.5% to 2% of the initial contract value.


Shepherd Neame Brewery

Shepherd Neame is an English independent brewery which has been based in the market town of Faversham, Kent, for over 300 years. While 1698 is the brewery's official established date, town records show that commercial brewing has occurred on the site since 1573. Since the brewery’s formation back in the 16th century, ownership has passed in unbroken succession through five families. The brewery produces a range of cask ales and filtered beers. Production is around 180,000 brewers' barrels a year. It has 320 pubs and hotels in South East England, predominantly in Kent and London. The company exports to 44 countries including India, Sweden, Italy, Brazil and Canada.
History.
The Neame family were relative latecomers in the overall development of the Shepherd Neame Brewery but, as substantial property owners in the district, Charles Neame of Harefield Court and John Neame of Selling Court were acknowledged to be among the most valuable hop growers in East Kent. Theo Barker explains in the official account of the Brewery, that it all began with a Captain Richard Marsh who in 1678 is recorded in the Faversham "Wardmote Books" as contributing by far the largest of the ‘Brewers Fines’ made at that date.
Shepherd Neame as such is reported as having been established in 1698, in an advertisement of the "Kentish Gazette" for 11 April 1865. Richard Marsh lived until 1727 when his Brewery was bequeathed to his widow, and then to his daughter, who sold the property on to Samuel Shepherd around 1741. Samuel Shepherd was from Deal, Kent. He had an interest in malting when he moved to Faversham around 1730 and had established himself as a Brewer of Malt by 1734. Shepherd expanded on his interest, through acquiring a number of public houses, but it was his son, Julius Shepherd, who extended this trend still further upon his inheritance of the Brewery in 1770, when the company held four such outlets. In 1789, he set about modernising the process of malt grinding and pumping, which had been previously worked with the employment of horses, by introducing what was reputed to be the first steam engine (Boulton and Watt) to be used for this purpose outside London, and was then able to describe his business as the "Faversham Steam Brewery".
Henry, his second son, born in 1780, continued the family tradition, and raised his son of the same name into the business. It was this Henry Shepherd (1816~77) who was to be the last of the Shepherds actively involved in the Company. The death of Henry senior at the age of eighty-two occurred in 1862 and although his own son was not a businessman of the same determination, the firm's expansion continued adequately with John Mares, who had come to the financial assistance of the Shepherd Brewery during the recession of the mid-1840s and continued as the impetus behind "Shepherd and Mares" until Percy Beale Neame joined the Brewery in 1864. Mares had seen the potential of the Brewery's growth with the arrival of the long delayed railway service in 1858. He pressed the firm to actively prepare for such growth. Horse-drawn drays were used to carry the Brewery's ales throughout Kent, and malts were imported by barge at Faversham Creek at its own wharf which was also used as the means to deliver its product to London, until the 1850s when steamboats were beginning to prove more expeditious to the task. The railways soon even outpaced and replaced the steamboats.
Mares' unexpected death at the age of 45 in 1864 placed Percy Neame, at the age of 28, as the stronger partner with Henry Shepherd, and with the challenge left to him in Mares' successful expansion programme he brought the Faversham Brewery well into the Neame family's dominion. Jonathan Neame is the fifth generation of his family to run the business. His late father Robert was the company’s first ever President.
Shepherd Neame have embraced 21st-century brewing techniques, for instance using PDX Reactor Technology for the heat treatment of wort, rather than the traditional method, using a calandria. This has led to a reduction in energy consumption of 50%. Its cask, keg and bottling lines are all equally high tech, utilising robotics and the latest SAP software to minimise use of natural resources, while maximising beer quality. Its cardboard packaging is 100% recyclable and the brewery uses lightweight glass for bottled beer. It also just installed a new state-of-the-art Yeast Propagation Plant which will reduce energy consumption. The brewery has repeatedly pioneered sustainable brewing methods. It recycles 97% of the grain and hops used in the brewing process as animal feed on local farms and holds a Feed Materials Assurance Scheme certificate. Waste is separated into recyclable elements and the waste oil from its managed pubs and the brewery’s kitchens is collected and converted into biofuel. Its Water Recovery Plant, installed in 2014, allows the waste water that results from brewing and cleaning to be recycled, rather than sending it to the drain.
Along with the Three Tuns Brewery in Shropshire, Shepherd Neame claims to the oldest brewery in Great Britain. Three Tuns was licensed in 1642, 56 years earlier than Shepherd Neame. However, there is evidence that brewing has taken place on the Shepherd Neame site since at least 1573, over a century before the establishment of the current brewery.
Products.
Britain’s oldest brewer Shepherd Neame has been based in the market town of Faversham, Kent for over 300 years, producing beers using traditional methods and 100% natural ingredients. The brewery uses chalk-filtered mineral water from the brewery's own artesian well, deep below the brewery, and 93% of the hops used in its beers are grown in Kent. Centuries of brewing experience have been passed down to the current team of brewers, who still use many traditional methods. In 2016, its 100-year-old unlined solid oak mash tuns were renovated, with each piece of Burmese teak reshaped around the new stainless steel mash tuns.
Perhaps best known for great British classic ales such as Spitfire, which carries the Royal Warrant, its diverse portfolio includes Five Grain Lager, Bear Island East Coast Pale Ale and Bear Island Triple Hopped Lager, and the Whitstable Bay Collection. In March 2019, Shepherd Neame launched Cask Club, introducing a new cask ale each month, celebrating modern styles and flavours, with international collaborations.
It also brews international lagers under licence including Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and is the sole UK distributor for premium Thai lager Singha. It is also the sole distributor for Angry Orchard Crisp Apple cider, and collaborates with Somerset’s oldest family cider maker Sheppy’s to produce Orchard View Apple Cider.
Pubs.
The brewery has 320 pubs and hotels throughout London and South East England, from the historic heart of the City to the Kent coastline. The brewery's own brands are typically given prominence in terms of frontage with extensive branding. All fonts and pumps bear the distinctive logos and branding, glasses are branded and bar runners that advertise the house beers are commonplace


Naresh Gujral

Naresh Gujral (born 19 May 1948) is a Chartered Accountant, Shiromani Akali Dal party politician and a member of the Parliament of India representing Punjab in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.
Early life and background.
He is the son of Inder Kumar Gujral, former Prime Minister of India. He graduated from the University of Delhi.
Business career.
He started a clothing company "SPAN", because he had “nothing better to do”, as he put it.


William III, Landgrave of Hesse

William III "the Younger", Landgrave of Hesse (8 September 1471 – 17 February 1500) ruled on the part of the county known as Upper Hesse, with residence in Marburg.
William was the son of Landgrave Henry III from the House of Hesse and his wife Anna of Katzenelnbogen. When his father died in 1483, William was still a minor, and therefore had his uncle Archbishop Herman IV of Cologne, and Hans Hofman of Dörnberg acted as guardian until 1489.
With the rich revenues of the country could William could purchase in 1492 half the barony of Eppstein (including the so-called Ländchen ('little country')) and in 1493 part of Klingenberg am Main.
In 1498 he married Elisabeth, the daughter of Elector Palatine Philip.
William died young after he fell from a horse while hunting, and left no legitimate offspring. His holdings fell to his cousin William II, so that all of the Landgraviate of Hesse was again united in one hand (plus the County of Katzenelnbogen).


Alexander Brullov

Alexander Pavlovich Brullov (, spelled Brulleau until 1822, when the family name was changed according to Russian pronunciation, sometimes also spelled Brulloff; 29 November 1798 – 9 January 1877) was a Russian artist associated with Russian Neoclassicism.
Early life.
Alexander Brullov was born in Saint Petersburg into a family of French artists: his great grandfather, his grandfather, his father and his brothers (including Karl Brullov) were artists. His first teacher was his father Paul. He attended the Imperial Academy of Arts architecture class from 1810 to 1820, and graduated with honors. Along with his brother, Karl, he was sent to Europe to study art and architecture with a stipend from the Society for the Promotion of Artists.
Career.
Alexander Brullov spent eight years abroad, from 1822 to 1830, in Italy, Germany and France, studying architecture and art. He painted many watercolor portraits at that time. Among the best were those of Yekaterina Pavlovna Bakunina, John Capodistria, Natalya Goncharova-Pushkina, wife of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and Yekaterina Ivanovna Zagryazhskaya, her aunt. He also did illustrations for books and magazines.
In 1831, after his return to Russia, he was appointed professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts and these were the years when he created his best architectural projects. Among others, he designed and supervised the construction of the following buildings in Saint Petersburg:
He was one of the principal architects for the reconstruction of the Winter Palace after the fire of 1837. He designed many striking interiors there, including the "Pompei Hall", the "Malachite Room", and the "White Hall".
In 1844 he designed and built Orenburg Caravanserai in Orenburg.
His son Pavel also became a painter of some note.


CRISSCROSS/PROTON

CRISSCROSS/PROTON is a top-secret signals intelligence database system used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Its existence was revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
According to classified NSA documents published by "The Intercept", CRISSCROSS was built in the early 1990s by the CIA and the DEA to store metadata about phone calls. PROTON stores unique codes used to identify individual cellphones, location data, phone call records, text messages, passport and flight records, visa application information, as well as excerpts culled from CIA intelligence reports. In 2006, according to documents published by "The Intercept", the NSA estimated that there were 149 billion phone records on PROTON.
CRISSCROSS was integral to the CIA's extraordinary rendition program during the George W. Bush Administration, which involved abducting terror suspects and flying them to secret "black site" prisons where they were sometimes tortured. A document on CRISSCROSS, published by "The Intercept", noted that the use of communications metadata "has been a contribution to virtually every successful rendition of suspects and often, the deciding factor."