title: United States Soccer Federation

text: Despite the growth of men's and women's professional soccer in the United States in the last few decades, by far the largest category of soccer in the United States, at least in terms of participation, is youth soccer. Though organized locally by organizations all over the United States, there are two main youth soccer organizations working nationwide through affiliated local associations. The United States Youth Soccer Association boasts over three million players between the ages of five and 19, while American Youth Soccer Organization has more than 300,000 players between the ages of four and 19. This makes soccer one of the most played sports by children in the United States.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The professional first-division league in North America is Major League Soccer, which as of the 2022 season has 25 teams in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. The league began an aggressive expansion in 2017, with the goal of adding at least eight clubs. That effort has resulted in the addition of the following nine clubs: Atlanta United FC (2017), Minnesota United FC (2017), Los Angeles FC (2018), FC Cincinnati (2019), Inter Miami CF (2020), Nashville SC (2020), Austin FC (2021), Charlotte FC (2022), and St. Louis City SC (2023). The league operates as a single-entity league, which means MLS, and not the individual teams, holds the contracts on players.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The one sanctioned second-division men's outdoor soccer league is the USL Championship (USLC). Previously, the second North American Soccer League had second-division status, sharing it with the USL in the 2017 season, but the NASL was denied second-division sanctioning for 2018 due to considerable instability in the league; the league effectively folded at that time.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The USLC was sanctioned as the United States' lone Division II men's outdoor soccer league in 2018. Formed in 2010 as a result of the merger of the former USL First Division and USL Second Division, the USL Championship was sanctioned as Division III league from 2011 to 2016 before becoming provisionally sanctioned as a Division II league for 2017, and receiving full Division II sanctioning in 2018.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The USL Championship has expanded almost three-fold since its first season in 2011 to include 35 teams in the 2020 season, with the league divided into two conferences, Eastern and Western. The USLC is the world's largest Division II professional league by number of teams. Since 2014, valuation of USL Championship clubs have increased five-fold. In revenue, 2018 Championship clubs saw a 28% increase over 2017 numbers on an average of ticketing, sponsorship, merchandise, and ancillary revenue generation.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The USLC also holds a broadcast agreement with ESPN that sees 20 regular season games televised nationally on ESPN2, ESPNews and ESPN Deportes in addition to national broadcast of the USL Championship Final, which in 2019 was aired on both ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. The league's remaining regular season games are broadcast nationally on ESPN+, with 22 of the Championship's clubs also holding local broadcast agreements. The USL Championship's broadcast agreement was made possible in large part by a major investment by USL with league technology partner Vista Worldlink to establish a USL Broadcast Center out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The second NASL had no official tie to the former NASL that operated from 1968 to 1984, although some of the teams shared names with their historic counterparts. Unlike MLS that is a single-entity operation, the second NASL, like the old NASL, had no salary cap and players were contracted by the individual teams. The season was a split format (similar to that of many leagues in Latin America) that features seven teams, including one Puerto Rican team. Previous to the reorganization of the NASL in 2009, the USL First Division operated as the professional second-division league in the United States. However, a dispute among its teams and ownership led to the creation of the NASL which applied for and was awarded by USSF second division status. The 2010 season was played as a combined USL/NASL league format before NASL officially separated in 2011.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: USL League One is sanctioned at the Men's Division III level. In March 2017, United Soccer League, administrator of the USL Championship and USL League Two, announced following the successful sanctioning of the USL Championship as a Division II league it would start a new tier in its professional structure, which became USL League One, and seek Division III certification for the 2019 season. The league received sanctioning in December 2018 and conducted a successful first season in 2019 that saw 10 teams compete in a single-table format and North Texas SC claim its inaugural league title. The seven independent clubs averaged 2,496 fans per match in 2019, placing League One in the top three of Division III leagues globally, and the league has expanded to include 12 teams for its second season in 2020, with further expansion expected prior to the 2021 season.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) led by former Chicago Fire general manager Peter Wilt plans on fielding 8–10 teams in 2018 and has stated that it will seek third-division certification.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: A fourth-division league in the United States is the USL League Two, which as of 2015 is expected to have 58 U.S. teams, and six Canadian teams. Though League Two does have some paid players, it also has many teams that are made up entirely or almost entirely of college soccer players who use the league as an opportunity to play competitive soccer in front of professional scouts during the summer, while retaining amateur status and NCAA eligibility. Other fourth-division leagues in the United States are the United Premier Soccer League, National Premier Soccer League and Ligas Unidas.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: In addition to MLS and the USL, the United States Adult Soccer Association governs amateur soccer competition for adults throughout the United States, which is effectively the amateur fifth-division of soccer in the United States. The USASA sanctions regional tournaments that allow entry into the U.S. Open Cup, the oldest continuous national soccer competition in the United States. Since 1914, the competition has been open to all U.S. Soccer affiliated clubs, and currently pits teams from all five levels of the American soccer pyramid against each other each year, similarly to England's FA Cup.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is the professional, top-division league in North America and as of 2020, is composed of nine teams based in the U.S. The league has announced expansion plans for Racing Louisville FC in 2021 and Los Angeles' Angel City FC in 2022. Two professional, top-division leagues preceded the NWSL: the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), which featured many players from the 1999 FIFA Women's Cup-winning team (as well as other national teams), ran from 2001 to 2003 and Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) ran from 2009 to 2011.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: Two second-division leagues currently exist: United Women's Soccer began play in May 2016 and as of 2020 features 30 teams in five conferences and the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL), started in 1997, features over 115 teams across the United States and Canada (the largest women's soccer league in the world as of 2020). Previously, the USL W-League was a semi-professional league that ran from 1995 to 2015 and featured a mix of college students and international players.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: On November 21, 2012, U.S. Soccer, in conjunction with the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and Mexican Football Federation (FMF), announced the formation of a new professional league for the 2013 season. The league, unnamed at the time of the initial announcement but later unveiled as the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), launched in April 2013 with eight teams. Like WUSA and WPS, NWSL teams are privately owned with some owned by existing MLS teams. The American and Canadian federations pay the salaries for many of their respective national team members. U.S. Soccer initially committed to funding up to 24 national team members, with the CSA committing to paying 16 players and FMF pledging support for at least 12 and possibly as many as 16. In addition, U.S. Soccer housed the league's front office for the first four years, and scheduled matches to avoid any possible conflict with international tournaments. Four of the league's charter teams had WPS ties—the Boston Breakers, Chicago Red Stars, Sky Blue FC, and the Western New York Flash. The other four initial teams were located in the Kansas City, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. markets with the Portland team run by the Portland Timbers of MLS. The NWSL expanded to nine teams for 2014 by adding the Houston Dash, run by the Houston Dynamo of MLS. In 2016, it expanded to 10 with the addition of another MLS-backed team, the Orlando Pride. Ahead of the 2017 season, A&E Networks announced it had taken an equity stake in the league and Lifetime would begin broadcasting games to a national television audience. , additional expansion teams were being discussed by Los Angeles FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and FC Barcelona, but none of these have yet materialized.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: Several league changes occurred in advance of the 2017 season. First, FMF and U.S. Soccer amicably ended their partnership following FMF's establishment of its own women's professional league, Liga MX Femenil. The Western New York Flash ceased fully professional operations (though retaining its youth and, for a time, semi-pro operations), selling its NWSL franchise rights to Steve Malik, owner of then-NASL and current USLC side North Carolina FC. Malik relocated the NWSL team to NCFC's home of the Research Triangle and rebranded it as the North Carolina Courage. Both the Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City folded, with FCKC's player contracts transferred to Utah Royals FC, a new side owned and operated by Real Salt Lake.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The Seattle franchise went through two major changes in subsequent years. First, the team moved from Seattle to Tacoma and rebranded as Reign FC before the 2019 season. Then, in January 2020, the team was purchased by the parent company of French Ligue 1 power Olympique Lyonnais and rebranded again as OL Reign.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The league's next expansion was announced in November 2019, with a Louisville franchise granted to the ownership group of USLC side Louisville City FC, The Louisville side, which began play as Racing Louisville FC in 2021, is the first NWSL team whose entry into the league was announced more than 5 months before it started play.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The second professional league, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), was founded in 2009. The inaugural season champion was Sky Blue FC, based in the New York–New Jersey area. The team defeated the Los Angeles Sol 1–0 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California. The WPS launched with seven teams, all based in the United States. The Sol folded after the league's inaugural season, and two new teams joined for 2010, bringing WPS to eight teams. However, the 2010 season saw considerable instability, with another charter team, Saint Louis Athletica, folding during the season, champions FC Gold Pride folding after the season, and the Chicago Red Stars deciding to regroup in the second-tier Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL). The 2011 season, in which six teams based along the East Coast played, was marked by low attendance for most of the season and conflict with Dan Borislow, who had purchased the former Washington Freedom, moved the team to South Florida, and renamed it magicJack. The dispute between WPS and Borislow led the league to suspend the magicJack franchise, with Borislow responding by suing. The legal battle led WPS to suspend its 2012 season, with hopes of returning in 2013, but WPS soon decided to fold completely.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was founded in 2001. Headlined by the stars of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup-winning team, $30 million was initially invested by numerous cable TV networks and owners. The league's inaugural match was held between the Washington Freedom featuring Mia Hamm and the Bay Area CyberRays (featuring Brandi Chastain) at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. In addition to the 34,148 fans in attendance being greater than any MLS game that weekend, the Turner Network Television (TNT) broadcast reached 393,087 households: more than two MLS games broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2. The league folded in 2003.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: United Women's Soccer (UWS) began play in May 2016 and as of 2020 features 30 teams in five conferences across the United States.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL), started in 1997, features over 115 teams across the United States and Canada (the largest women's soccer league in the world as of 2020).


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The USL W-League was a semi-professional league that ran from 1995 to 2015 and featured a mix of college students and international players.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: In 2014, parents and former players filed a Class Action Lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation, FIFA, and other Soccer Organizations for failure to create policies that would prevent, evaluate and manage concussion injuries. Soccer is second only to American football in the number of concussion injuries per year.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: The USSF has been accused by representatives of the North American Soccer League, among others, of unfairly protecting MLS's leading role in American professional soccer. Among their concerns is that the USSF benefits from financial dealings with MLS that it does not have with other leagues, giving it an apparent incentive to protect MLS from competition. This includes the contract that the USSF has with MLS's Soccer United Marketing (SUM) subsidiary in which most USSF sponsorship, television licensing and royalty revenues (outside of its apparel deal with Nike, Inc.) are paid through SUM. The USSF reported $15,433,754 in revenues through the SUM relationship in its 2014 audited financial report.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: In 2015, the NASL took issue with proposed USSF rule changes reportedly making it harder to gain co-equal "Division 1" status with MLS that would increase the NASL's influence within the USSF as well as presumably allow more access to international competition and larger media and sponsorship contracts, calling the draft proposal "...an anti-competitive bait and switch, with the purpose of entrenching MLS's monopoly position at the very time when the NASL is threatening to become a significant competitor." Seats on the USSF's Professional Council governing committee are also based proportionally on pyramid level, giving MLS more votes when choosing the two professional league representatives on the USSF's board of directors. In 2015, those representatives are MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Alec Papadakis, CEO of the United Soccer League that announced an affiliation with MLS in 2015.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: High-profile international soccer figures including former USMNT Head Coach Jürgen Klinsmann, former LA Galaxy head coach and USMNT Head Coach Bruce Arena and Manchester City manager and former FIFA World Coach of the Year Pep Guardiola, have expressed beliefs that the top-down structure of soccer developed and managed by the USSF in the United States, including pressure to have the best American players in MLS rather than higher-quality leagues in other countries, is hampering the nation's competitiveness in international soccer.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: Conversely, Klinsmann has been criticized in turn by MLS representatives for recommending that American players leave MLS development systems to pursue professional careers in Europe in order to test themselves against higher levels of players in preparation for international competition. In 2015, MLS Commissioner Don Garber said, "I do believe our national team coach has a short-term objective. That's what he's hired to do. That doesn't mean next week, but it's to win the Gold Cup, it's to have the best possible team in 2018. And our goals and objectives are broader than that, and that's why we agree on some things but don't agree on others."


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: On March 8, 2019, all members of the US women's national team collectively filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation in a district court in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed due to claims that the athletes were being treated differently on the basis of gender, affecting their paychecks, the facilities they were offered, and even the medical treatment they received. Women on the team have previously filed complaints about pay disparity, including in 2016 when five members of the women's team filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: On May 1, 2020, the district court dismissed the team's unequal and discriminatory pay claim, however preserving the players' claims about unequal treatment in areas like travel, hotel accommodations and team staffing. A trial on those issues is scheduled to begin June 16.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: Judge R. Gary Klausner of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, granted the federation's motion for summary judgment. In his ruling, he dismissed the players' arguments that they were systematically underpaid by U.S. Soccer in comparison with the men's national team. According to Klausner, U.S. Soccer had substantiated its argument that the women's team had actually earned more "on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis" than the men's team during the years at issue in the lawsuit.


title: United States Soccer Federation

text: On February 22, 2022, the U.S. Soccer Federation agreed settle the lawsuit for $24 million, with a proposed $22 million going the players in the case and an additional $2 million to benefit USWNT players post-career goals and also charitable efforts related to women's football. The settlement also requires both male and female soccer players to paid equally for friendlies, and tournaments including the World Cup.


title: 2023–24 AFC Champions League

text: The 2023–24 AFC Champions League will be the 42nd edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 21st under the current AFC Champions League title.


title: 2023–24 AFC Champions League

text: This season is the first to have an inter-year schedule from September (autumn-to-spring) instead of an intra-year schedule (spring-to-autumn) since the 2002–03 season. This edition sees an increase in numbers of preliminary players with 35 players able to be registered; teams will be able to field six foreign players in games, where one of these players must still be from another Asian nation.


title: 2023–24 AFC Champions League

text: The winners of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2024–25 AFC Champions League, entering at the qualifying play-off stage, if they have not already qualified through their domestic performance.


title: 2023–24 AFC Champions League

text: The 47 AFC member associations are ranked based on their clubs' performance over the last four years in AFC competitions (their national team's FIFA World Rankings no longer considered). The slots are allocated by the following criteria according to the Entry Manual:


title: 2023–24 AFC Champions League

text: For the 2023–24 AFC Champions League, the associations are allocated slots according to their AFC Club Competitions Ranking which was published on 24 November 2021, which takes into account their performance in the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup during the period between 2018 and 2021 and their domestic league.


title: 2023–24 AFC Champions League

text: "In the following table, the number of appearances and last appearance count only those since the 2002–03 season (including qualifying rounds), when the competition was rebranded as the AFC Champions League."


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Xu Shang-Chi ( ; ) is a fictional character portrayed by Simu Liu in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) multimedia franchise, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. In the franchise, Shang-Chi is the son of Ying Li and Wenwu, the founder and first leader of the Ten Rings terrorist organization. Trained to be a highly skilled martial artist and assassin by his father, alongside his sister Xialing, Shang-Chi left the Ten Rings for a normal life in San Francisco, only to be drawn back into the world he left behind when Wenwu seeks him out.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Shang-Chi has been noted as being the first Asian superhero to lead a large-budget film, and Liu's portrayal has been positively received. He first appeared in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" (2021), and will return in the film's sequel. An alternate version of the character is set to appear in the animated series "Marvel Zombies" (2024).


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: The character was conceived in late 1972 by writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin. Marvel Comics had wished to acquire the rights to adapt the "Kung Fu" television program, but were denied permission by Warner Communications, who was also the owner of Marvel's primary rival, DC Comics. Instead, Marvel acquired the comic book rights to Sax Rohmer's pulp villain Dr. Fu Manchu. Englehart and Starlin developed Shang-Chi, a master of kung fu, who was introduced as a previously unknown son of Fu Manchu. Though an original character himself, many of Shang-Chi's supporting characters were Rohmer creations. Starlin left the series after #17 (replaced by Paul Gulacy) and Englehart after #19 (replaced by Doug Moench). No characters from the "Kung Fu" television series were officially included in the comic series, though in the #19 issue the character Lu Sun bore such a strong resemblance to Kwai Chang Caine that to avoid copyright issues, the character was given a mustache throughout the issue. With artist Paul Gulacy, Shang-Chi's visual appearance was modeled after that of Bruce Lee. According to Englehart, his name was influenced by his study of the I-Ching, composed of 升 (shēng) meaning "ascending" and chi meaning vital energy.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Shang-Chi first appeared in "Special Marvel Edition" #15 (December 1973). He appeared again in issue #16, and with issue #17 (April 1974) the title was changed to "The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu". Amidst the martial arts craze in the United States in the 1970s, the book became very popular, surviving until issue #125 (June 1983), a run including four giant-size issues and an annual. In the comics, Shang-Chi is raised by his father Dr. Fu Manchu to be the ultimate assassin for the would-be world conqueror. After learning Fu Manchu's evil nature, Shang-Chi swears eternal opposition to his father's ambitions and fights him as a force for good. As the result of Marvel later losing the rights to the Rohmer estate, Fu Manchu was later renamed Zheng Zu. Starlin, who was previously unfamiliar with Fu Manchu until Larry Hama informed him of the racist nature of the Rohmer novels, attributed his early departure from the series due to his embarrassment over the revelation. In the 2015 "Secret Wars" storyline, a version of Shang-Chi resides in the wuxia-inspired K'un-Lun region of Battleworld. In this continuity, he is the exiled son of Emperor Zheng Zu, master of the Ten Rings, a ruthless martial arts clan that uses mystical powers and techniques based on the powers of the Mandarin's ten rings from the mainstream continuity.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: According to Ed Brubaker, the copyright issue was one of the reasons for using the Mandarin as Shang-Chi's father. In the main continuity, the Mandarin had a son called Temugin who was trained in a monastery in martial arts and philosophy, his name is inspired by the real name of Genghis Khan, ancestor of the Mandarin.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: According to Margaret Loesch, former president and CEO of Marvel Productions, in the 1980s Stan Lee approached Brandon Lee to play Shang-Chi for a movie or television series starring the character. In 2001, a Shang-Chi film entered development at DreamWorks Pictures but after failing to materialize by 2004, the rights to the character were reverted to Marvel. In 2004, David Maisel was hired as chief operating officer of Marvel Studios as he had a plan for the studio to self-finance movies. Marvel entered into a non-recourse debt structure with Merrill Lynch, under which Marvel got $525 million to make a maximum of 10 movies based on the company's properties over eight years, collateralized by certain movie rights to a total of 10 characters, including Shang-Chi. Following the successes of "Black Panther" and "Crazy Rich Asians" (both 2018), Marvel fast-tracked development of a "Shang-Chi" film, hiring David Callaham in December 2018 to write the screenplay and Destin Daniel Cretton to direct in March 2019. Cretton also contributed to Callaham's screenplay. Chinese Canadian actor Simu Liu, who had previously expressed interest in the role, was cast as Shang-Chi in July 2019, which was publicly announced by Cretton and Kevin Feige days later, along with the film's full title to be "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings". After he was cast, Liu was called by Feige, saying that Liu's life was "about to change", having previously petitioning for the role since December 2018.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Both being of Asian descent, Cretton and Callaham were cognizant of some of the racial stereotypes surrounding Shang-Chi in the comics, with Liu saying everyone involved was "very sensitive to not have it go into stereotypical territory". Cretton believed the resulting script for "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was a "really beautiful update" to the character from what began in the comics, and was an authentic story about Asian identity. Callaham added that there is "no single Asian American voice", and he and Cretton contemplated how the film could speak to "the wider Asian diaspora" and would be "exciting and entertaining, but also personal to all these people". Cretton likened Shang-Chi to Will Hunting from "Good Will Hunting" (1997), who is a "mixture of masculinity and vulnerability", noting both characters had secrets and superpowers they do not understand while Liu believed that Shang-Chi's struggles with identity were the core of the character, rather than his martial arts skills.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: When he was contacted to portray the role, Liu wanted the film to "allow society to see Asian men as powerful, desirable and an aspiration of possibility." Liu used experiences as a child battling stereotypes and 'microaggressions as being relatable to Shang-Chi's character arc of coming to terms with his heritage. He also sought to dispel stereotypes originating from Bruce Lee films in the 1970s that all Asian men know martial arts, making it clear in an Instagram caption that "Asian actors don't just do kung fu; but Shang-Chi does. It's one of the many things that flesh out his personality, but it's easily the most challenging from a physical perspective.” Despite knowing little about the character at first, Liu was reassured early in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"'s production that "it was very clear from the get-go that [Cretton] was committed to telling an origin story of a hero [that] was not stereotypical, not a trope, who was fully three-dimensional and had a fully modernized [2021] origin story. In addition to Bruce Lee he also cited Jet Li as one of his inspirations when approaching the character.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Shang-Chi leaves the Ten Rings organization for a normal life in San Francisco, with director Destin Daniel Cretton characterizing Shang-Chi as a fish out of water in the U.S. who attempts to hide that with his charisma, and does not know "who he really is". Shang-Chi changes his name to "Shaun" while living in San Francisco. Of Shang-Chi's decision to live a normal life, Liu found that "what he does is a little bit extreme. And it's also because he was raised under very extreme circumstances...I can't really fault him from taking extreme measures to get out of that situation." Cretton described "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" as "a journey of stepping into who [Shang-Chi] is and what he's meant to be in this world".


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Since the character does not wear a mask, Liu performed many of his own stunts, having to work on his flexibility ahead of filming to do so. Liu also put on of muscle for the role. Liu was knowledgable in taekwondo, gymnastics, and Wing Chun, and learned and trained in tai chi, wushu, Muay Thai, silat, Krav Maga, jiu-jitsu, boxing, and street fighting for the film. Liu called the process of training and performing stunts to be "exhausting. there were a lot of grueling hours...but it was one of the most fulfilling experiences in my life." Jayden Zhang and Arnold Sun portray Shang-Chi as a child and as a teenager, respectively.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: For an early sequence in the film where Shang-Chi fights off assassins form the Ten Rings, Cretton took heavy inspiration from the works of Jackie Chan, working closely with choreographers Brad Allan and Andy Cheng, who were both trained in Chan's stunt team. Cretton stated that his favorite moment of the sequence was "The jacket stunt...when he’s able to take his jacket off, spin it around and throw his jacket back on. It's a straight nod to Jackie Chan from the stunt team of Jackie Chan."


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Xu Shang-Chi was born to Xu Wenwu, the ancient leader of the Ten Rings organization, and Ying Li, a guardian of the mystical village of Ta Lo in an alternate universe. Shang-Chi's childhood was blissful, with his father renouncing his criminal ways to spend time with his family and his mother entertaining him and his sister Xialing with tales of her village. When Li is murdered by the Iron Gang, old rivals of the Ten Rings, Wenwu takes up his mystical ten rings and takes Shang-Chi with him to the Iron Gang's hideout, where he proceeds to brutally massacre the gang. Wenwu reactivates the Ten Rings organization and has Shang-Chi trained in martial arts as an assassin under the brutal tutelage of Death Dealer. At the age of 14, Shang-Chi is sent on a mission to kill the Iron Gang's leader and avenge his mother. Despite his success, Shang-Chi is traumatized by the ordeal and flees to San Francisco to assume a new life, adopting the name "Shaun". He leaves his younger sister Xialing behind with his father. While attending high school, Shang-Chi befriended Katy, establishing a close friendship into adulthood.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: 10 years later, in present-day, Shang-Chi is attacked by the Ten Rings led by Razor Fist. Shang-Chi fights them off but loses his pendant given to him by his mother. Fearing that the Ten Rings will attack Xialing for her pendant, Shang-Chi tracks her down and reveals his past to Katy, who agrees to help him. They find Xialing at her underground fight club in Macau, but are attacked by the Ten Rings led by Death Dealer, with Wenwu arriving to capture Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing after breaking up the fight. The trio are taken to the Ten Rings' compound, where Wenwu reveals that he believes Li is still alive and is being kept in Ta Lo, using the two pendants to create a map that can be used to enter the village. Wenwu plans to destroy the village after freeing Li and imprisons Shang-Chi and the others when they object to his plans.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: The trio escape the compound with the help of Trevor Slattery and his hundun companion Morris and drive to Ta Lo to warn the village of the Ten Rings. At Ta Lo, Shang-Chi is introduced to his aunt and Li's sister Ying Nan, who explains the history of Ta Lo and reveals that Wenwu is being manipulated by the Dweller-in-Darkness into believing Li is still alive so he will use the rings to break the seal imprisoning it. Nan gifts Shang-Chi with an outfit crafted from the red dragon scales of the Great Protector, the dragon guardian of Ta Lo, and teaches him the fighting style of Ta Lo. Shang-Chi defends the village with his new allies when Wenwu and the Ten Rings arrive to destroy the seal. Shang-Chi fights his father, but is defeated and cast into a lake. Shang-Chi is revived by the Great Protector and uses his newfound powers to disarm Wenwu.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: After the Dweller escapes its seal, Wenwu sacrifices himself to save Shang-Chi from the Dweller and bequeaths the ten rings to Shang-Chi, who uses them and the Ta Lo fighting style to destroy the Dweller. Shang-Chi later makes a paper lantern and lights it in memory of his father.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Back in San Francisco, Shang-Chi and Katy are summoned by the sorcerer Wong to accompany him to Kamar-Taj, where they are introduced to Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers via hologram. Wong, Banner, and Danvers discover that the rings are emitting a mysterious signal and Wong vows to keep looking into it. Shang-Chi then suggests they go to a bar, and he, Katy, and Wong sing karaoke together.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Karen Rought of "Hypable" praised the decision to have Shang-Chi already know who he is and what he can do from the very beginning, contrasting with many familiar origin stories seen in other comic-book movies. Of this, Rought noted that "yes, this is an origin story, but it was more about self-acceptance than self-discovery...that was a breath of fresh air for the first film about a new character in the MCU." She described Liu's take on the character to "offers us a perfect dichotomy in his role...He's a kind-faced, goofy, normal guy who hides a secret." Justin Chang of NPR was drawn into the character by his complicated relationship with Wenwu, saying that "[Shang-Chi] has a complicated, vaguely Oedipal rivalry with his father, who turned him into the fighting machine he is and subjected him to all manner of cruel manipulation and abuse", demarking the character's "depths of...trauma". Herb Scribner of "Deseret" called Shang-Chi "absolutely excellent" and that "he needs to be around for Marvel films for the foreseeable future." Scribner felt that "as Shang-Chi, Liu walks the line of a young man trying to find his way and a vulnerable young boy trying to find his family" and compared the character favorably to other leading characters in the MCU including Thor and Bruce Banner.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: After comments from a 2017 interview in which Liu referencing that his parents told him that China was a "third world" country where people were "dying of starvation",a Chinese release for "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" thus became unlikely. This led many Chinese fans to express disappointment that they would not be able to see the movie, citing the film's decision to remove controversial character elements related to Shang-Chi as a positive.


title: Shang-Chi (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

text: Liu has said that he has "no knowledge whatsoever of any of the future Marvel plans for this character or any other character" but would like to return for an adaptation of "Spider-Island", a comic he described as being a "very famous story in which Shang-Chi and Spider-Man have a little team-up moment" and that he would like for Shang-Chi to train Spider-Man in the "Way of the Spider". In an interview on the podcast "Phase Zero", Liu also showed interest in starring in a future episode of "What If...?" as that would allow him to experiment with the character in ways he wouldn't be allowed to approach in film. In January 2022, one month after the sequel to "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was announced, Liu said that he wanted the film to explore what his character would do with his "newfound power" of the ten rings, as well as how he fits into the larger MCU.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The Wallenberg family is a prominent Swedish family, Europe's most powerful business dynasty. Wallenbergs are noted as bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats and military. The Wallenberg sphere's holdings employ about 600,000 people and have sales of $154 billion a year. The Wallenberg empire consists of 16 Wallenberg Foundations, Foundation Asset Management AB (FAM), Investor AB, Patricia Industries and Wallenberg Investments AB.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In the 1970s, the Wallenberg family businesses employed 40% of Sweden's industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stock market. By 2011, their conglomerate holding company, Investor AB, had an approximate ownership of 120 companies. By 2022, the Wallenberg sphere had an approximate ownership of 330 companies. In 2015, the family still owned a third of Sweden’s entire stock exchange.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The Wallenbergs control many Swedish multinationals and other European industrial groups, such as world leading telecommunication multinational Ericsson; Scandinavian and Baltic bank giant Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken; one of the world's largest paper and pulp multinationals Stora Enso, (which is world's oldest limited liability company); world's largest stock exchange company Nasdaq, Inc.; global leader in smart technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for marine and energy markets Wärtsilä; world's second-largest appliance maker Electrolux; one of the world's largest power, automation and robotics multinationals ABB; one of Europe's largest aerospace and arms manufacturers SAAB; Scandinavian airliner SAS Group; world's largest ball-bearing company SKF; manufacturer of compressors, vacuum and air treatment systems, construction equipment, power tools and assembly systems Atlas Copco; Europe's fourth largest pharmaceutical multinational AstraZeneca; outdoor power products, consumer watering products, cutting equipment and diamond tools manufacturer Husqvarna; Sobi; mining and infrastructure business company Epiroc; investment conglomerate Investor AB; the Grand Group hotel; world's largest supplier of powdered metal Höganäs AB; Europe's second-largest equity firm with portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the USA EQT Partners, etc. Former holdings include, among others, fifth-largest truck manufacturer in the world Scania AB, Saab Automobile.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Wallenbergs, through the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, allocate annually SEK 2 billion to science and research, which makes the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation one of the largest private research foundations in Europe, and has, until 2020, awarded SEK 31.2 billion in grants.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Raoul Wallenberg, a diplomat, worked in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Between July and December 1944, he issued protective passports and housed Jews, saving tens of thousands.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The earliest known member patrilineally of the Wallenberg family is maintaining farmer Per Hansson of Hertzberga (1670–1741) outside Linköping in Östergötland who, in 1692, married Kerstin Jacobsdotter Schuut (1671–1752). Their son, sheriff Jacob Persson Wallberg (1699–1758) married twice. The children of his first marriage to Märta Christina Kiuhlman adopted the surname Wallberg, and those of his second to Anna Kristina Tillberg, daughter of vicar Marcus Joannis Tillberg, adopted the surname Wallenberg. The eldest son of his second marriage was lector of theology and vicar of Slaka, . His younger brother, , was a naval chaplain of the Swedish East India Company and author of the Swedish classic, a travelogue " My Son on the Galley", original title .


title: Wallenberg family

text: The eldest son of lector and vicar Marcus Wallenberg, and the only child in his marriage to Sara Helena Kinnander, was Marcus Wallenberg (1774–1883). Marcus Wallenberg studied at Uppsala University in the early 1790s and was promoted "Master of Philosophy" in 1797 and in the same year graduated "juris utriusque". He became an associate professor of "Roman eloquence" in 1800, but was forced to leave Uppsala the same year after the so-called "music process" and moved to Lund where he married Anna Laurentia Barfoth, daughter of professor of anatomy, , at Lund university and Elsa Maria Bager, of the famous merchant family of Malmö. In 1802, he became a notary public in Linköping, and in 1805, a lecturer in Greek at Linköping university where he translated the Illiad and Odyssey from Greek to Swedish. He was ordained in 1817, promoted "doctor of theology" around the time of Karl XIV Johan's ascension to the throne, and between 1819 and 1833, held the position as bishop of Linköping diocese. He attended the Riksdags in 1823 and between 1828 to 1830. In 1801, Wallenberg was elected a member of the Swedish "Royal Academy of Music" and in 1821, he became an honorary member of the "Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities".


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marcus Wallenberg was a freemason and a member of the masonic lodges in Malmö and Lund in the province of Scania. He was also one of the initiators behind the masonic lodge in Linköping.


title: Wallenberg family

text: André Oscar Wallenberg was born on the 19th of November, 1816, in Linköping where his father held the position as bishop in Linköping cathedral. Between 1825 and 1832, he attended Linköping trivial school and high school, and in 1832, traveled as a young man to the Caribbean and became a sea cadet on his return. After graduating as a naval officer in Karlskrona in 1835, he served for a few years as a sailor on North American trunk ships and in 1837 he became an officer in the Swedish navy. Four years later he accompanied the "Oxehufvudian expedition" as first mate. The destination was the "La Plata States", that is, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, but because the expedition was poorly led, he left it already in Lisbon. He then spent a year in Spain and France studying languages and law at Grenoble university, and spent a long time in Brest studying their shipyards and workshops.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In 1850, Wallenberg was commanded to Sundsvall as first lieutenant and head of a boatman company. He swore the burgher oath in Sundsvall, and became a burgher of Sundsvall and later elected to the Swedish parliament. He resigned from the military service in 1851 as first lieutenant. He became friends with the sawmill owner and industrialist and mediated loans to him at the acquisition of Skönvik in 1856, which became the origin of Skönviks AB, much later a cornerstone of the SCA (company). Wallenberg and Bünsow also founded the city's first brewery, in 1858. Wallenberg also represented the city as a Member of Parliament.


title: Wallenberg family

text: As a banker, he was a pioneer in Europe. Already during his stay in the United States in 1837, at the time of the Panic of 1837, he wanted to become a banker. He had "learned how banks should not be run". He became 's first manager. In 1856 he formed Stockholms Enskilda Bank, which was modelled after the Scottish banking system, and was until his death its president. He introduced the postal exchange, which simplified the possibilities of transferring money between different locations, still almost unknown outside Sweden, and through a comparatively high deposit rate, the deposit, depreciation and amortisation business developed. The bank's capital was made up of deposits from the public and not, as with previous banks, through private banknote issuance. The business idea was that if the savers left the money tied up in an account for a longer period of time, they would receive a higher interest rate. In addition to the modernisation of banking legislation, Wallenberg contributed to the introduction of the meter system and increased rights for women, among other things by being the first in Europe to allow women to work in banks (Alida Rossander), and allow women to open their own bank accounts.


title: Wallenberg family

text: A.O., which he is called in the family, also became involved in many industries, including Atlas Diesel, which later would become Atlas Copco and several railway companies. In 1864 he also became a driving force behind the founding of Sweden's first bank limited company, Skandinaviska Kreditaktiebolaget (later Skandinaviska Banken).


title: Wallenberg family

text: He was a co-owner and employee of "Bore" in 1848–51 and provided both pecuniary support and articles for "Stockholmsposten" 1869–70. In Aftonbladet he wrote almost regularly once a week "Ekonomiskt", "Economic", between 1865-68. He was a member of the bourgeoisie 1853–63. After the change of representation, he represented the city of Stockholm in the First Chamber from the beginning of the new state until his death.


title: Wallenberg family

text: He died in January 1886 in Stockholm and was buried in the at Malmvik. He was married twice; first to Wilhelmina Catharina Andersson, and in his second to Miss Anna Eleonora Charlotte von Sydow, born 1835, died 1910 in Stockholm, daughter of the commander, later Rear Admiral Johan Gustaf von Sydow and his second wife Eleonora Juliana Wiggman. He had a total of twenty children with three different women.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Knut Agathon Wallenberg, like his father André Oscar Wallenberg, was trained as a naval officer, at "Naval School of Warfare". In 1876, he attended Georgiis' Banking Institution, and then gained an early banking internship in Paris at Credit Lyonnais. Upon his father's death in 1886, Knut Agathon became President of Stockholms Enskilda Bank. This took place at the same time as an intensive investment period in Swedish business began. During this time, Stockholms Enskilda Bank played an innovative role by connecting the French capital market with the demand for credit in the rapidly expanding Swedish industry. The bank played an important role in financing Sweden's breakthrough as an industrial nation. Knut Agathon Wallenberg created a very large fortune and a leading position in Swedish society. He was involved in everything from reconstructions in the mining industry and engineering companies to the exploitation of the ore fields in Norrbotten.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Wallenberg was intensely involved in various societal issues, not least in Stockholm's development. For more than 30 years, he was active in municipal politics in the capital, as a member of the Stockholm City Council 1883–1914. He was also a Member of the Riksdag in the First Chamber for more than a decade, 1907–1919, and Minister of Foreign Affairs during the war years 1914–1917. In his position as Foreign Minister, he was seen, especially by the left, as a counterweight to the German-oriented forces in government. He was the initiator, lender, donor and driving force behind a large number of contemporary construction projects, mainly in Stockholm, including the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm City Hall, Stockholm City Library, Swedish Maritime History Museum and the Swedish Institute in Rome. He was also the initiator and driving force behind the development of the community Saltsjöbaden, its residential town, railway, Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden, the Church of Revelation where he and his wife Alice are buried in a sarcophagus, and the Observatory.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In 1903, following a proposal from businessmen in the Swedish business community, Knut Agathon Wallenberg donated a large sum to the founding of a business school in Stockholm. The money was used by the School of Business, Economics and Law, which was established in 1906 to found the Stockholm School of Economics in 1909, which is still financed and controlled by the Wallenbergs today and has, since then, sister schools in Riga, Latvia, and St.Petersburg, Russia.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Wallenberg was chairman of the Swedish School of Economics 'Association, the Swedish School of Economics' highest decision-making body, 1906–1938. He was also vice chairman of the board of the Stockholm School of Economics, the university's highest executive body, 1909–1938. He donated funds for the establishment of André Oscar Wallenberg's professorship in economics and banking at the university in 1917, a donation professorship named after his father. The donation professorship still exists today and has been held since 1995 by Jörgen Weibull. He also made large donations to finance the university's new main building at Sveavägen 65 in Stockholm.


title: Wallenberg family

text: British Bank of Northern Commerce was founded in February 1912 by Knut Agathon Wallenberg and of "Landmandsbanken" together with several other banks including "Centralbanken of Norway" in Oslo, "Banque de Commerce de l'Azoff-Don" in St.Petersburg, and Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas in Paris. The purpose of the bank was to facilitate trade between the United Kingdom and northern Europe. The bank financed Finland after the country achieved its independence from Russia in 1917–18. In June 1919 the bank offered the chairmanship of its board to John Maynard Keynes with the assurance that in return for a salary of £2000 the job would only take a morning a week. Keynes had met Knut Agathon Wallenberg and Glückstadt during World War I and believed the offer was attractive. However, Keynes consulted with several bankers in the city and turned the offer. In October 1920 British Bank of Northern Commerce merged with C.J. Hambro & Sons, rebranded Hambros Bank of Northern Commerce. In August 1921 the bank shortened its name to Hambros Bank.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In 1938, Knut Agathon Wallenberg died. His wife, Alice, and he, had no issue, apart from an adopted daughter, Jeanne, born out of wedlock to Jean Karadja Pasha, and thus half-sister to Constantin Karadja, and chose to bequeath his enormous fortune to the already formed Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Knut Agathon Wallenberg's younger brother Marcus Wallenberg Sr. carried on the tradition and took over as the bank's CEO in 1911, replacing his older brother who was appointed Stockholms Enskilda Bank chairman of the board.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marcus Wallenberg Sr., commonly called "häradshövdingen", the "circuit judge", due to his law degree, was the great initiative force in the family's industrial commitments; founding, reorganising and reconstructing companies. In addition to this, had an active career on the world stage, as a member of many committees. He founded "Centralbanken of Norway", "AB Emissionsinstitutet", "Papyrus AB", "Swedish Diesel Company", "Swedish-Russian-Danish Telephone Aktiebolaget", "Mexican Telephone AB Ericsson", reorganising of "Nordiska trävaru AB", "Kopparbergs & Hofors Sawmill AB", and of "Wifstavarfs AB". He founded, together with Sam Eyde and Kristian Birkeland, Norsk Hydro, and not the least, saved ASEA (ABB) from bankruptcy. He was the main representative in Sweden of the modern pursuit of industry concentration under the leadership of the major banks. Together with Erik Johan Ljungberg, he founded the Federation of Swedish Industries.


title: Wallenberg family

text: His international career is characterised by his involvement on many committees. During World War I, he was repeatedly called upon to bring about trade agreements with England and its allies vis-à-vis the Russian Revolution, the Sykes-Picot agreement and the Balfour Declaration. In the winter of 1919, Wallenberg had to monitor Sweden's interests in financial matters on behalf of the Swedish government during the Paris Peace Conference and in 1920 was Sweden's representative at the Brussels Finance Conference. In 1920, he became a member of the League of Nations' newly established Financial Committee, of which he was Chairman from 1921 to 1922. In 1921, Wallenberg founded the Swedish Taxpayers' Association. Wallenberg participated in leading positions in the implementation of the Dawes Plan. He was Chairman of the "Committee on the German Industry's encumberment", a Chairman of the "Committee for the Arrangement of Germany's Natural Supplies", the arbitrator in disputes between the German government and the "Repair Committee", which was responsible for the Allies' establishment of a functional infrastructure between 1925 and 1930. He was responsible for the interpretation of the Young Plan in 1930. Between 1931 and 1934, Marcus Wallenberg Sr. was the Chairman of the "Arbitration Court", which dealt with short-term German credits in the establishment of the German moratorium, established in 1932 in Lausanne. In 1931, Marcus Wallenberg Sr., along with Hjalmar Schacht, was also appointed as an expert by the German government to reconstruct the German banking system in order to adapt it to the Bank of International Settlements.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marcus Wallenberg Sr. sat on the "Credits Arbitration Committee" with Thomas H. McKittrick and Franz Urbig, which solved disputes between German commercial banks. Marcus Wallenberg Sr. taught McKittrick about the complicated international finances, and was an important mentor to the American throughout his presidency of the Bank for International Settlements, teaching him to play both sides simultaneously in the war, which would guarantee the banks and business empires future existence regardless of the outcome. McKittrick wrote to Marcus Wallenberg Sr. in 1943,


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marcus Wallenberg Sr. has been described as an eager beaver, unprententious and frugal (money would be spent on projects and not consumption), cautious regarding business, whose main focus was on work.


title: Wallenberg family

text: According to the former SVT journalist and authority on Ivar Kreuger, Nikola Majstrovic, in his book, the "Truth Behind the Kreuger Crash", Marcus Wallenberg Sr. and the banker J. P. Morgan Jr. paid Josef Stalin to orchestrate the assassination of Ivar Kreuger.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marcus's brother , grandfather of Raoul Wallenberg, became a lieutenant in 1882 and a captain in the Swedish navy in 1892. He left the active military service in 1891 to devote himself to business. He was particularly concerned with traffic issues and the improvement of Sweden's shipping connections. He was the managing director of the shipping company, which in 1897 took over the traffic from the Swedish side of the route Trelleborg – Sassnitz and worked within the trade and shipping committee appointed in 1898 to increase the shipping industry and especially for direct Swedish relations with more important transoceanic countries. In 1892, he became the first managing director of Järnvägs AB Stockholm – Saltsjön, but left this post in 1896. Between 1900 and 1907, he belonged to the Swedish parliament's second chamber as a representative of the city of Stockholm. At first, he described himself as independent, but from 1902 he belonged to the Liberal Coalition Party.


title: Wallenberg family

text: After the dissolution of the union, there was a question of reorganising Sweden's diplomacy, Wallenberg was used for its tasks and in 1906 was appointed envoy to Tokyo, and in 1907, he was also accredited in Beijing. Wallenberg thus became the first permanently stationed Swedish career diplomat in East Asia. At the same time, he was promoted to commander of the 1st degree. On July 2, 1908, Wallenberg concluded a "Treaty of Friendship, Trade and Shipping" with the Chinese Qing Court. The treaty was in line with other treaties that China concluded with several Western powers around the turn of the last century. On the one hand, the Treaty reaffirmed the extensive privileges Sweden had secured with the Treaty of Canton in 1847, on the other hand, the new Treaty provided for the abolition of many of these privileges since China reformed its judiciary. Wallenberg's return trip from Tokyo attracted considerable attention in early 1918. Due to the precarious conditions caused by the war and especially the Russian Revolution, Wallenberg was stopped in Siberia, where he was detained for a long time, and then had to return to Japan and then travel across the United States. He first arrived in Sweden in February 1919. In 1920, Wallenberg was transferred to Istanbul, Turkey, as Minister. He was accredited in Sofia, Bulgaria, and held the position until 1930.


title: Wallenberg family

text: He became well known for his stern refusal to let his daughter Nita Wallenberg marry the artist Nils von Dardel to whom she became secretly engaged in 1917 Dardel was told by her family that he "dithed not meet the requirements to be married into the Wallenberg family". The risk that Dardel would take advantage of being married into the family was considered very high. Nita Wallenberg was forced to burn all of Dardel's letters and was given a place in the families bank business and told to forget her romance. Wallenberg was married twice, with Danish man Carl Johan Kierullf, and later to businessman Carl Axel Söderlund during 1930 to 1944, and had three children.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Jacob Wallenberg (1892–1980), eldest son of Marcus Wallenberg Sr., became the CEO of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken in 1927, joined by his younger brother Marcus Wallenberg Jr. as the deputy CEO.


title: Wallenberg family

text: During World War II, the Wallenberg-owned bank, Stockholms Enskilda Bank, collaborated with the German government, and assisted Nazi-Germany in a variety of ways. Stockholms Enskilda Bank functioned as a purchasing agent for the Bosch corporation, a company that was one of the largest suppliers to Hitler. In its facility outside Berlin, it relied on prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners as workforce. Wallenbergs pretended to buy Bosch's foreign companies so that they would not run the risk of being confiscated. At the end of the war, the secret contracts were discovered in a basement in Stuttgart by the American forces. The Wallenbergs had been given a hefty commission fee to buy Bosch shares abroad and they, in return, gave Bosch the absolute right to buy them back when the war was over. The Wallenberg-owned ball-bearing multinational, SKF, supplied the German military with ball-bearing, and had a monopoly on it in Europe. SKF's ball-bearings were Sweden's most important strategic contribution to German war production. In the spring of 1944, the Swedish government along with the Wallenbergs, promised the Allies that the export of ball-bearings would cease. However, SKF continued to export. When this could not be done legally, the ball-bearings were smuggled to Germany. As late as 1945, SKF sold ball-bearing steel and ball-bearing machines to Hitler. In addition to ball-bearing, the Wallenbergs' assisted by supplying the Germans with iron-ore from the mines in Northern Sweden and heavy water, aluminium and chemicals for explosives from Norsk Hydro, which had been founded by the Wallenbergs. At the plants in Rjukan in Norway, Norsk Hydro, together with the Swiss firm Escher-Wyss, cooperated on the Nazi-Germany's nuclear weapons program. Marcus Wallenberg Sr. was Chairman of the board of Norsk Hydro as late as 1941. Wallenbergs' Norsk Hydro co-owned the aluminum factory in Heröya, Norway, with IG Farben and the German state. The German state ownership of the aluminum plant came in part from shares stolen by French Jews. In 1943, at least a quarter of the workforce at the factory were forced laborers from the Soviet Union, Norway and Poland. At the same time, there were several Swedish technicians on site in the factory. Wallenberg-owned (today AkzoNobel), shortened Fosfatbolaget, delivered heavy water from their plant in Ljungaverk, Sweden, to the Nazi-Germany nuclear program and the Manhattan project.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Wallenbergs also did business with IG Farben and owned large number of shares in the parent company. The IG Farben patent was hidden in Sweden.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Jacob dealt with the Germans in Berlin, while Marcus dealt with the British and Americans in London and New York, in which cities he was friends with the banking elite. His ex-wife, Dorothy Mackay, had married the London banker Charles Jocelyn Hambro. Jacob was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle in Berlin in 1941. The Secretary of the US Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr. considered Jacob Wallenberg strongly pro-German, and the US subjected the bank to a blockade that was only lifted in 1947 after the Safehaven-negotiations in Washington, DC, at which the Wallenbergs were defended by John Foster Dulles. The Dulles brothers were friends of the Wallenberg family.


title: Wallenberg family

text: According to the chief of T-Bureau, Thede Palm, an acquaintant of Marcus Wallenberg Jr., the Wallenberg-owned Stockholm Enskilda Banken undertook to manage the Swedish Central Bank, Riksbanken, and other matters, if necessary - the same bank that stored, during World War II, the Nazi Gold, Raubgold, property confiscated from occupied lands (for example, from Jews), which included gold from molten jewelry, dental gold and gold bars.


title: Wallenberg family

text: During the 1950s, Marcus Wallenberg Jr. gradually advanced his positions in industry, becoming the "King of Industry", the most active person in industrial projects of the 20th century, and the man who laid the foundation for the "Swedish industrial miracle". He was involved in everything from civil aviation, military aviation, nuclear power, telecommunication, computer industry, banking sector, steel industry, cars. In a talk in Falun in 1954, in which he laid out his visions, he talked about supersonic planes, expressways, huge parking areas on the outskirts of cities, transistors on metal plates, which would enable "pocket phones", three-dimensional color television, fully automatic factories, mathematics machines, atomic power, radioactive sterilisation of fresh produce, synthetic materials and medicines.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The two sons of Marcus Wallenberg Jr., Marc and Peter, joined the family business in 1953, including heir apparent Marc Wallenberg, eldest son of Marcus Wallenberg Jr., who became a deputy CEO at Stockholms Enskilda Bank in 1953, before taking over as CEO in 1958. The brother of Marcus Wallenberg Jr., Jacob Wallenberg, resigned as CEO. The mother of the two, including their sister Ann-Mari, was the Scotswoman, Dorothy Mackay. After the divorce between Marcus Wallenberg and Dorothy, the sons were brought up by their father in Sweden, whereas their sister Ann-Mari, was brought up in United Kingdom by her mother. In his younger years, Peter Wallenberg often referred to his father as "cruel", but later changed to "very demanding". He was reminded daily of how inept he was by his father, and later in life, either ignored or ridiculed by him in front of other CEOs in the sphere. The favourite son Marc received the same strict upbringing: any sign of weakness would be suppressed.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marc Wallenberg studied at Harvard Business School and practiced in Geneva, at Crédit Lyonnais and Paribas in Paris, Hambros in London and in New York, at Morgan Stanley, National City (Citibank) and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Marc spent several summers as a guest of families such as the Morgans and Rockefellers, friends of his father, uncle and grandfather. David Rockefeller was a teenage friend of Marc Wallenberg.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The resignation by Jacob Wallenberg opened a seat on the bank's board of directors to Peter Wallenberg Sr., younger son of Marcus Wallenberg Jr., who turned down the offer, instead entering the industry and the Wallenberg-owned Atlas Copco, spending significant time abroad in South Africa, US and UK.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marcus Wallenberg Jr. pushed through a merger agreement between Stockholms Enskilda Bank and rival Skandinaviska Banken in 1971. Soon after, tragedy struck when Marc Wallenberg committed suicide, observers suggested that the act came possibly because Marc Wallenberg felt himself inadequate to the task of leading what was to become the Scandinavian banking giant Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, having been under much pressure from both his stern father, Marcus Wallenberg Jr., who used to box his ears in front of others, and his uncle, Jacob Wallenberg. Others speculated, including his father, that the prolonged cold and medication with sulfa drugs might have been fatal and resulted in his gun inflicted suicide. The merger went through in 1972. At the time of his death, Marc Wallenberg was on the boards of 67 companies.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Marcus Wallenberg Jr. and his younger son Peter Wallenberg Sr., focused their interests on the family's investment companies, Investor and Providentia. Investor became the family's new flagship business, and, under Marcus Wallenberg Jr.'s leadership began actively promoting the restructuring of most of the industrial companies under its control, replacing board members and promoting younger CEO and other management.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In 1970s, Peter Wallenberg established contact with top of the Chinese Communist Party. Peter was a close friend of Jiang Zemin, who visited Sweden. Peter had also close contact with Hu Jintao who, like Zemin, visited Sweden. Peter hosted a dinner for Hu Jintao.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Peter Wallenberg Sr. took over after the death of Marcus Wallenberg Jr. in 1982. For many outsiders, the change in leadership marked a final moment in the family's more than 100-year dominance of the Swedish banking and industrial sectors. Yet Peter Wallenberg Sr. rose to the challenge, guiding Investor and Sweden's industry into a new era. In 1990, it was estimated that the family indirectly controlled one-third of the Swedish Gross National Product. Peter Wallenberg Sr. stepped down from leadership of Investor in 1997.


title: Wallenberg family

text: When Henry Kissinger started his consulting firm, Kissinger and Associates, on Park Avenue in New York, the Wallenbergs were his key clients. For a fixed fee of $200,000 per year, Kissinger took upon himself, or with the help of one of his employees, to go through the situation in the world together with company management, and for a fee of $100,000 a month, the firm was also available for special projects.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In 1998, it was reported in media that, George Soros was on a secretive visit to Stockholm and the Wallenberg-owned Stockholm School of Economics to meet representatives of the Wallenberg family. Soros' Quantum Group of Funds had give-up accounts at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. The Wallenbergs were the main backers of George Soros' Quantum Group of Funds.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The Wallenberg-owned ABB supplied North Korea with two nuclear power plants in the early 2000s. Weapons experts warned that the waste material from the two reactors could be used for so-called "dirty bombs". Donald Rumsfeld was on the ABB board when the deal was won in 2000.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In 2006, the fifth generation took over the Wallenberg sphere. Marcus Wallenberg, son of Marc Wallenberg, Jacob Wallenberg and Peter Wallenberg Jr. sons of Peter Wallenberg Sr.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In May 2006, Wallenbergs' bank SEB arranged a meeting in Stockholm together with World Economic Forum where experts and policymakers discussed the financial instabilities and the reformation of IMF and World Bank. The hosts were President Marcus Wallenberg and CEO Annika Falkengren.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In late February 2022, it was reported in the media that, Wallenberg-owned Ericsson had bribed the terror organisation ISIL in Iraq.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In late March, 2022, it became known that technology and equipment from Wallenberg-owned Atlas Copco and SKF had been sold to twelve of the Russian state's nuclear weapons manufacturers.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In April, 2022, Jacob Wallenberg participated in a secret meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with Swedish Minister of Finance Mikael Damberg and the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö and high military officers, on the issue of NATO membership.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In September, 2022, the Wallenberg-owned Ericsson continued to export telecommunication equipment to Russia after the sanctions, which, according to some sources, could be used for military as well as civilian purposes.


title: Wallenberg family

text: In October, 2022, Jacob Wallenberg, CEOs from the Wallenberg sphere, and the Swedish and Dutch royal families, met at Wallenbergs Grand Hotel Stockholm to discuss the sale of submarine A26 by Saab Group to Netherlands.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Media reported in November, 2022, that, the Wallenberg family played a central role when Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Turkish President Erdogan. CEOs of the Wallenberg sphere, in total CEOs of 6 multinationals in the Wallenberg sphere, were part of the delegation to Turkey, including Håkan Buskhe of Saab Group.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The Wallenbergs have a very low-key public profile, eschewing conspicuous displays of wealth. The family motto is "Esse, non Videri" (Latin for "To be, not to be seen"). Marcus Wallenberg Sr. adopted this motto when he became a Knight and Commander of the Royal Order of the Seraphim in 1931.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The Wallenbergs business empire is often referred to as the Wallenberg sphere, the Wallenberg sphere is a large group of companies in which their investment conglomerate, Investor AB, or Foundation Asset Management (FAM), have the controlling interest. In 1916, new legislation made it more difficult for banks to own shares in industrial companies on a long-term basis. Investor was therefore formed as an investment part of Stockholms Enskilda Bank.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Wallenbergs' investment conglomerate Investor AB has the controlling interest of the multinationals Atlas Copco, ABB, AstraZeneca, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken, Epiroc, Ericsson, Nasdaq, Inc., Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, Husqvarna Group, Saab Group, Electrolux, Wärtsilä, Electrolux Professional.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Additionally, Investor AB, has controlling interest of Patricia Industries, which has controlling interest of Mölnlycke Health Care, Laborie, , Sarnova, Piab, Advanced Instruments, BraunAbility, AtlasAntibodies, Vectura, 3 (company).


title: Wallenberg family

text: Investor AB also has controlling interest of Europe's second-largest equity firm, third-largest in the world, EQT Partners, which, as of October 2022, has majority and minority ownership of 3Shape, Acumatica, Acuon Capital, Aelin Therapeutics, AGS Health, AIG Hospitals, Allee Center, AM-PHarma, Amolyt Pharma, Anticimex, Ardoq, Artios Pharma, Artwall, Arvelle Therapeutics, Atlantic Therapeutics, Atricom and Le Buro, AviadoBio, Azelis, Banking Circle, BBS Automation, Beijer Ref, Binx Health, Bluestep Bank, Bushu Pharmaceuticals, Campus, Cardiac dimensions, Cardior, Cast & Crew, Cerba Healthcare, Certara, CFC, China Shine, CitiusTech, Clarivate Analytics, CMS info Systems, Codemao, Coforge, Colisee, Concept, Covanta, Cue, CYE, Cypress Creek, Dataflow, Deliner Couplers, DELTA Fiber, Deutsche Glasfaser, DNA Script, DOTS Technology, Dunlop, EC-Council, EdgeConneX, Egle Therapeutics, Ellab, Eloxx Pharma, Endotronix, Envirotainer, Epidemic Sound, eTheRNA, Eton, Eureka, evidia, Evommune, Eyesense, Fiberklaar, First Student and First Transit, FoRx Therapeutics, Freepik, Golderma, Ginko, GlobalConnect, GPA Globa, Guardian Shanghai Hygiene Serice Ltd., HMI Group, Horizon Robotics, HotSpot Therapeutics, Hutchmed, Icon Group, Idealista, IFS, IGT Solutions, ILA Vietnam, Illuminoss, ImCheck, Imcyse, Immunic, Impro Precision, Indesso, Innovative Molecules, InstaVolt, iStar Medical, IVC Evidensia, Jakarta Eye Center, JD Health, Karo Pharma, kfzteile24, Kodias Gas Sevices, LLC, Kuoni Group / VFS Global, Kuros, Kyobo Life Insurance, Levande, Lima, Long-Spring Education Group, Lumenis, Lumeon, Magnit, Mambu, ManyPets, Medeye, Melita, Merus, Metlifecare, MHC Asia, Minerva, Mollie, Molslinjen, Muna Therapeutics, Nest, Neurent Medical, New Amsterdam Pharma, Nexon Asia Pacific, Nkarta, Nobi, Nord Anglia, Nouscom, 02 Power, One Projects, ONWARD, Open Systems, Orphazyme, Osmose Utilities Services, Inc., Ottobock, OxThera, Parcel2GO, Parexel, Parques Reunidos, Perfuze, Pharvaris, Pioneer Corporation, Prometric, RBL Bank, Recipharm, Recover, Rich Healthcare, RIMES Technologies, Sagility, SAI360, Saturn, SAUR, Schulke, SEGRA, Sequana Medical, Shengmu Organic Milk, Shinhan Financial Group, SHL Medical, Sitecore, Smart Parc, SNPR Biome, Solarpack, Solera, Southside, SPT Labtech, Stendörren, Storable, Straive, SUSE, Svenska Verksamhetsfastigheter, T-Knife, TBS Energi (fka Toba Bara), TELUS International, The CrownX, thinkproject, Torghatten, Tricor, TRYT, UNnum, UTA, VarmX, VBill, Vectura (Activaro), Vicentr, Vico Therapeutics, Vietnam-USA Society English Centers (“VUS”), Vinted, Virtuos, Virtusa, Vistra, Visus Therapeutics, Vivasure, Vivoryon Therapeutics, Wall Street English, WASH, Waystar, Wolt, WorkWave, World Freight Company, WS Audiology, Xeltis, Xilis, XyloCor Therapeutics, Zayo, Zealand Pharma.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The subsidiary of EQT Partners, EQT Ventures, has ownership of Oden Technologies, Holidu, Risk Methods, Min Doktor, Wolt, Unomaly, Hubs, Service Partner One, Watty, Hubs (formerly 3D Hubs, Peltarion, My Tomorrows, Small Giant Games, Peakon, HackerOne, Token, Codacy, Home, Call Desk, Varjo, Natural Cycles, Permutive, Tinyclues, AnyDesk, Quit Genius, Beamery, Silexica, Baffin Bay Networks, Banking Circle, BIM Object, Supplant, Siilo, Headspin, Handshake, Mental, Acerta Analytics, Wandelbots, dott, Warducks, Popcore, Cytora, Heart Aerospace, Standard Cognition, Darkstore, Beat81, Einride, Let's Do This, Frontify, Netlify, Sonantic, Reworks, Peanut, Anyfin, Willa, Traplight, Seeqc, Vectary, CodeSandbox, Griffin, Supernormal, Wonder, Luko, Curb, Cleo, Kive, Sana Labs, , Colossi Games, Treecard, Supernova, Playsome, Kitemaker, Airkit, Unmind, Oirigin.bio, Vev, Lenus eHealth, Owwn, Volt, Single.earth, Hiber, Verkor, Depict.AI, Linearity, Formo, Juni, Moralis, Timeless, Candela, Onramper, Billhop, Endgame, Voila, Nothing, Superlist, Knoetic.


title: Wallenberg family

text: FAM, Foundation Asset Management, has controlling interest of world's largest manufacturer of bearing and seal SKF, fourth-largest paper and pulp multinational Stora Enso, global leader in energy-efficient air treatment and climate solutions Munters, provider of advanced process solutions IPCO (formerly Sandvik Process Systems), one of Sweden's largest private forest owners , hotel and restaurant business the , world's largest manufacturer of metal powders Höganäs AB, global packaging and logistics services provider Nefab, Sweden's leading digital mailbox provider Kivra, and minority ownership of Alfven & Didrikson, AMEXCI, Cinder Invest, Combient, GreenIron, Gropyrus, H2 Green Steel, developer of Quantom Dots and micro LEDs for displays Nanosys, developer of hardware solutions for quantum computing Seeqc, investment firm for early-stage companies 82an Invest.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The Wallenbergs were instrumental in its creation and are members of the Steering Committee of Bilderberg Group and have invited CEOs from the Wallenberg sphere and other European companies, Scandinavian bankers, as well as editor-in-chiefs from mass media, Swedish politicians, and scientists to the meeting. The Wallenberg-owned Grand Hotel Saltsjöbaden hosted the meeting thrice, in 1962, 1973 and 1984. Marcus Wallenberg Jr. was a member of the Steering Committee and attended the meeting twenty-two times from the 1950s to 1981, a year prior this his death. His grandson Marcus Wallenberg has attended it eight times, as a member of the Steering Committee, and his other grandson, Jacob Wallenberg, seventeen times, as a member of the Steering Committee.


title: Wallenberg family

text: The Wallenbergs have invited among others Herbert Tingsten, Per Jacobsson, Tage Erlander, Erik Boheman, Olof Palme, Björn Lundvall, Kjell Olof Feldt, Gunnar Sträng, Torbjörn Fälldin, Sten Gustafsson, Björn Svedberg, Hans Werthén, Leif Johansson, Curt Nicolin, Carl Bildt, Percy Barnevik, Michael Treschow, Erik Belfrage, Claes Dahlbäck, Anna Lindh, Leif Pagrotsky, Fredrik Reinfeldt, Anders Borg, Hans Stråberg, Carl-Henric Svanberg, Alexei Mordashov, Jonas Bonnier, Börje Ekholm, Björn Wahlroos, Håkan Bushke, Mikael Damberg, Magdalena Andersson, Conni Jonsson, Johanna Rosén, Annie Lööf, Danica Kragic, Ulf Kristersson, Sara Mazur, Johan Rockström, Lena Hallengren.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Members of the Trilateral Commission include Marcus Wallenberg Jr., Peter Wallenberg Sr., Jacob Wallenberg and Marcus Wallenberg.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Former members of the Wallenberg sphere include former Vice President of SEB, diplomat and advisor for Investor AB and the Wallenbergs, Erik Belfrage, the Irish lawyer, former Investor AB employee, and friend of the Wallenbergs, Peter Sutherland. Current member of the Wallenberg sphere is .


title: Wallenberg family

text: Peter Wallenberg was Immediate Past President of the ICC in Paris. Marcus Wallenberg Jr. was a long serving chairman, and his grandson Marcus Wallenberg is the longest serving chairman in the history of ICC and is now an Honorary Chairman.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Jacob Wallenberg, CEO of Investor and Vice Chairman of FAM, is a member of European Round Table of Industrialists Steering Committee, representing Investor AB. Other people from the Wallenberg sphere at ERT are Börje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson, Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of ABB, Leif Johansson, CEO of Astra Zeneca, CEO of ABB Björn Rosengren.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Former members from the Wallenberg sphere include Curt Nicolin, CEO of ASEA, Carl-Henric Svanberg, and Pehr G. Gyllenhammar, the initiator of the group back in 1983.


title: Wallenberg family

text: Jacob Wallenberg was Vice-Chairman of World Economic Forum and his cousin, Marcus Wallenberg, has been a participant.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: The French telephone numbering plan is used in Metropolitan France, French overseas departments and some overseas collectivities.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: France uses a ten-digit closed numbering plan, where the first two digits denote a geographic area, mobile or non-geographic number.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: All geographic numbers are dialed in the ten-digit format, even for local calls. The international access code is the International Telecommunication Union's recommended 00.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: When calling France from abroad, the leading zero should be omitted: for example, to call a number in Southwest France, one would dial +33 5 xx xx xx xx.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: French people usually state phone numbers as a sequence of five double-digit numbers, e.g., 0x xx xx xx xx (and not, for example, 0 xxx-xxx-xxx or 0xxx-xx-xxxx or 0xx-xxx-xxxx).


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: For many years, French subscribers' telephone numbers consisted of eight digits (including the one-digit area code 1 for all of Paris and its surrounding departments, or a two-digit area code from 20 to 99 for other metropolitan departments; this area code was dialed only after the trunk code 16). The territories of Overseas France all had their own local numbering plans and used their own country codes but no area codes, and calls between different territories or Metropolitan France required a dialing international call using the international call prefix 19 followed by the country code, area code, and subscriber number.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: But that system began to run out of numbers in the 1980s, leading to the adoption of a new "eight-digit" numbering plan on 25 October 1985. On that date, France changed to a system of two zones, one for Paris and the surrounding "Île-de-France" and another for the other departments. Outside Paris, the old area code was incorporated into the subscriber's eight-digit number; for Paris, the area code 1 was retained, and a 4 was prefixed to seven-digit numbers, meaning that a subscriber's number could begin with 40, for example 4056 1873, with the trunk prefix 16 required for calls from the rest of France. For numbers in the "Île-de-France" surrounding Paris, the old codes 3x and 6x joined the old seven-digit numbers to become eight-digit numbers and were assigned to the Paris area code 1. To call the rest of France from Paris, however, the trunk prefix 16 had to be dialed before the eight-digit number, followed by the area code for Paris 1 and the eight-digit number.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: On 18 October 1996, this changed to the present "ten-digit" system (including the default one-digit leading trunk code 0), in which each call is dialed using all ten digits, this national scheme being also extended to cover Overseas France in a single area. Area codes were abolished, and since then France has had a closed numbering plan, where all local or national calls require dialing the leading trunk code.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: Following liberalisation in 1998, subscribers (first deployed on land lines and rapidly extended to all mobile networks) could access different carriers by replacing the leading trunk code 0 (omitted from numbers when called from outside France) with another carrier selection code (one digit from 2 to 9, or four digits 16xx). For example, Cegetel required subscribers to dial 7; e.g., Paris 71 xx xx xx xx, instead of 01 xx xx xx xx. Similarly, the international access code using Cegetel would be 70 instead of 00 by replacing the first 0. Since then, the carrier selection code still exists, but carrier preselection (and number portability) is offered by default on all subscriber lines, and the one-digit carrier selection is rarely used. As well, several important national operators merged, and the four-digit carrier selection only persists for subscribers of various international service providers (most of them for mobile telephony, but these carrier selection prefixes are often dialed internally by a terminal device and callers don't need to care about it, unless they want to select carriers for different services). Additionally, call fees no longer depend on distance throughout the French numbering plan, so carrier selection remains used only for international calls.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: The 09 prefix was introduced for non-geographic numbers and special services in September 2006 and older numbers such as 08 7x xx xx xx (used for VoIP in Internet boxes) were replaced by 09 5x xx xx xx (telephone service offered by Internet service provider Free, later followed by other French ISPs).


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: The national information service 12 was closed in 2005 which lead to the creation of many new information services 118 xxx. They cost €3 per call plus €3 per minute.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: The French overseas departments ( or ) have separate country codes from metropolitan France, with Réunion being assigned the code 262 while Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique were assigned the codes 590, 594 and 596 respectively. Until 1996, the use of the international access code 19 and country code was required for calls from metropolitan France. For example, to call Guadeloupe from metropolitan France, a subscriber would dial 19 590 xxx xxx, 590 being the country code. This included the islands of Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin, which later separated from Guadeloupe to become collectivities, although they still use the same country code. By contrast, calls to metropolitan France from the overseas departments only required the use of the trunk code 16.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: However, under the new present French numbering plan, direct dialling was introduced for calls between the DOMs (including ) and metropolitan France, requiring only the '0' to be dialed, with the country code being used as a geographical area code. Despite this, the 33 country code was not adopted for calls to the DOMs from the rest of the world, because of technical difficulties with operators in neighbouring countries, for example, calls to Réunion from Mauritius would have to be routed via metropolitan France, adversely affecting voice quality as well as increasing call costs.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: In 2001, telephone numbers in the DOMs changed to the same ten-digit format as metropolitan France, with new prefixes beginning with the digit '6' being adopted for mobile phone services:


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: On 30 March 2007 Mayotte adopted the +262 code, used by Réunion, and a new numbering range was introduced for mobile phones:


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: Calls to Saint Pierre and Miquelon require only '0', country code and the subscriber's six-digit number, e.g.:


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: Calls to and from the , however, require full international dialing, hence the international access code and country code must be used:


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: Until 17 December 1994, Andorra formed part of the French numbering plan, with calls from France requiring the prefix 628, (or 16 628 from Paris). Those from the rest of the world were made using +33 628, except from Spain, which were made using the prefix 9738. On that date, the principality adopted the country code +376. Consequently, all calls from France to Andorra had to be dialled in international format, using the prefix 19 376. This was later changed to 00 376, along with the second French reform of 1996 to the newer "ten-digit" plan.


title: Telephone numbers in France

text: On 21 June 1996, Monaco similarly adopted its own country code +377, replacing access from France (+33 93).


title: Owain Arthur

text: Owain Arthur (born 5 March 1983) is a Welsh actor, who rose to fame playing "Francis Henshall" in The National Theatre's production of "One Man, Two Guvnors" at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.


title: Owain Arthur

text: His early years were spent in Bangor, Wales, filming the S4C series "Rownd a Rownd", whilst attending the performing arts school, Ysgol Glanaethwy. Arthur then trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.


title: Owain Arthur

text: He has played many roles in the theatre including "Romeo and Juliet" for the Royal Shakespeare Company, "Comedy of Errors" at the Royal Exchange Theatre and Birdsong at the Comedy Theatre. He has also worked extensively in UK TV roles.


title: Owain Arthur

text: In 2022, he played the Dwarven Prince Durin IV in "" series on Amazon Prime. Co-star Morfydd Clark mentioned enjoying speaking in Welsh on-set with Arthur and Trystan Gravelle.


title: Unit of time

text: A unit of time is any particular time interval, used as a standard way of measuring or expressing duration. The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) and by extension most of the Western world, is the second, defined as about 9 billion oscillations of the caesium atom. The exact modern SI definition is "[The second] is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the cesium frequency, , the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the cesium 133 atom, to be 9 192 631 770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s."


title: Unit of time

text: These units do not have a consistent relationship with each other and require intercalation. For example, the year cannot be divided into twelve 28-day months since 12 times 28 is 336, well short of 365. The lunar month (as defined by the moon's rotation) is not 28 days but 28.3 days. The year, defined in the Gregorian calendar as days has to be adjusted with leap days and leap seconds. Consequently, these units are now all defined for scientific purposes as multiples of seconds.


title: Unit of time

text: The natural units for timekeeping used by most historical societies are the day, the solar year and the lunation. Such calendars include the Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, Babylonian, ancient Athenian, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Icelandic, Mayan, and French Republican calendars.


title: Unit of time

text: The modern calendar has its origins in the Roman calendar, which evolved into the Julian calendar, and then the Gregorian.


title: Unit of time

text: Note: The light-year is not a unit of time, but a unit of length of about 9.5 petametres (9 454 254 955 488 kilometers).


title: Unit of time

text: All of the formal units of time are scaled multiples of each other. The most common units are the second, defined in terms of an atomic process; the day, an integral multiple of seconds; and the year, usually 365 days. The other units used are multiples or divisions of these three.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it officially merged in 1970. Columbus is the second-largest city in Georgia (after Atlanta), and fields the state's fourth-largest metropolitan area. At the 2020 census, Columbus had a population of 206,922, with 328,883 in the Columbus metropolitan area. The metro area joins the nearby Alabama cities of Auburn and Opelika to form the Columbus–Auburn–Opelika Combined Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 486,645 in 2019.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: Columbus lies southwest of Atlanta. Fort Benning, the United States Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence and a major employer, is located south of the city in southern Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties. Columbus is home to museums and tourism sites, including the National Infantry Museum, dedicated to the U.S. Army's Infantry Branch. It has the longest urban whitewater rafting course in the world constructed on the Chattahoochee River.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: This was for centuries the traditional territory of the Creek Indians, who became known as one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast after European contact. Those who lived closest to white-occupied areas conducted considerable trading and adopted some European-American ways.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: Founded in 1828 by an act of the Georgia Legislature, Columbus was situated at the beginning of the navigable portion of the Chattahoochee River and on the last stretch of the Federal Road before entering Alabama. The city was named for Christopher Columbus. The plan for the city was drawn up by Dr. Edwin L. DeGraffenried, who placed the town on a bluff overlooking the river. Across the river to the west, where Phenix City, Alabama, is now located, lived several tribes of the Creek and other Georgia and Alabama indigenous peoples. Most Creeks moved west with the 1826 Treaty of Washington. Those who stayed and made war were forcibly removed in 1836.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: The river served as Columbus's connection to the world, particularly enabling it to ship its commodity cotton crops from the plantations to the international cotton market via New Orleans and ultimately Liverpool, England. The city's commercial importance increased in the 1850s with the arrival of the railroad. In addition, textile mills were developed along the river, bringing industry to an area reliant upon agriculture. By 1860, the city was one of the more important industrial centers of the South, earning it the nickname the Lowell of the South, referring to an important textile mill town in Massachusetts.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the industries of Columbus expanded their production; this became one of the most important centers of industry in the Confederacy. During the war, Columbus ranked second to Richmond in the manufacture of supplies for the Confederate army. The Eagle Manufacturing Company made various textiles, especially woolens for Confederate uniforms. The Columbus Iron Works manufactured cannons and machinery for the nearby Confederate Navy shipyard, Greenwood and Gray made firearms, and Louis and Elias Haimon produced swords and bayonets. Smaller firms provided additional munitions and sundries. As the war turned in favor of the Union, each industry faced exponentially growing shortages of raw materials and skilled labor, as well as worsening financial opportunities.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: Unaware of Lee's surrender to Grant and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Union and Confederates clashed in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, on Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865, when a Union detachment of two cavalry divisions under Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson attacked the lightly defended city and burned many of the industrial buildings. John Stith Pemberton, who later developed Coca-Cola in Columbus, was wounded in this battle. Col. Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar, owner of the last slave ship in America, was also killed here. A historic marker erected in Columbus notes that this was the site of the "Last Land Battle in the War from 1861 to 1865".


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: Reconstruction began almost immediately and prosperity followed. Factories such as the Eagle and Phenix Mills were revived and the industrialization of the town led to rapid growth, causing the city to outgrow its original plan. The Springer Opera House was built during this time, attracting such notables as Irish writer Oscar Wilde. The Springer is now the official State Theater of Georgia.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: By the time of the Spanish–American War, the city's modernization included the addition of a new waterworks, as well as trolleys extending to outlying neighborhoods such as Rose Hill and Lakebottom. Mayor Lucius Chappell also brought a training camp for soldiers to the area. This training camp, named Camp Benning, grew into present-day Fort Benning, named for General Henry L. Benning, a native of the city.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: In the spring of 1866, the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus passed a resolution to set aside one day annually to memorialize the Confederate dead. The secretary of the association, Mrs. Charles J. Williams, was directed to write a letter inviting the ladies of every Southern state to join them in the observance. The letter was written in March 1866 and sent to representatives of all of the principal cities in the South, including Atlanta, Macon, Montgomery, Memphis, Richmond, St. Louis, Alexandria, Columbia, and New Orleans. This was the beginning of the influential work by ladies' organizations to honor the war dead.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: The date for the holiday was selected by Elizabeth Rutherford Ellis. She chose April 26, the first anniversary of Confederate General Johnston's final surrender to Union General Sherman at Bennett Place, North Carolina. For many in the South, that act marked the official end of the Civil War.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Union Civil War Veterans Fraternity called the Grand Army of the Republic, launched the Memorial Day holiday that is now observed across the entire United States. General Logan's wife said he had borrowed from practices of Confederate Memorial Day. She wrote that Logan "said it was not too late for the Union men of the nation to follow the example of the people of the South in perpetuating the memory of their friends who had died for the cause they thought just and right."


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: While two dozen cities across the country claim to have originated the Memorial Day holiday, Bellware and Gardiner firmly establish that the holiday began in Columbus. In "The Genesis of the Memorial Day Holiday in America", they show that the Columbus Ladies Memorial Association's call to observe a day annually to decorate soldiers' graves inaugurated a movement first in the South and then in the North to honor the soldiers who died during the Civil War.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: With the expansion of the city, leaders established Columbus College, a two-year institution, which later evolved into Columbus State University, now a comprehensive center of higher learning and part of the University System of Georgia.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: The city government and the county consolidated in 1971, the first such consolidation in Georgia and one of only 16 in the U.S. at the time.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: Expanding on its industrial base of textile mills, the city is the home of the headquarters for Aflac, Synovus, and TSYS.


title: Columbus, Georgia

text: From the 1960s through the 1980s, the subsidized construction of highways and suburbs resulted in drawing off the middle and upper classes, with urban blight, white flight, and prostitution in much of downtown Columbus and adjacent neighborhoods. Early efforts to halt the gradual deterioration of downtown began with the saving and restoration of the Springer Opera House in 1965. It was designated as the State Theatre of Georgia, helping spark a movement to preserve the city's history. This effort has documented and preserved various historic districts in and around downtown.