title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On the same day the order was issued, chief executive officer Tim Cook released an online statement to Apple customers, explaining the company's motives for opposing the court order. He also stated that while they respect the FBI, the request they made threatens data security by establishing a precedent that the U.S. government could use to force any technology company to create software that could undermine the security of its products. He said in part:


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: In response to the opposition, on February 19, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a new application urging a federal judge to compel Apple to comply with the order. The new application stated that the company could install the software on the phone in its own premises, and after the FBI had hacked the phone via remote connection, Apple could remove and destroy the software. Apple hired attorneys Ted Olson and Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. to fight the order on appeal.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The same day, Apple revealed that in early January it had discussed with the FBI four methods to access data in the iPhone, but, as was revealed by a footnote in the February 19 application to the court, one of the more promising methods was ruled out by a mistake during the investigation of the attack. After the shooter's phone had been recovered, the FBI asked San Bernardino County, the owner of the phone, to reset the password to the shooter's iCloud account in order to acquire data from the iCloud backup. However, this rendered the phone unable to backup recent data to iCloud unless its pass-code was entered. This was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Justice, which then added that any backup would have been "insufficient" because they would not have been able to recover enough information from it.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The government cited as precedent "United States v. New York Telephone Co.", in which the Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that the All Writs Act gave courts the power to demand reasonable technical assistance from the phone company in accessing phone calling records. Apple responded that New York Telephone was already collecting the data in question in the course of its business, something the Supreme Court took note of in its ruling. Apple also asserts that being compelled to write new software "amounts to compelled speech and viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. ... What is to stop the government from demanding that Apple write code to turn on the microphone in aid of government surveillance, activate the video camera, surreptitiously record conversations, or turn on location services to track the phone's user?" Apple argued that the FBI had not made use of all of the government's tools, such as employing the resources of the NSA. A hearing on the case was scheduled for March 22, 2016.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos filed a brief stating the iPhone may contain evidence of a "lying dormant cyber pathogen" that could have been introduced into the San Bernardino County computer network, as well as identification of a possible third gunman who was alleged to have been seen at the scene of the attack by eyewitnesses. The following day, Ramos told the Associated Press that he did not know whether the shooters had compromised the county's infrastructure, but the only way to know for sure was by gaining access to the iPhone. This statement has been criticized by cyber-security professionals as being improbable.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: In an interview for a "Time" magazine cover story, Cook said that the issue is not "privacy versus security ... it's privacy and security or privacy and safety versus security." Cook also said, "[T]his is the golden age of surveillance that we live in. There is more information about all of us, so much more than ten years ago, or five years ago. It's everywhere. You are leaving digital footprints everywhere."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: In a March 21, 2016, Apple press conference, Cook talked about the ongoing conflict with the FBI, saying, "[W]e have a responsibility to protect your data and your privacy. We will not shrink from this responsibility."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On March 21, 2016, the government requested and was granted a delay, saying a third party had demonstrated a possible way to unlock the iPhone in question and the FBI needed more time to determine if it will work. On March 28, 2016, the FBI said it had unlocked the iPhone with the third party's help, and an anonymous official said that the hack's applications were limited; the Department of Justice withdrew the case. The lawyer for the FBI has stated that they are using the extracted information to further investigate the case.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On April 7, 2016, FBI Director James Comey said that the tool used can only unlock an iPhone 5C like that used by the San Bernardino shooter, as well as older iPhone models lacking the Touch ID sensor. Comey also confirmed that the tool was purchased from a third party but would not reveal the source, later indicating the tool cost more than $1.3 million and that they did not purchase the rights to technical details about how the tool functions. Although the FBI was able to use other technological means to access the cellphone data from the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5C, without the aid of Apple, law enforcement still expresses concern over the encryption controversy.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Some news outlets, citing anonymous sources, identified the third party as Israeli company Cellebrite. However, "The Washington Post" reported that, according to anonymous "people familiar with the matter", the FBI had instead paid "professional hackers" who used a zero-day vulnerability in the iPhone's software to bypass its ten-try limitation, and did not need Cellebrite's assistance. In April 2021, "The Washington Post" reported that the Australian company Azimuth Security, a white hat hacking firm, had been the one to help the FBI.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Apple had previously challenged the U.S. Department of Justice's authority to compel it to unlock an iPhone 5S in a drug case in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn ("In re Order Requiring Apple Inc. to Assist in the Execution of a Search Warrant Issued by the Court", case number 1:15-mc-01902), after the magistrate judge in the case, James Orenstein, requested Apple's position before issuing an order. On February 29, 2016, Judge Orenstein denied the government's request, saying the All Writs Act cannot be used to force a company to modify its products: "The implications of the government's position are so far-reaching – both in terms of what it would allow today and what it implies about Congressional intent in 1789 – as to produce impermissibly absurd results." Orenstein went on to criticize the government's stance, writing, "It would be absurd to posit that the authority the government sought was anything other than obnoxious to the law." The Justice Department appealed the ruling to District Court Judge Margot Brodie. Apple requested a delay while the FBI attempted to access the San Bernardino iPhone without Apple's help. On April 8, after the FBI succeeded, the Justice Department told the Brooklyn court it intended to press forward with its demand for assistance there, but on April 22, the government withdrew its request, telling the court "an individual" (the suspect, according to press reports) had provided the correct passcode.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: In addition to the San Bernardino case and the Brooklyn case, Apple has received at least nine different requests from federal courts under the All Writs Act for iPhone or iPad products. Apple has objected to these requests. This fact was revealed by Apple in court filings in the Brooklyn case made at the request of the judge in that case. Most of these requests call upon Apple "to use its existing capabilities to extract data like contacts, photos and calls from locked iPhones running on operating systems iOS7 and older" (as in the Brooklyn case), while others "involve phones with more extensive encryption, which Apple cannot break" and presumably seek to order Apple to "design new software to let the government circumvent the device's security protocols and unlock the phone" (as in the San Bernardino case).


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: National reactions to Apple's opposition of the order were mixed. A CBS News poll that sampled 1,022 Americans found that 50% of the respondents supported the FBI's stance, while 45% supported Apple's stance. Also, 1,002 surveyed Americans who own smartphones were divided into two sides; 51% were against Apple's decision, while 38% supported their stance.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The Reform Government Surveillance coalition, which includes major tech firms like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo!, Twitter, and LinkedIn, has indicated its opposition to the order. By March 3, the deadline, a large number of "amicus curiae" briefs were filed with the court, with numerous technology firms supporting Apple's position, including a joint brief from Amazon.com, Box, Cisco Systems, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google, Lavabit, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nest Labs, Pinterest, Slack Technologies, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Yahoo!. Briefs from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, and the Center for Democracy and Technology also supported Apple.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The think tank Niskanen Center has suggested that the case is a door-in-the-face technique designed to gain eventual approval for encryption backdoors and is viewed as a revival of the Crypto Wars.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: U.S. Representative Mike Honda, a Democrat who represented the Silicon Valley region, voiced his support for Apple.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On February 23, 2016, a series of pro-Apple protests organized by Fight for the Future were held outside of Apple's stores in over 40 locations.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned the FBI of the potential for "extremely damaging implications" on human rights and that they "risk unlocking a Pandora's box" through their investigation.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency, in a March 7 interview with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox Business Network, supported Apple's position, noting that the CIA considers cyber-attacks the number one threat to U.S. security and saying that "this may be a case where we've got to give up some things in law enforcement and even counter terrorism in order to preserve this aspect, our cybersecurity."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Salihin Kondoker, whose wife was shot in the attack but survived, filed a friend of the court brief siding with Apple; his brief said that he "understand[s] that this software the government wants them to use will be used against millions of other innocent people. I share their fear."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Edward Snowden said that the FBI already has the technical means to unlock Apple's devices and said, "The global technological consensus is against the FBI."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: McAfee founder and Libertarian Party presidential primary candidate John McAfee had publicly volunteered to decrypt the iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooters, avoiding the need for Apple to build a backdoor. He later indicated that the method he would employ, extracting the unique ID from inside the A7 processor chip, is difficult and risks permanently locking the phone, and that he was seeking publicity.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Ron Wyden, Democratic senator for Oregon and a noted privacy and encryption advocate, questioned the FBI's honesty concerning the contents of the phone. He said in a statement, "There are real questions about whether [the FBI] has been straight with the public on [the Apple case]."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Some families of the victims and survivors of the attack indicated they would file a brief in support of the FBI.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The National Sheriffs' Association has suggested that Apple's stance is "putting profit over safety" and "has nothing to do with privacy." The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, and the National Sheriffs' Association filed a brief supporting the FBI.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: "With Apple's privacy policy for the customers there is no way of getting into a phone without a person's master password. With this policy there will be no backdoor access on the phone for the law enforcement to access the person's private information. This has caused a great dispute between the FBI and Apple's encryption. Apple has closed this backdoor for the law enforcement because they believe that by creating this backdoor it would make it easier for law enforcement, and also make it easier for criminal hackers to gain access to people's personal data on their phone." Former FBI director James Comey says that "We are drifting to a place in this country where there will be zones that are beyond the reach of the law." He believes that this backdoor access is crucial to investigations, and without it many criminals will not be convicted.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has voiced her opposition to Apple. All candidates for the Republican nomination for the 2016 U.S. presidential election who had not dropped out of the race before February 19, 2016 supported the FBI's position, though several expressed concerns about adding backdoors to mobile phones.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On February 23, 2016, the "Financial Times" reported that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, has sided with the FBI in the case. However, Gates later said in an interview with Bloomberg News "that doesn't state my view on this." He added that he thought the right balance and safeguards need to be found in the courts and in Congress, and that the debate provoked by this case is valuable.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., said that he wants Apple to unlock 175 iPhones that his office's Cyber-Crime Lab has been unable to access, adding, "Apple should be directed to be able to unlock its phones when there is a court order by an independent judge proving and demonstrating that there's relevant evidence on that phone necessary for an individual case."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: FBI Director Comey, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, compared Apple's iPhone security to a guard dog, saying, "We're asking Apple to take the vicious guard dog away and let us pick the lock."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Apple's iOS 8 and later have encryption mechanisms that make it difficult for the government to get through. Apple provided no backdoor for surveillance without the company's discretion. However, Comey stated that he did not want a backdoor method of surveillance and that "We want to use the front door, with clarity and transparency, and with clear guidance provided by law." He believes that special access is required in order to stop criminals such as "terrorists and child molesters". Many companies such as Apple would not give the U.S. access due to the policies Apple has in place on users' confidentiality.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Both 2016 Democratic presidential candidates—former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders—suggested some compromise should be found.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called for Silicon Valley and the federal government to work together. "We are squarely behind strong data security and strong encryption, no question about it," he said. Carter also added that he is "not a believer in back doors."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: In an address to the 2016 South by Southwest conference on March 11, President Barack Obama stated that while he could not comment on the specific case, "You cannot take an absolutist view on [encryption]. If your view is strong encryption no matter what, and we can and should create black boxes, that does not strike the balance that we've lived with for 200 or 300 years. And it's fetishizing our phones above every other value. That can't be the right answer."


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On April 13, 2016 U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the Republican Chair and senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, respectively, released draft legislation that would authorize state and federal judges to order "any person who provides a product or method to facilitate a communication or the processing or storage of data" to provide data in intelligible form or technical assistance in unlocking encrypted data and that any such person who distributes software or devices must ensure they are capable of complying with such an order.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: In September 2016, the Associated Press, Vice Media, and Gannett (the owner of "USA Today") filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the FBI, seeking to compel the agency to reveal who it hired to unlock Farook's iPhone, and how much was paid. On September 30, 2017, a federal court ruled against the media organizations and granted summary judgment in the government's favor. The court ruled that the company that hacked the iPhone and the amount paid to it by the FBI were national security secrets and "intelligence sources or methods" that are exempt from disclosure under FOIA; the court additionally ruled that the amount paid "reflects a confidential law enforcement technique or procedure" that also falls under a FOIA exemption.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On August 31, 2016 Amy Hess, the FBI's Executive Assistant Director, raised concerns with the Office of Inspector General alleging there was a disagreement between units of the Operational Technology Division (OTD) of their capability to access Farook's iPhone; namely between the Cryptographic and Electronic Analysis Unit (CEAU) and the Remote Operations Unit (ROU). She also alleged that some OTD officials were indifferent to FBI leadership (herself included) giving possibly misleading testimony to Congress and in court orders that they had no such capability.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Ultimately, the Inspector General's March 2018 report found no evidence that the OTD had withheld knowledge of the ability to unlock Farook's iPhone at the time of Director Comey's congressional testimony of February 9 and March 1, 2016. However, the report also found that poor communication and coordination between the CEAU and ROU meant that "not all relevant personnel had been engaged at the outset".


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The ROU Chief (named by Vice to be Eric Chuang) said he only became aware of the access problem after a February 11 meeting of the Digital Forensics and Analysis Section (DFAS) - of which the ROU is not a member. While the OTD directors were in frequent contact during the investigation, including discussions about Farook's iPhone, Asst. Dir. Stephen Richardson and the Chief of DFAS, John F. Bennett, believed at the time that a court order was their only alternative.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Chuang claimed the CEAU Chief didn't ask for their help due to a "line in the sand" against using classified security tools in domestic criminal cases. The CEAU Chief denied such a line existed and that not using classified techniques was merely a preference. Nevertheless, the perception of this line resulted in the ROU not getting involved until after John Bennett's February 11 meeting asking "anyone" in the bureau to help.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Once Chuang "got the word out", he soon learned that a trusted vendor was "almost 90 percent of the way" to a solution after "many months" of work and asked they prioritize its completion. The unnamed vendor came forward with their solution on March 16, 2016 and successfully demonstrated it to FBI leadership on March 20. The US Attorneys Office was informed the next day and they withdrew their court action against Apple on March 28.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: When asked why the ROU was not involved earlier the Chief of Technical Surveillance Section (TSS), Eric Chuang's superior, initially said it was not in his "lane" and it was handled exclusively by the DFAS because "that is their mandate". He later claimed that Farook's phone was discussed from the outset but he did not instruct his unit chiefs to contact outside vendors until after February 11. In either event, neither he nor the ROU were asked to request help from their vendors until mid-February. By the time the Attorneys Office filed their February 16 court order, the ROU had only just begun contacting its vendors.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The CEAU Chief was unable to say with certainty that the ROU had been consulted beforehand and that the February 11th meeting was a final "mop-up" before a court action was filed. The CEAU's search for solutions within the FBI was undocumented and was handled informally by a senior engineer that the CEAU Chief personally trusted had checked with "everybody".


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: On the other hand, it's possible that Hess' asking questions is what prompted the February 11 "mop-up" meeting. During the CEAU's search Hess became concerned that she wasn't getting straight answers from the OTD and that unit chiefs didn't know the capabilities of the others. The Inspector General stated further:


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: ... the CEAU Chief may not have been interested in researching all possible solutions and instead focused only on unclassified techniques that could readily be disclosed in court that OTD and its partner agencies already had in-hand.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Both Hess and Chuang stated the CEAU Chief seemed not to want to use classified techniques and appeared to have an agenda in pursuing a favorable ruling against Apple. Chuang described the CEAU Chief as "definitely not happy" that they undermined his legal case against Apple and had vented his frustration with him.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: Hess said the CEAU Chief wanted to use the case as a "poster child" to resolve the larger problem with encrypted devices known as the "Going Dark challenge". The challenge is defined by the FBI as "changes in technology [that] hinder law enforcement's ability to exercise investigative tools and follow critical leads". As The Los Angeles Times reported in March 2018, the FBI was unable to access data from 7,775 seized devices in their investigations. The unidentified method used to unlock Farook's phone - costing more than $1 million to obtain - quit working once Apple updated their operating system.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: The Inspector General's report found that statements in the FBI's testimony before Congress were accurate but relied on assumptions that the OTD units were coordinating effectively from the beginning. They also believe the miscommunication delayed finding a technical solution to accessing Farook's iPhone. The FBI disputed this since the vendor had been working on the project independently "for some time". However, according to Chuang - whom described himself as a "relationship holder" for the vendor - they were not actively working to complete the solution and that it was moved to the "front burner" on his request; to which the TSS Chief agreed.


title: FBI–Apple encryption dispute

text: In response to the Inspector General's report, the FBI intended to add a new OTD section to consolidate resources to address the Going Dark problem and to improve coordination between units.


title: Let Me Be Your Knight

text: Let Me Be Your Knight () is a South Korean television series directed by Ahn Ji-sook and written by Seo Jeong-eun and Yoo So-won. Starring Jung In-sun along with members of fictitious band Luna: Lee Jun-young, Jang Dong-joo, Kim Jong-hyun, Kim Dong-hyun and Yoon Ji-sung, the series depicts a romance between a world star idol suffering from sleepwalking and a resident doctor who has to secretly treat it. The series premiered on SBS TV on November 7, 2021, and aired every Sunday, at 23:05 (KST) till January 24, 2022. It is available for streaming on iQIYI in selected territories.


title: Let Me Be Your Knight

text: This series follows the lead singer of a popular idol band Luna, Yoon Tae-in who suffers from sleepwalking. To cure his condition secretly, he seeks help from a live-in doctor In Yoon-ju to cure his condition.


title: Let Me Be Your Knight

text: Lee Jun-young was confirmed to appear as the main character in the series on November 22, 2019. On August 30, 2021, the cast of the miniseries was confirmed. It was revealed that Jung In-sun, Lee Jun-young, Jang Dong-joo, Kim Jong-hyun, singer Yoon Ji-sung, and Kim Dong-hyun will be appearing as main characters in the series. Script reading site was revealed on September 28 by releasing photographs. One week later, on October 5 behind-the-scenes footage of the Luna band ensemble was released.


title: Let Me Be Your Knight

text: "Let Me Be Your Knight" is released in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand, as well as all over Southeast Asia, North America, South America, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. On September 9, it was reported that Japan has signed a contract with Corpus Korea, a company specialising in overseas distribution of Hallyu content. In Southeast Asia and Taiwan iQIYI International and in Hong Kong Now TV will air the series. Viki will be streaming the series in America, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. It premiered in South Korea on SBS TV on November 7, 2021, and aired every Sunday, at 23:05 (KST).


title: 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia

text: The amendments of 2020, which were proposed in January 2020, are the second substantial amendments to the Constitution of Russia of 1993. To introduce these amendments, Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, held a national vote. They were approved on 1 July by a contested popular vote.


text: With Putin's signing an executive order on 3 July to officially insert the amendments into the Russian Constitution, they took effect on 4 July.


text: Since the ratification of the Constitution in 1993, several amendments were proposed. In 2008, in order to extend the presidential and State Duma terms, as well as require an annual report by the prime minister for the Duma members, four articles were changed. In early 2014, eight more amendments were ratified and one repealed, which resulted in the abolition of the Supreme Court of Arbitration and the adjustment of prosecutor assignments. In mid-2014, two more articles were changed in order to allow the president to choose up to 10% (17 members) of the Federation Council.


text: President Putin made new proposals during his annual address to the Federal Assembly on 15 January 2020. The amendments were prepared by a commission appointed by Putin, headed by Talija Chabrieva.


text: According to Articles 136 and 108, amendments to the provisions of Chapters 3–8, require the same approval as a federal constitutional law, that is, a two-thirds supermajority vote in the State Duma (the lower house), a three-fourths supermajority vote in the Federation Council (the upper house), and ratification by two-thirds of the 85 Regional legislatures of the federal subjects (57 regional ratifications required for an amendment to come into effect).


text: The president formally submitted the bill to the State Duma on 20 January. On 11 March, the State Duma, dominated by pro-government parties, swiftly approved the proposals in the third reading with no objection. By 13 March, legislative assemblies of all 85 Federal subjects approved the amendments to the Constitution. On 16 March the Constitutional Court of Russia gave their approval to the amendments.


text: According to Point 3 of Article 81 of the Constitution of Russia, the same person cannot hold a position of the presidency of the Russian Federation more than two terms in a row. This means that Vladimir Putin, who was elected president in 2012 and re-elected in 2018, would not be able to participate in the 2024 presidential election. In 2018 Putin claimed he would not hold the presidency for more than two consecutive terms and denied the possibility of his participation in the 2024 election.


text: Amendments to the Constitution of Russia solved the so-called "2024 problem" regarding the end of Putin's presidential term in 2024.


text: According to a Gallup International opinion poll conducted in December 2017, if Putin were not on the ballot, 46% would not have known for whom to vote and 19% would have invalidated their ballots. Valery Fedorov, the Director of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, claimed the Russian population had not thought about this problem. Focus group participants gathered by the Levada Center identified two main solutions: preservation of presidential powers by Vladimir Putin and the appointment of a successor. In 2018, Valery Zorkin proposed changing the constitution so Putin could remain in office. However, later in March, Putin explicitly said he was not going to change the Constitution in an interview with Megyn Kelly. Sergei Markov said that Putin repeatedly ruling out the abolition of term limits had led discussions of possible scenarios for 2024 to a standstill. In the end, despite earlier promises, the restrictions that prevented Putin from remaining president of the Russian Federation were changed.


text: According to political analyst Kirill Rogov, the constitutional design of Russian statehood remained unclear due to the unsuccessful experience of the "tandem" and the lack of institutions of distributed power. In addition to the obvious conflict between Putin's political regime and the official state system, there were also security issues for Putin and his family if he completely leaves office, as well as issues with the constitution which guarantees that as an eventual certainty.


text: In 2020, 41 articles were rewritten and five more were added. Excluding the 1st, 2nd and the 9th chapters, which can be changed only by calling together a Constituent Assembly and developing a new Constitution, around 60 % of articles were altered. The main amendments focus on how power is distributed between the branches of government: moving away from the super-presidential system that was established in 1993 and simultaneously creating a new one based on the principle of checks and balances.


text: Along with the redistribution of power initiatives, the first draft included a couple of social- and economically directed amendments. Specifically, Putin has suggested to require the minimum wage to be above the poverty line and to guarantee an annual increase in pension payments. The amendments from this block were developed by a special group consisting of parliament members, scientists and public representatives. As a result of their work, the Constitution was supplemented by articles imposing a distinct government attitude towards such things as public health, science, culture, voluntary work and young people. In addition, the amendments have a few innovations, such as regarding the Russian language as a "language of the state-forming people", protecting "historical truth" and mentioning faith in God in regards to heritage. Most of these amendments do not embody new concepts, but rather duplicate norms that are already found in federal laws. One of the amendments banned the ceding of Russian territory to foreign powers.


text: The amendments have been put to a national vote initially called for April 2020 but later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were rescheduled for 1 July 2020 (with early voting allowed from 25 June 2020).


text: The voting procedure was decided on already during the development process. Before that there was no concept of a "nationwide voting". The approved procedure is noticeably different from a regular voting or a referendum: just a month of preparation instead of 90–100 days; the observers can be only from the Public Chambers, which are formed by federal and regional authorities; "informing the public" regarding the content of the amendments instead of agitation; no minimum voter turn-out; an online-voting option.


text: With 98% of the ballot counted, and with 78% voting in favor versus 22% against, the amendments easily passed.


text: The amendments were seen as allowing President Vladimir Putin to serve as president after 2024. Under the previous version of the constitution, Putin would have been required to step down in 2024.


text: The main debates around the whole arrangement were caused by the change of the amending procedure of the Constitution itself (which are stated in chapter 9). A new three-step procedure was imposed. After approval by federal and regional parliaments, only the third article describing the enforcement procedure of the change was enacted. After the Constitutional Court had validated the document, the second article was enacted, which regulated the nationwide voting procedure. The first article, which consists of all the amendments, can be enacted only when approved by the majority of voters.


text: The amendments also received criticism for contradicting the first two chapters of the Constitution. In particular, criticisms targeted the amendments which involved religious issues, the superiority of the Constitution above the interstate authority, the President's right to remove judges, and the consolidation of local authority into a "single public authority system." However, after examination of the amendments in question, as well as the one discounting previous presidential terms before the amendment enters into force, the Constitutional Court found no contradictions.


text: Some consider the introduction and adoption of the amendments as being a form of self-coup or autocoup as it removed term limits on the Presidency and grants Putin more authority..


text: "The New York Times" wrote that the proposed prohibition of same-sex marriage was "an effort to raise turnout for a constitutional referendum that could keep him in power and has stirred big enthusiasm among Russians".


text: "The Guardian" wrote that move, announced by Putin in January, was initially seen as a way for him to hold on to power after 2024, when as things stand he will no longer be able to serve as president because of term limits." "The Guardian" further noted that "Putin's direct support for the amendments makes it likely they will go through. He has taken an increasingly conservative turn in his fourth term as president".


text: Will Partlett has written that the amendments are an example of "theatrical constitution-making" that is being used to support authoritarian populism in Russia. The amendments therefore constitutionalise legislative trends toward centralism, personalism, and protectionism.


text: On 16 March 2020, 128 Russian lawyers, political scientists and human rights defenders, including the member of the Constitutional Conference of the Russian Federation Georgy Satarov, the professor of the Higher School of Economics, doctor of sciences in jurisprudence Irina Alebastrova, the professor of the Institute of Political Studies Sergei Guriev, and human rights defender Lev Ponomaryov, addressed to the Council of Europe with the petition requesting a legal assessment to the amendments to the Constitution. The petition was posted on Change.org where it garnered over 200,000 signatures by 27 May. On that day the Council of Europe decided to send the request to the Venice Commission. The Commission should check for compliance with European and international standards of democracy and the rule of law, as well as with Russia's legal obligations as a member of the Council of Europe.


text: On 18 June, the opinion of the Venice Commission on the draft amendments to the Constitution (as signed by the president of the Russian Federation on 14 March) related to the execution in the Russian Federation of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights was published. The Commission indicated that there is no choice to execute or not to execute the European Court of Human Rights judgment: under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights the judgments of the ECtHR are binding. The proposed amendments use the notion "contrary to the Constitution", which is too broad a formula, broader than that of current Article 79 of the Constitution ("limiting the rights and freedoms of the individual and the citizen or contradicting the fundamentals of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation"). These concerns should be seen against the backdrop of the proposed amendment to Article 83 of the Constitution, empowering the Council of the Federation to dismiss the judges of the Constitutional Court at the request of the President.


text: On 23 March 2021, the opinion of the Venice Commission on constitutional amendments to the Constitution and the procedure for their adoption was published. The Commission welcomed that the amendments bring about several positive changes (the increased protection of social rights, the two-term limitation of the mandate of the President, the possibility for the President to refer to the Constitutional Court the use of a presidential veto, the constitutionalisation of the State Council, which has, already for two decades, operated based solely on an executive legal act, the extension of parliamentary control, including the possibility of carrying out inquiries into the heads of state bodies and the competence to "hear" the annual report of the Prosecutor of the Russian Federation, the introduction of a fixed six-year term for most of the Senators of the Federation Council). Nonetheless, the Commission has identified some serious flaws in the Constitution and the procedure of its adoption.


text: The Commission indicated that on a general note raising to the constitutional level (constitutionalising) existing provisions of ordinary law creates a risk of excluding the issues in question from open debate and thus restricts democracy. Constitutionalised norms become more rigid; they cannot be reviewed by the Constitutional Court and become, on the contrary, the Court's yardstick for evaluating other legal provisions.


text: The Commission concluded that the amendments disproportionately strengthened the position of the President of the Russian Federation and have done away with some of the checks and balances originally foreseen in the Constitution. The ad hominem exclusion from the term limits of the current and previous Presidents (Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev) contradicts the very logic of the adopted amendment limiting the President's mandate to two terms. The unusually wide scope of immunity, taken together with rules of impeachment that make it very difficult to dismiss a President raise serious concerns as to the accountability of the President. The President has acquired additional powers at the expense of the Chair of the Government. The increase in the number of Senators appointed by the President may give the latter additional leverage, thus raising doubts as to whether the Federation Council will be independent enough from the executive to be able to exercise the monitoring functions entrusted to it by the Constitution. Taken together, these changes go far beyond what is appropriate under the principle of separation of powers, even in presidential regimes.


text: The Commission found that the amendments to the provisions relating to the judiciary, notably the power for the President to initiate the dismissal of apex court presidents as well as presidents, vice-presidents and judges of the cassation and appeal courts on very vague grounds affect the core element of judicial independence. Taken together, the amendments to the provisions on the judiciary amount to a danger to the rule of law in the Russian Federation.


text: Furthermore, the Commission concluded that the amendments weaken constituent subjects and local self-government bodies. The inclusion of provisions referring to the Russian nation creates a tension with the multi-ethnic character of the Russian Federation.


text: As to the procedure of the adoption of the amendments, the Venice Commission concluded that the speed of the preparation of such wide-ranging amendments was clearly inappropriate for the depth of the amendments considering their societal impact. This speed resulted in a lack of time for a proper period of consultation with civil society prior to the adoption of the amendments by parliament. As a Constitutional Assembly of Russia was not convened, the Constitution was adopted after it was voted by Parliament and by the subjects of the Federation. Following these steps, the amendments had to enter into force under Article 135 of the Constitution. A negative outcome of the additional steps which were introduced ad hoc, i.e. the review by the Constitutional Court and the all-Russian vote, could not have prevented the entry into force of the amendments. It follows that the introduction of these additional steps in the procedure used to amend the Constitution created an obvious tension with Article 16 of the Constitution which safeguards "the fundamental principles of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation".


title: Viva la revolución

text: Viva la revolución (Spanish), or Vive la révolution (French), translated as "long live the revolution", refers primarily to:


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Grand Hotel is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by William A. Drake is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel "Menschen im Hotel" by Vicki Baum. To date, it is the only film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture without being nominated in any other category.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: The film was remade as "Week-End at the Waldorf" in 1945, as Menschen im Hotel in 1959, and also served as the basis for the 1989 Tony Award-winning stage musical "Grand Hotel". A movie musical remake, to take place at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel, directed by Norman Jewison, was considered in 1977, and again in 1981, but eventually fell through.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: "Grand Hotel" has proven influential in the years since its original release. The line "I want to be alone", famously delivered by Greta Garbo, placed number 30 in "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes". In 2007, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Doctor Otternschlag, a disfigured veteran of World War I and a permanent resident of the Grand Hotel in Berlin, observes, "People coming, going. Nothing ever happens" — after which a great deal transpires.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Baron Felix von Gaigern, who squandered his fortune and supports himself as a card player and occasional jewel thief, befriends Otto Kringelein, a dying accountant who has decided to spend his remaining days in the lap of luxury. Kringelein's former employer, industrialist General Director Preysing, is at the hotel to close an important deal, and he hires stenographer Flaemmchen to assist him. She aspires to be an actress and shows Preysing some magazine photos for which she posed.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Another guest is Russian ballerina Grusinskaya, whose career is on the wane. When the Baron is in her room to steal her jewelry and she returns from the theatre, he hides in her room and overhears as she talks to herself about wanting to end it all. He comes out of hiding and engages her in conversation, and Grusinskaya finds herself attracted to him. He spends the night with her. The following morning, the Baron returns Grusinskaya's jewels, and she forgives his crime. She invites him to accompany her to Vienna, an offer he accepts.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: The Baron is desperate for money to pay his way out of the criminal group he has been working with. He and Kringelein get a card game going, and Kringelein wins everything, then becomes intoxicated. When he drops his wallet, the Baron stashes it in his pocket, intending to keep not only the winnings but the funds that will see Kringelein through the last weeks of his life. However, moved by the sight of Kringelein’s despair, the Baron – who desperately needs the money, but has become very fond of Kringelein – pretends to have discovered the wallet, and returns it to him.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: As part of a desperate merger plan, Preysing must travel to England, and he asks Flaemmchen to accompany him. Later, when the two are in her room—which opens onto his—Preysing sees the shadow of the Baron rifling through his belongings. He confronts the Baron; the two struggle, and Preysing bludgeons the Baron with the telephone, killing him. Flaemmchen sees what happened and tells Kringelein, who confronts Preysing. He insists he acted in self-defense, but Kringelein summons the police, and Preysing is arrested.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Grusinskaya departs for the train station, expecting to find the Baron waiting for her there. Meanwhile, Kringelein offers to take care of Flaemmchen, who suggests they seek a cure for his illness. As they leave the hotel, Doctor Otternschlag again observes, "Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come. People go. Nothing ever happens."


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Producer Irving Thalberg purchased the rights to Vicki Baum's novel "Menschen im Hotel" for $13,000 and then commissioned William A. Drake to adapt it for the stage.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: It opened on Broadway at the National Theatre on November 13, 1930, and ran for 459 performances. Pleased with its success, Thalberg had Drake and Béla Balázs write the screenplay, and budgeted the project at $700,000.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: The film was also seen as an artistic achievement in its art direction and production quality. The art director, Cedric Gibbons, was one of the most important and influential in the history of American film. The lobby scenes were extremely well done, portraying a 360° desk. This allowed audiences to watch the hotel action from all around the characters. It changed the way sets were made from that point onward.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: It was the first film to feature brothers Lionel and John Barrymore together. Later in the year, they would join their other sibling, Ethel, in "Rasputin and the Empress".


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: As Grusinskaya, Greta Garbo delivers the line "I want to be alone", and, immediately following, "I just want to be alone." Soon after, in conversation with Baron Felix von Geigern, she says, "And I want to be alone." Referring to its legendary use as a characterization of her personal reclusive life, Garbo later insisted, "I never said I want to be alone; I only said, 'I want to be "let" alone.' There is all the difference."


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Alfred Rushford Greason of "Variety" comparing the film to the stage production, wrote "[it] may not entirely please the theatregoers who were fascinated by its deft stage direction and restrained acting, but it will attract and hold the wider public to which it is now addressed". He added, "The drama unfolds with a speed that never loses its grip, even for the extreme length of nearly two hours, and there is a captivating pattern of unexpected comedy that runs through it all, always fresh and always pat."


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Mordaunt Hall of "The New York Times" praised the performances of Greta Garbo and John Barrymore, in a mostly positive review. "The picture adheres faithfully to the original", he said, "and while it undoubtedly lacks the life and depth and color of the play, by means of excellent characterizations it keeps the audience on the qui vive."


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: "Film Daily" called it an "engrossing drama" that "never lags", and "one of the classiest moving picture affairs you've seen in a long time".


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: John Mosher of "The New Yorker" called it a "tricky, clever film", praising Goulding as "a director at last to give Garbo her due" and for his "ingenious" camera work, "relishing, I suspect, the advantages the screen offers in these respects over the stage, where the awkward constant shifting of scenes clogged the action of the play".


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: The film holds an 86% approval rating on the review aggregationwebsite Rotten Tomatoes, based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 7.58/10. The site's consensus reads: "Perhaps less a true film than a series of star-studded vignettes, "Grand Hotel" still remains an entertaining look back at a bygone Hollywood era."


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Writing in 2009, Blake Goble of "The Michigan Daily" called it "the original "Ocean's Eleven" for its star power", and compared it to "Gosford Park" "for its dense structure and stories". He added, "[T]he pacing is quick, the acting is eloquent, and the stories are actually interesting. It's pure theatricality. But "Hotel" lasted thanks to its simplicity, and the star power doesn't hurt either. This is grand, old Hollywood captured on film."


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: "Grand Hotel" was a massive commercial success upon its release. According to MGM records, the film earned $1,235,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,359,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $947,000.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: In his memoir "Adventures in the Screen Trade", screenwriter William Goldman recalls being contacted by director Norman Jewison about doing a remake of the film as a musical, to be set at the original MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas (now Bally's). It would also be filmed at the hotel, named for the film and opened just four years earlier, where MGM had not yet allowed any filming of its luxurious interiors. Goldman was very enthusiastic, since even though movie musicals were not very popular with studios or audiences at the time, he believed "Grand Hotel" could be an exception, recalling the classic Hollywood movie musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, with the real interiors of the Grand, never before seen on screen, as their setting. Goldman also worried that he was being seen too much as a screenwriter of thrillers and wanted to show that he was not a genre writer.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: MGM executives, initially cooperative, began to have second thoughts about the project once one of them remembered that Jewison had final cut in his contract, meaning the studio could not force him to make changes to the film before release. Goldman characterized their perception of the hotel as "Pristine. Unsullied. The diamond in the Metro crown", and believed they feared the film would not depict the Grand this way, instead focusing on the less glamorous aspects of Las Vegas. Goldman wrote a draft of the script with far more detail than he normally added to make clear that this was not his or Jewison's intention, but the studio was not sufficiently persuaded. As a compromise, they offered Jewison final cut on any material filmed outside the hotel, but not inside. Jewison was unwilling to accept that, and the project fell through.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Four years later, Jewison called Goldman again and said the hotel, now under separate management from the studio, was again interested. Staff at the hotel took Goldman on tours of the building as part of his research. While visiting the suites on the uppermost floors, never rented but instead comped to heavy gamblers and their entourages, he was told that director Hal Ashby had used one for a scene in the then-unreleased "Lookin' to Get Out", apparently after Caesar's Palace across the street had refused him permission to use one of their suites.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Goldman and Jewison learned that in the scene Ashby filmed at the Grand, one of the main characters goes into the suite to be fellated by a prostitute while his friend waits outside. This was at odds with the image of the Grand management had gone to great lengths to avoid projecting in 1977. After the 1981 MGM film "...All the Marbles", set in the world of women's professional wrestling, staged its climax at the MGM Grand in Reno, Goldman felt the Grand had lost its mystique and so lost his enthusiasm for working on the film; the project was dropped.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: Warner Home Video released the first Region 1 DVD on February 3, 2004. The film is in 4:3 frame format, with audio tracks in English and French, and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Bonus features include "Checking Out: Grand Hotel", a documentary about the making of the film; a 1932 newsreel with highlights of the Hollywood premiere; "Nothing Ever Happens", a 1933 Vitaphone short film spoofing "Grand Hotel"; and theatrical trailers.


title: Grand Hotel (1932 film)

text: The 2013 Warner Home Video Blu-ray release of "Grand Hotel" contains an audio commentary track by film historians Jeffrey Vance and Mark A. Vieira.


title: Lemon Tree (Fool's Garden song)

text: "Lemon Tree" is a song by German band Fool's Garden from their third album, "Dish of the Day" (1995). The band's lead vocalist, Peter Freudenthaler, said that he wrote the song on a Sunday afternoon when he was waiting for his girlfriend who did not come. "Lemon Tree" was released as a single in November 1995 and became an international hit the following year. The song reached number 26 on the UK Singles Chart and remained at number one for four weeks in Germany. It also reached number one in Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden.


title: Lemon Tree (Fool's Garden song)

text: The band recorded a new version of the song in prior for their 2009 release "High Times – The Best of Fools Garden". The singles "Wild Days" and "Suzy" were also re-recorded for this album.


title: Lemon Tree (Fool's Garden song)

text: Dustin the Turkey recorded a Christmas-parody called "Christmas Tree". Taiwanese singer Tarcy Su released covers of the song (in both Mandarin and Cantonese) as did Korean singer Park Hye Kyung. Taiwanese-American singer-songwriter Joanna Wang made a cover of the song in 2011. Korean singer and composer, Kim Hong Joong of the group Ateez, released a cover of the song on 4 May 2022.


title: Lemon Tree (Fool's Garden song)

text: On 8 January 2021, Alle Farben with Fool's Garden released a cover of "Lemon Tree". The song made it into the Polish music charts.


title: Ar-Rahman

text: The title of the surah, Ar-Rahman, appears in verse 1 and means "The Most Beneficent". The divine appellation "ar-Rahman" also appears in the opening formula which precedes every surah except Sura 9 ("In the Name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy"). English translations of the surah's title include "The Most Gracious", "The All Merciful", "The Lord of Mercy", "The Beneficent", and "The Mercy-Giving". In the fourth century CE south Arabian pagan inscriptions started to be replaced by monotheistic expressions, using the term rahmān.


title: Ar-Rahman

text: There is disagreement over whether Ar-Rahman ought to be categorized as a surah of the Meccan or Medinan period. Theodor Nöldeke and Carl Ernst have categorized it among the surahs of the early Meccan period (in accordance with its short ayah length), but Abdel Haleem has categorized it in his translation as Medinan, although most Muslim scholars place Sūrat ar-Rahman in the Meccan period. According to the traditional Egyptian chronology, Ar-Rahman was the 97th surah revealed. Nöldeke places it earlier, at 43, while Ernst suggests that it was the fifth surah revealed.


title: Ar-Rahman

text: Ar-Rahman is composed entirely in "saj’", the rhymed, accent-based prose characteristic of early Arabic poetry.


title: Ar-Rahman

text: The most notable structural feature of Ar-Rahman is the refrain "Which, then, of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?" (or, in Arberry’s rendering, "O which of your Lord's bounties will you and you deny?"), which is repeated 31 times in the 78 verses.


title: Ar-Rahman

text: Chapter 55 (Surah Rahman) is composed of 26 couplets, 4 tercets, and an introductory stanza of 13 verses all ending with this refrain. The final couplet is followed by a blessing of God's name.


title: Ar-Rahman

text: Muhammad Asad asserts that the "noun hur - rendered as 'companions pure' - is a plural of both ahwar (masculine) and hawra' (female), either of which describes a person distinguished by hawar', which latter term primarily denotes 'intense whiteness of the eyeballs and lustrous black of the iris'. Asad as well as Yusuf Ali and Marmaduke Pickthall translate this verse as:


title: Ar-Rahman

text: According to Ibn Kathir, the believer will be given a tent 60 miles wide, made of pearl, such that his wives will not see each other. The believer will visit them all. The "Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur'an" says that they (the Houri) are good and righteous virgins and are intended to have intercourse only with their husbands.


title: Ar-Rahman

text: Owing to the sura’s poetic beauty, it is often regarded as the 'beauty of the Quran', in accordance with a hadith: Abdullah ibn Mas'ud reported that Muhammad said, "Everything has an adornment, and the adornment of the Qur'an is Surah Ar-Rahman"


title: Álex Pina

text: Alejandro "Álex" Pina Calafi (born 23 June 1967) is a Spanish television producer, writer, and director, known for the crime drama "Money Heist". Previous shows include "Vis a vis", "El embarcadero", and "Los hombres de Paco". His newest series, "Sky Rojo", started filming in November 2019, while "White Lines", a co-production for Netflix with "The Crown" team, first streamed on 15 May 2020. "The Hollywood Reporter" listed Pina in their "Top International Showrunners of 2019".


title: Álex Pina

text: Born in Pamplona in 1967, Pina began his career as a journalist in the press such as Diario Vasco and Diario de Mallorca and later in the Europa Press Agency.


title: Álex Pina

text: Between 1993 and 1996, he worked as a scriptwriter and editor for Videomedia until he then joined Globomedia in 1996.


title: Álex Pina

text: In 1997, at the same production company, he started his career as a screenwriter in the television series "Más que amigos", from there, he began to play the roles of creator and executive producer in iconic Spanish series such as "Los Serrano", "Los hombres de Paco", and "El barco".


title: Álex Pina

text: At the end of 2016, after the launch of "Vis a vis" by Antena 3, Pina left Globomedia and founded Vancouver Media, his own production company. The first production was "La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)", which premiered on Antena 3 on 2 May 2017 with more than four million viewers. The series was distributed worldwide by Netflix and became the biggest success of his career, leading to the signing of an exclusive contract with the streaming platform for the creation and production of an original series. In 2020 Alex Pina produced White Lines.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: The 2022 Scottish local elections were held on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. All 1,227 seats across all 32 Scottish local authorities were up for election and voter turnout was 44.8%.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: Compared to the previous elections of 2017, the Scottish National Party (SNP) gained seats and maintained its position as largest party in local government, winning 36.9% of the seats available. Scottish Labour (winning 22.9% of seats) gained seats, whilst the Scottish Conservatives (who won 17.5%) lost many seats, being displaced by Scottish Labour as the second-largest party. Independent candidates also lost seats, whilst the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens increased their vote share and gained seats across Scotland.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: At the 2017 election, no council was won by an overall majority of any party. In the 2022 election, the SNP increased its vote share and secured an overall majority on Dundee City Council, whilst Labour won overall control of West Dunbartonshire Council. Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross blamed his party's bad results on the partygate scandal.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: The Alba Party and Scottish Family Party ran candidates in around 100 seats each but failed to win any. The Rubbish Party and West Dunbartonshire Community Party held their singular seats, whilst the British Unionist Party gained their first seat from the Conservatives.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: The last election was in 2017, which was held five years after the 2012 election, instead of four was changed in order to avoid clashing with the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: Boundaries Scotland have conducted a review of electoral arrangements for six councils under the terms of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018. The Scottish Parliament's Local Government Committee accepted the new boundaries in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, North Ayrshire, Orkney and Shetland, but recommended against approval of the changes in Argyll and Bute and Highland.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: Councillors are elected to represent multi-member wards using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method, which has been used for all elections to local authorities in Scotland since the 2007 election. Previous to this election, in all votes since 2007, wards have been sized such that either 3 or 4 councillors are elected per ward. However, this election was different. The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 and the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 have given Boundaries Scotland increased flexibility to vary the size of wards. Mainland wards may now have between 2 and 5 councillors, and single councillor wards are permitted where such a ward includes an inhabited island. For these elections wards represented by one, two or five councillors will only be contested in the four council areas in which ward boundaries have been redrawn after 2017, namely Na h-Eileanan an Iar, North Ayrshire, Orkney and Shetland.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: Overall, the 32 local authorities had one one-seat district (Arran), seven two-seat districts and three five-seat districts (North Ayrshire) in addition to the bulk of the members elected in three and four seat districts.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: All registered electors (British citizens and all other foreign nationals with leave to remain, including refugees) who are aged 16 or over on polling day are entitled to vote in the local elections. A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) can register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, and can vote in the local elections for the two different local councils.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: Individuals must have been registered to vote by midnight on 18 April 2022. The deadlines to register for a postal vote and proxy vote were 19 and 26 April 2022, respectively.


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: Parties with coloured cells are part of governing coalitions or are the council administration. The party of the council leader is bold and marked with an asterisk (*).


title: 2022 Scottish local elections

text: This table shows the composition of councils directly prior to the 2022 election. Note that some seats are currently vacant and will not be filled before the election. Included in the Green totals are two councillors who have publicly joined the party since the election (denoted by ), but continue to sit as independents.


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: The Royal Green Jackets (RGJ) was an infantry regiment of the British Army, one of two "large regiments" within the Light Division (the other being The Light Infantry).


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: The Royal Green Jackets was formed on 1 January 1966 by the amalgamation of the three separate regiments of the Green Jackets Brigade:


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: During the 1980s, the battalions were deployed to various parts of Northern Ireland (Operation Banner). The 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions were also based in West Germany, Osnabrück (1RGJ), Minden (2RGJ) and Celle (3RGJ).


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: The regiment's greatest loss of life came on 20 July 1982 when seven RGJ bandsmen were killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb which exploded during a public concert featuring the music from "Oliver!" to 120 people at the bandstand in Regents Park.


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: After the 1992 reorganisation, the unit was mostly based overseas in Dhekelia (Cyprus) and Paderborn (Germany), as well as in Northern Ireland. It also saw action in Bosnia and Kosovo during the Yugoslav Wars. Both battalions returned to the United Kingdom by 2002 and in 2003 the 1st Battalion served on Operation Telic 2 in Iraq.


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: On 24 November 2005, the Ministry of Defence announced that the regiment would be amalgamated with The Light Infantry, the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry to form a single large regiment to be called The Rifles. The reorganisation into The Rifles took effect on 1 February 2007 with the 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets becoming the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles and the 2nd Battalion Royal Green Jackets becoming 4th Battalion, The Rifles. The 1st Battalion The Royal Green Jackets' final operational tour was in Basra, in Iraq, on Operation Telic in 2006-07.


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: Their motto was "Celer et Audax" (Latin: "Swift and Bold"). As they were used as shock troops and marksmen, they had to get to the front line of battle as fast as was possible; as a result the RGJ marched at 140 paces per minute (at a 30" pace) whereas other regiments march at just 120.


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: The regiment was classed as a 'rifle' regiment, having its lineage in the regiments of foot that were equipped with the first Baker rifles. Traditionally, rifle regiments wore rifle green tunics, an early form of camouflage, instead of the red jackets worn by line infantry, hence the regimental name.


title: Royal Green Jackets

text: The cap badge was a Maltese Cross, which was drawn from the badges of the King's Royal Rifle Corps and The Rifle Brigade, with a combination of some of their battle honours on its arms.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Antonio "Toni" Nadal Homar (; born 21 February 1961) is a Spanish tennis coach. Toni Nadal is the uncle and ex-coach of tennis player Rafael Nadal, the elder brother of Spanish professional footballer Miguel Ángel Nadal, and the current coach of tennis player Félix Auger-Aliassime.


title: Toni Nadal

text: With 16 major titles won as the coach of his nephew Rafael Nadal, he was the most successful coach in tennis history until Marián Vajda and his player Novak Djokovic won their 17th major title together in 2020.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Toni Nadal was born into a Spanish family and has two siblings, brothers. His younger brother Miguel became a professional football player for FC Barcelona. Toni Nadal tried participating in several sports including football, table tennis, and swimming. He achieved the title of junior champion of Balearic Islands in his table tennis career. He was the first of his siblings to play ground tennis when he started doing so at fourteen years old. Nadal was inspired to join the sport when he saw Ilie Năstase win the Barcelona Masters in 1972.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Nadal worked as a tennis coach and as a manager for a tennis club. He obtained a trainer's degree and taught at the tennis club his brother Miguel was a member of in Manacor. Nadal also became a manager of the Manacor tennis club while teaching younger students. At this time, Nadal began coaching his nephew, Rafael Nadal. The majority of Toni Nadal's coaching career has been spent with Rafael.


title: Toni Nadal

text: In April 2021, Nadal joined the coaching team of Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime ahead of the clay-court season. However, Nadal will not be travelling with Félix full-time. He will still remain the director of the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Nadal has described his coaching style as 'hard', saying that he occasionally puts too much pressure on Rafael, but that he does so because he wants him to succeed. When Rafael was younger, he would be nervous of having lessons by himself with Nadal. Rafael stated that as a child he would sometimes return home from tennis lessons crying. Nadal feels being such a hard coach would make his pupils better tennis players.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Nadal required that his pupils show respect for their equipment, and stated that he would immediately stop coaching Rafael if he ever threw his racket out of frustration. Nadal believes that throwing a tennis racket showed a lack of respect towards people who could not afford the same equipment and the sport itself.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Nadal strives to teach players to be responsible for themselves. He trained Rafael on poor tennis courts with old tennis balls to show that it was not the equipment that would decide if he won or lost. He believed that losing was a fact of competing in sports and that the only one responsible for winning or losing was the player.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Nadal had an authoritarian attitude with the players that he coached. He wanted his opinions to be important to players he was coaching rather than it just being advice. He did not want to be paid by Rafael Nadal because he believed that it would make him less of an important figure. Without being paid, he could say whatever he felt without a chance of Rafael being able to fire him like a regular coach.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Toni Nadal was the record holder of the most Grand Slam titles won as a coach with 16 until February 2, 2020, when Marián Vajda and Novak Djokovic won their 17th Grand Slam title together in the Australian Open, giving Vajda the sole possession of the top position in the history of tennis.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Toni Nadal previously assumed the lead on coaches' rank list with his 12th Grand Slam title as a coach on June 9, 2013, when Rafael Nadal defeated David Ferrer in the Roland Garros final in Paris, breaking a tie with Lennart Bergelin, coach of Björn Borg between 1974–1981.


title: Toni Nadal

text: In 2015, after Rafael Nadal lost in the second round at Wimbledon to Dustin Brown, who was ranked No. 102 at the time, former world No. 1 John McEnroe said on BBC Radio 5 Live that the Spanish tennis star should "get a new damn coach". Rafael had failed to reach the semifinals at all four Grand Slam events that year. In February 2016, at the Buenos Aires Open, Nadal admitted that Rafael would have probably already replaced him had he not been his uncle.


title: Toni Nadal

text: In December 2016, Rafael added countryman Carlos Moyá, a former world number one player, to work alongside Nadal as his coach. Nadal was the first one to contact Moyá to see if he would be willing to join Rafael's coaching team, thinking it was the perfect time to include him. Moyá is also expected to work with Nadal on projects with the Rafa Nadal Academy.


title: Toni Nadal

text: In late February 2017, Nadal announced he had decided to retire from his nephew's coaching staff. Nadal had informed Moyá and his brother (and Rafael's father) Sebastián of his intentions. Nadal originally withheld the knowledge of his plans to separate from Rafael, who found out when the news was released to the press. Nadal did not tell Rafael about his decision because he did not want to distract Rafael from playing tennis. Nadal stated that he later regretted keeping this information from his nephew.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Currently, Nadal plans on working at the Rafa Nadal Academy. He stated that he wants to work with younger players and develop their talent.


title: Toni Nadal

text: Rafael mentioned that he is happy to know Nadal is doing what he wants and does not hold any resentment towards his departure. Rafael said he believed it was a good time for Nadal to focus on projects like the Academy.


title: England national under-20 football team

text: England national under-20 football team, also known as England Under-20s or England U20(s), represents England in association football at an under-20 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England.


title: England national under-20 football team

text: England were champions of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, after defeating Venezuela in the final of the 2017 tournament. Since the 2017–18 season, England contest the Under 20 Elite League.


title: England national under-20 football team

text: Players born between September 2002 and August 2003 are second-year graduates of the English academy system, players born between September 2003 and August 2004 are first-year graduates. Players born after 1 January 2004 remain eligible to play for England under-19s.


title: England national under-20 football team

text: The following players were named in the squad for games against Chile, Morocco and Australia, to be played between 21 and 27 September 2022.


title: England national under-20 football team

text: The following players have previously been called up to the England under-20 squad in the last 12 months and remain eligible.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: My Father's Dragon is a 2022 Irish-American 2D-animated fantasy adventure film directed by Nora Twomey with a screenplay by Meg LeFauve who co-wrote the story with John Morgan. It is based on the 1948 children's novel of the same name by Ruth Stiles Gannett. The film is also dedicated to Morgan who had since died. It stars the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Gaten Matarazzo, Golshifteh Farahani, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno, Chris O'Dowd, Judy Greer, Alan Cumming, Yara Shahidi, Jackie Earle Haley, with Whoopi Goldberg, and Ian McShane.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: Co-produced by Netflix Animation, Mockingbird Pictures and Cartoon Saloon, the film was originally set for a 2021 premiere on Netflix, but was pushed to a Netflix release on November 11, 2022, after a limited theatrical release in Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom on November 4. The film received positive reviews from critics.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: An unseen older woman tells the story of her father, Elmer Elevator, when he was a kid. He and his mother Dela owned a candy shop in a small town, but were soon forced to close down and move away when the people of the town moved away. They move to a faraway city where they plan to open a new shop, but they eventually lose all the money they save up while getting by.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: Elmer soon befriends a cat and eventually gets the idea to panhandle the money needed for the store, only for his mother to tell him that it is a lost cause. Angered, Elmer runs to the docks to be alone. The Cat comes to him and begins speaking to him, much to his shock. She tells him that on an island, Wild Island, beyond the city lies a dragon that can probably help him. Elmer takes the task and is transported to the island thanks to a bubbly whale named Soda. Once they make it to Wild Island, Soda explains that a gorilla named Saiwa is using the dragon to keep the island from sinking, but it remains ineffective.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: Elmer frees the dragon, a goofball named Boris, and they go on an adventure to find a tortoise named Aratuah in order to find out how Boris can keep the island from sinking for the next century. Boris explains that his kind has been saving the island as long as anyone can remember, and after he succeeds, he will be an "After Dragon". During this conversation, it is discovered that Boris can't fly - due to breaking his wing when Elmer saved him - and he reveals that he is afraid of both water and fire. The two make an agreement that Boris will help Elmer raise enough cash to buy a new store and will let the dragon go free once finished. Along the way, they encounter some of the islands inhabitants, like Cornelius the crocodile, the tiger siblings Sasha and George and a mother rhino named Iris all while trying to evade Saiwa and his monkey army.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: They soon make it to Aratuah's shell, but Elmer finds out that he died, and leave as the island continues to sink. While resting on a flower, they are found by Saiwa and his forces and Saiwa reveals that he knew about Aratuah's death, which angers his macaque 2nd-in-command Kwan, who proceeds to use a giant mushroom as a raft to leave the island, convinced that it's hopeless to save. While flying with Boris, Elmer has an epiphany; it's the roots below the island that pull it down. He manages to convince Boris to fly with all his might and while Boris manages to free the island from two of the roots, he chokes when he gets overwhelmed by his fear of fire and upon crashing down, Elmer falls off the island.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: Elmer is saved by Saiwa, who reveals that he and the other animals are evacuating the island and berates Elmer for wanting to use Boris for his own merits. He then reveals that once he found out about Aratuah's death, he was frightened about making everyone more worried and was even more worried when Boris showed up to save the island but Saiwa was weary of his goofy personality, so he lied and said he knew how to control Boris. Wanting to fix things, Elmer goes back to the island where Boris tells him he's found a way to save it by jumping into the fire and eventually, he bursts out and magically lifts the island from the sea, finally becoming an After Dragon.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: After telling the animals of the island how to always let future dragons know the right way to save it, Boris takes Elmer home, passing by a surprised Kwan residing over on tangerine trees. Elmer reunites with his mother and the movie ends with Elmer embracing his new life in the city with his daughter narrating the end of the story.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: In June 2016, it was reported that Cartoon Saloon was developing an adaptation of "My Father's Dragon", with Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey co-directing it. In November 2018, Netflix announced that it had come on board the project. Twomey was now the sole director.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: In April 2022, the cast was revealed along with a first image from the film, and Mychael and Jeff Danna as the composers of the film score.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: "My Father's Dragon" had its world premiere at the 66th BFI London Film Festival on October 8, 2022. The North American premiere was at the Animation Is Film Festival on October 22, 2022.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: In November 2018, Netflix previously announced that the film would be released in 2021. However, in January 2021, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that the film's release could be moved to "2022 or later", to meet Netflix's criteria of releasing six animated features per year. The film was shown in select theatres for a limited time in Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom on November 4, 2022. It was released on Netflix on November 11, 2022.


title: My Father's Dragon (2022 film)

text: and on Metacritic the film has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The Maunsell Forts are armed towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were operated as army and navy forts, and named after their designer, Guy Maunsell. The forts were decommissioned in the late 1950s and later used for other activities including pirate radio broadcasting. One of the forts is managed by the unrecognised Principality of Sealand; boats visit the remaining forts occasionally, and a consortium called Project Redsands is planning to conserve the fort situated at Red Sands.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: In the summers of 2007 and 2008 Red Sands Radio, a station commemorating the pirate radio stations of the 1960s, operated from the Red Sands fort on 28-day Restricted Service Licences. The fort was subsequently declared unsafe, and Red Sands Radio has moved its operations ashore to Whitstable.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Forts had been built in river mouths and similar locations to defend against ships, such as the Grain Tower Battery at the mouth of the Medway dating from 1855, Plymouth Breakwater Fort, completed 1865, the four Spithead Forts: Horse Sand Fort, No Mans Land and St Helens Forts which were built 1865–1880 and Spitbank Fort, built in the 1880s, the Humber Forts on Bull & Haile Sands, completed in late 1919, and the Nab Tower, intended as part of a World War I anti-submarine defense but only set in place in 1920.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The Maunsell naval forts were built in the Thames estuary and operated by the Royal Navy, to deter and report German air raids following the Thames as a landmark, and prevent attempts to lay mines by aircraft in this important shipping channel.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: This artificial naval installation is similar in some respects to early "fixed" offshore oil platforms. It consisted of a rectangular reinforced concrete pontoon base with a support superstructure of two tall, diameter hollow reinforced concrete towers, walls roughly thick; overall weight is estimated to have been approximately 4,500 tons. The twin concrete supporting towers were divided into seven floors, four for crew quarters; the remainder provided dining, operational, and storage areas for several generators, and for fresh water tanks and antiaircraft munitions. There was a steel framework at one end supporting a landing jetty and crane which was used to hoist supplies aboard; the wooden landing stage itself became known as a "dolphin".


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The towers were joined above the eventual waterline by a steel platform deck upon which other structures could be added; this became a gun deck, on which an upper deck and a central tower unit were constructed. QF 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns were positioned at each end of this main deck, with a further two Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and the central tower radar installations atop a central living area that contained a galley, medical, and officers quarters.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The design of these concrete structures is equal to a military grade bunker, due to the ends of the stilts, (under water) that are solidly locked into the ground. Many species of fish live near the forts because the forts create cover. They have provided landmark references for shipping. They were laid down in dry dock and assembled as complete units. They were then fitted out—the crews going on board at the same time for familiarization—before being towed out and sunk onto their sand bank positions in 1942.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The naval fort design was the latest of several that Maunsell had devised in response to Admiralty inquiries. Early ideas had considered forts in the English Channel able to take on enemy vessels.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Rough Sands fort was built to protect the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich and the town of Ipswich from aerial and sea attack. It is situated on Rough Sands, a sandbar located approximately from the coast of Suffolk and from the coast of Essex. Fort Roughs or the "Rough Towers" was "the first of originally four naval forts designed by G. Maunsell to protect the Thames Estuary." The artificial sea fort was constructed in dry dock at Red Lion Wharf, Gravesend, and was commissioned "H.M. Fort Roughs" on 8 February 1942. After an eventful journey it was grounded under the supervision of Maunsell at 16:45 on 11 February 1942. With "almost 100 men" having earlier embarked at Tilbury docks, the fort entered into service immediately.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: In 1966 Paddy Roy Bates, who operated Radio Essex, and Ronan O'Rahilly, who operated Radio Caroline, landed on Fort Roughs and occupied it. However, after disagreements, Roy Bates seized the tower as his own. O'Rahilly attempted to storm the fort in 1967, but Roy Bates defended the fort with guns and petrol bombs and continued to occupy it. The British Royal Marines went on alert and the British authorities ordered Roy Bates to surrender. He and his son were arrested and charged, but the court threw out the case as it did not have jurisdiction over international affairs: Roughs Tower lay beyond the territorial waters of Britain. Bates took this as "de facto" recognition of his country and seven years later issued a constitution, flag, and national anthem, among other things, for the Principality of Sealand (founded on 2 September 1967).


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Sunk Head fort was situated approximately from the coast off Essex and was grounded on 1 June 1942. The fort was decommissioned on 14 June 1945 though maintained until 1956 when it was abandoned. Unlike some of the other forts, Sunk Head was clearly well outside territorial waters, and when the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act came into effect in August 1967 the Government was anxious to ensure that it would not be taken over again by an offshore broadcaster. On 18 August 1967 Sunk Head was boarded by a contingent of the 24th Field Squadron of Royal Engineers from Maidstone from the tug Collie, under the command of Major David Ives. The Fort was weakened by acetylene cutting torches and 3,200 pounds of explosives were set. On 21 August 1967 Sunk Head was blown up, leaving 20 feet of the leg stumps remaining.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Tongue Sands Fort was situated approximately from the coast off Margate, Kent and was grounded on 27 June 1942. On the night of 22/23 January 1945, fifteen German E-boats were seen on radar, with five close by. The S.119 or S.199 operating out of IJmuiden, Holland was just over 4 miles away and came under heavy fire from Tongue Sands Fort's 3.7-inch guns. The German E-Boat's captain was unsure of where the attack was coming from and manoeuvred to avoid being hit, ramming another E-Boat in the process. The captain scuttled his badly damaged vessel.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The Tongue Sands Fort was decommissioned on 14 February 1945 and reduced to care and maintenance until 1949 when it was abandoned. The fort had settled badly when it was grounded and as a result became unstable. On 5 December 1947 the Fort shook violently and sections began falling into the sea. The caretaker crew put out a distress call and were rescued by "HMS Uplifter". Divers later established that the foundations were solid, but in a later storm the fort took on a 15 degree list. In the mid-1960s under-scouring had further distorted the fort: large holes had appeared in east leg, sea water had flooded the lower levels and the platform had become detached with huge gaps between the deck. Tongue Sands Fort finally collapsed into the under-scouring hole during storms on 21/22 February 1996, leaving only a single 18 foot stump of the south leg remaining visible above sea level.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Knock John fort is situated approximately from the coast off Essex and was grounded on 1 August 1942. It was decommissioned on 14 June 1945 and evacuated on 25 June 1945. The platform was maintained until May 1956 when it was abandoned. In 2009, it was observed that there was a slight distortion of the legs when viewing the tower from west to east. It is thought that underscouring is the cause of this.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Maunsell also designed forts for anti-aircraft defence. These were larger installations comprising seven interconnected steel platforms. Four towers arranged in a semicircle ahead of the control centre and accommodation each carried a QF 3.7-inch gun, a tower to the rear of the control centre mounted Bofors 40 mm guns, while the seventh tower, set to one side of the gun towers and further out, was the searchlight tower.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The Mersey forts were constructed at Bromborough Dock, the Thames forts at Gravesend. Proposals to construct Forts off the Humber, Portsmouth & Rosyth, Belfast & Londonderry never materialized. During World War II, the Thames estuary forts shot down 22 aircraft and about 30 flying bombs; they were decommissioned by the Ministry of Defence in the late 1950s.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Nore fort was the only one built in British territorial waters at the time it was established. Other forts were in international waters until the three-mile limit was extended to . The fort was badly damaged in 1953 during a storm, then later in the year a Norwegian ship, "Baalbek", collided with it, destroying two of the towers, killing four civilians and destroying guns, radar equipment and supplies. The ruins were considered a hazard to shipping and dismantled in 1959–60. Parts of the bases were towed ashore by the Cliffe fort at Alpha wharf near the village of Cliffe, Kent, where they were still visible at low tide.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: There are seven towers in the Red Sands group at the mouth of the Thames Estuary. The towers had been connected by metal grate walk-ways. In 1959 consideration was given to refloating the Red Sands Fort and bringing the towers ashore but the costs were prohibitive. In the early 21st century, in response to proposals to demolish the fort, a group called Project Redsands was formed to try to preserve it. It was the only fort that could be visited safely from a platform in between the legs of one of the towers. The fort was inspected by the structural engineering company Structural Repairs in 2021. They found that 6 of the towers had severe structural defects, with elements already lost to the sea, the 7th tower also had the same defects, with elements due to imminently fall into the sea. The fort could not be accessed safely in its present condition.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: This group was built near the Thames estuary for anti-aircraft defence and made up of several towers north of Herne Bay from the nearest land. One of the seven towers collapsed in 1963 when fog caused the ship "Ribersborg" to stray off course and collide with one of the towers. In 1964, the Port of London Authority placed wind and tide monitoring equipment on the Shivering Sands searchlight tower, which was isolated from the rest of the fort by the demolished tower. This relayed data to the mainland via a radio link. In August and September 2005, artist Stephen Turner spent six weeks living alone in the searchlight tower of the Shivering Sands Fort in what he described as "an artistic exploration of isolation, investigating how one's experience of time changes in isolation, and what creative contemplation means in a 21st-century context".


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The Liverpool sea forts were constructed in the same way the forts in the Thames estuary were, they were designed to defend Liverpool and the industrial heartland of Liverpool from an aerial attack from the west. Originally 38 towers were intended to be built but only 21 towers were built (three forts). The forts were built from October 1941. No fort engaged in enemy action during WWII. Demolition of the structures started in the 1950s with these forts considered a priority over the Thames estuary ports due to being a hazard to shipping. Demolition was delayed in 1954 when the salvage ship working at Queens Fort was diverted to assist with the urgent demolition of The Nore Fort in the Thames Estuary, which had been damaged following a collision with a Norwegian ship, leaving remains considered hazardous to shipping in the area. Demolition of the three forts was completed in 1955.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: In 1964, a few months after Radios Caroline and Atlanta went on air, Screaming Lord Sutch set up Radio Sutch in one of the towers at Shivering Sands. Sutch soon became bored with the project and sold the station to Reginald Calvert who had assisted in setting the station up and who renamed the station Radio City and expanded operations into all of the five towers that remained connected. Calvert's killing in a dispute over the station's ownership (found to be self-defence rather than murder) contributed to the Government passing legislation against the offshore stations in 1967.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: During the pirate era the Port of London Authority frequently complained that its monitoring radio link was being disrupted by the nearby Radio City transmitter.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Red Sands was likewise occupied by Radio Invicta, which was renamed KING Radio and then Radio 390, after its wavelength of approximately 390 metres. The station's managing director was ex-spy and thriller writer Ted Allbeury.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The size of the Army forts made them ideal antenna platforms, since a large antenna could be based on the central tower and guyed from the surrounding towers.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: A small group of radio enthusiasts set up Radio Tower on Sunk Head Naval fort, but the station was run on a shoestring, had poor coverage and lasted only a few months. Claims by the group that they also intended to run a television service from the fort were never credible. In order to prevent further pirate broadcasting, a team of Royal Engineers laid 2,200 lbs of explosive charges on Sunk Head, commencing on 18 August 1967. At 4:18 PM on 21 August the charges were detonated, destroying the entire superstructure and most of the concrete legs above the waterline.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: Paddy Roy Bates occupied the Knock John Fort in 1965 and set up Radio Essex, later renamed BBMS—Britain's Better Music Station, but was better known for his post-pirate activities. Following the closure of BBMS in late 1966 he moved the station's equipment to Roughs Tower, further from the coast, but did not recommence broadcasting. He, or a representative, has lived in Roughs Tower since 1967, self-styling the tower as the Principality of Sealand.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The 1966 "Danger Man" episode "Not-so-Jolly Roger" was partly filmed at Redsands Army Sea Fort and includes an acknowledgement to Radio 390 in its closing credits. Redsands Fort was also used for the 1968 "Doctor Who" serial "Fury from the Deep", in which the complex stood in for a North Sea gas refinery besieged by an intelligent seaweed creature. In the 2020 film of "Artemis Fowl", the Redsands towers, seen from the air, appear as the exterior of a secret MI6 interrogation centre.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The Shivering Sands Fort and Radio City feature in the Glam Rock band, Slade’s movie, ‘‘Slade in Flame’’. The newly formed band, Flame, are interviewed on the pirate radio station, just as an attack is launched on the forts.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The Shivering Sands Forts, filmed from a North Sea ferry, appeared in the 1984 music video for the song "A Sort of Homecoming", by the Irish pop music band U2.


title: Maunsell Forts

text: The 2015 video game "Stranded Deep" includes abandoned Sea Forts that have the appearance of Maunsell Army Forts. These are difficult-to-find Easter Eggs built into the game for players to explore.


title: Real Women Have Curves

text: Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Patricia Cardoso, based on the play of the same name by Josefina López, who co-authored the screenplay for the film with George LaVoo. The film stars America Ferrera (in her feature film debut) as protagonist Ana García. It gained fame after winning the Audience Award for best dramatic film, and the Special Jury Prize for acting in the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. The film went on to receive the Youth Jury Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the Humanitas Prize, the Imagen Award, and Special Recognition by the National Board of Review. According to the Sundance Institute, the film gives a voice to young women who are struggling to love themselves and find respect in the United States.


title: Real Women Have Curves

text: "Real Women Have Curves" broke many conventions of traditional Hollywood filmmaking and became a landmark in American independent film. According to "Entertainment Weekly", it is one of the most influential movies of the 2000s and cast a wide shadow over the new generation of filmmakers to come. The movie is cited for showing the impact a movie could have in the culture and it is acclaimed for its nuanced portrayal of Los Angeles.


title: Real Women Have Curves

text: In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is the first Latina-directed film to be inducted into the National Registry.


title: Real Women Have Curves

text: In East Los Angeles, California, 18-year-old Ana García, a student at a high school in Beverly Hills, struggles to balance her dream of going to college with family duty and a tough economic situation. While Ana's sister Estela and their father Raúl approve of her ambitions, Ana's mother Carmen resists the idea in favor of Ana helping Estela oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory, out of her desire to keep her family together and resolve their precarious finances.