title: Mafia (party game)

text: In this standalone game published by Bezier Games, players only "sleep" and close their eyes for a single night at the beginning of the game. They then have a single day of discussion, with a single elimination. No players are eliminated as the game progresses. There is no moderator, so everyone gets to participate as a member of the town or village. When playing this game, three more role cards are used than the number of players; when everyone is randomly dealt out their card the three extra ones placed in the middle of the table. To begin the game one of the players, with eyes closed, will act as the "caller" on the single starting night, going through the nighttime roles once: Werewolves and Minions (if in play) will identify each other, the Seer will examine one player's card or two of the middle cards, the Robber will steal another player's role card and replace it with their own, the Troublemaker will blindly swap two players' role cards, the Insomniac wakes up to check if their role card has been swapped, etc. The game ends on a single elimination vote, with the villagers winning if a single werewolf is caught, and the werewolves winning if no werewolves are killed. This game can be played with as few as three players. Play time can be as quick as five minutes per game.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: "Town of Salem" is an advanced online version of Mafia that takes place during the Salem witch trials. It involves several different roles from multiple factions. The game was updated on June 6, 2017, to add a new faction: the Coven, which mainly consists of witches and is similar in function and goal to the more traditional Mafia.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: Mafia can also be played online. Games can be played on IRC channels, where a bot assumes the role of a game moderator and the interaction of players is conducted via textual communication.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: Playing mafia-like games online opens the possibility of long lasting games, such as the ones on forums. In such games, one day in real life usually corresponds to one day within the game, so players log in each morning to see who was killed during the night phase.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: Online games have several advantages. There is no need to gather many people in the same room, so organizing and playing a game of Mafia is faster and more convenient. Removing the human moderator and the need for players to close their eyes removes the possibility of accidental revelation of information. Online play also allows role mechanics which would be too cumbersome to use in a physical version of the game.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: A drawback of online play is the lack of direct face-to-face communication, which many consider the most important aspect of Mafia. Some sites organize Mafia games with web cams, so that face-to-face communication is preserved. The long lasting online mafia games that are usually played via online forums do not necessarily have this drawback. People who communicate via forums usually do not know each other in real life.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: In a traditional Mafia game, all of the players are in one room. There is no way to communicate with another player in private. With online games, this is not the case. Many Mafia game forums and game sites have rules that mandate that only one channel of communication must be used for all game related discussion.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: Werewolf is a subject of artificial intelligence research due to its unique features such as persuasion and deception. The game requires several AI technologies such as multi-agent coordination, intentional reading, and understanding of the theory of mind.


title: Mafia (party game)

text: Deep learning has been used in an attempt to develop agents that can win the game as werewolves or as villagers. Regular expressions have been used to parse utterance logs for divulgence (or "coming-out" as a role) and decision information, although one difficulty has been that a statement such as "Player A is a werewolf" could be based on either the player's ability (e.g. as seer) or just speculation.


title: Melanesia

text: Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's Sumba in the west to Tonga in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea and a few thousand islands.


title: Melanesia

text: The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. It also includes parts of Indonesia – which include East Nusa Tenggara, 6 provinces in Western New Guinea as well as 2 provinces in Maluku Islands and the French oversea collectivity of New Caledonia. Almost all of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere; only a few small islands that are not politically considered part of Oceania—specifically the northwestern islands of Western New Guinea—lie in the Northern Hemisphere.


title: Melanesia

text: The name "Melanesia" (in French, "Mélanésie") was first used in 1832 by French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville: he coined the terms "Melanesia" and "Micronesia" along the preexisting "Polynesia" to designate what he viewed as the three main ethnic and geographical regions forming the Pacific.


title: Melanesia

text: The name "Melanesia", from Greek , "black", and , "island", etymologically means "islands of black [people]", in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants.


title: Melanesia

text: The concept among Europeans of "Melanesia" as a distinct region evolved gradually over time as their expeditions mapped and explored the Pacific. Early European explorers noted the physical differences among groups of Pacific Islanders. In 1756, Charles de Brosses theorized that there was an "old black race" in the Pacific who had been conquered or defeated by the peoples of what is now called Polynesia, whom he distinguished as having lighter skin. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent and Jules Dumont d'Urville characterized Melanesians as a distinct racial group.


title: Melanesia

text: Over time, however, Europeans increasingly viewed Melanesians as a distinct cultural, rather than racial, grouping. Scholars and other commentators disagreed on the boundaries of Melanesia, descriptions of which were therefore somewhat fluid. In the nineteenth century, Robert Henry Codrington, a British missionary, produced a series of monographs on "the Melanesians," based on his long-time residence in the region. In his published works on Melanesia, including "The Melanesian Languages" (1885) and "The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore" (1891), Codrington defined Melanesia as including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, and Fiji. He reasoned that the islands of New Guinea should not be included because only some of its people were Melanesians. Also, like Bory de Saint-Vincent, he excluded Australia from Melanesia. It was in these works that Codrington introduced the Melanesian cultural concept of "mana" to the West.


title: Melanesia

text: Uncertainty about the best way to delineate and define the region continues to this day. The scholarly consensus now includes New Guinea within Melanesia. Ann Chowning wrote in her 1977 textbook on Melanesia that there is no general agreement even among anthropologists about the geographical boundaries of Melanesia. Many apply the term only to the smaller islands, excluding New Guinea; Fiji has frequently been treated as an anomalous border region or even assigned wholly to Polynesia; and the people of the Torres Straits Islands are often simply classified as Australian aborigines.


title: Melanesia

text: In 1998, Paul Sillitoe wrote: "It is not easy to define precisely, on geographical, cultural, biological, or any other grounds, where Melanesia ends and the neighbouring regions ... begins". He ultimately concludes that the region is a historical category which evolved in the nineteenth century from the discoveries made in the Pacific and has been legitimated by use and further research in the region. It covers populations that have a certain linguistic, biological and cultural affinity – a certain ill-defined sameness, which shades off at its margins into difference.


title: Melanesia

text: Both Sillitoe and Chowning include the island of New Guinea in the definition of Melanesia, and both exclude Australia. Most of the peoples of Melanesia live either in politically independent countries, or in areas administered by France, or in a country (West Papua) that currently has an active independence movement. Some have recently embraced the term 'Melanesia' as a source of identity and empowerment. Stephanie Lawson writes that the term has "moved from a term of denigration to one of affirmation, providing a positive basis for contemporary subregional identity as well as a formal organisation". The author Bernard Narokobi has written that the concept of the "Melanesian Way" as a distinct cultural force could give the people of the region a sense of empowerment. This concept has in fact been used as a force in geopolitics. For instance, when the countries of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji reached a regional preferential trade agreement, they named it the Melanesian Spearhead Group.


title: Melanesia

text: The people of Melanesia have a distinctive ancestry. According to the Southern Dispersal theory, hominid populations from Africa dispersed along the southern edge of Asia some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. For some, the endpoint of this ancient migration was the ancient continent of Sahul, a single landmass comprising both the areas that are now Australia and New Guinea. At that time, they were united by a land bridge, because sea levels were lower than in the present day. The first migration into Sahul was over 40,000 years ago. Some migrants settled in the part that is now New Guinea, while others continued south and became the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia.


title: Melanesia

text: Another wave of Austronesian migrants, originating ultimately from Taiwan, arrived in Melanesia much later, probably between 4000 and 3000 BC. They settled mostly along the north coast of New Guinea and on the islands to its north and east. When they arrived, they came into contact with the much more ancient indigenous Papuan-speaking peoples.


title: Melanesia

text: Some late-20th-century scholars developed a theory, known as the “Polynesian theory,” that there then followed a long period of interaction between these newcomers and the pre-existing inhabitants that led to many complex genetic, linguistic, and cultural mixing and other changes among the descendants of all the groups. This theory was later called into question, however, by the findings of a genetic study published by Temple University in 2008. That study found that neither Polynesians nor Micronesians have much genetic relation to Melanesians. The study's results suggest that, after ancestors of the Polynesians, having developed sailing outrigger canoes, migrated out of East Asia, they moved quickly through the Melanesian area, mostly without settling there, and instead continued on to areas east of Melanesia, finally settling in those areas.


title: Melanesia

text: The genetic evidence suggests that they left few descendants in Melanesia, and therefore probably "only intermixed to a very modest degree with the indigenous populations there". The study did find a small Austronesian genetic signature (below 20%) in some of the Melanesian groups who speak Austronesian languages, but found no such signature at all in Papuan-speaking groups.


title: Melanesia

text: Most of the languages of Melanesia are members of the Austronesian language family or one of the numerous Papuan languages. The term “Papuan languages” refers to their geographical location rather than implying that they are linguistically related. In fact they comprise many separate language families. By one count, there are 1,319 languages in Melanesia, scattered across a small amount of land. On average, there is one language for every 716 square kilometers on the island. This is by far the densest collection of distinct languages on Earth, almost three times as dense as in Nigeria, a country famous for having a very large number of languages in a very compact area.


title: Melanesia

text: In addition to the many indigenous Melanesian languages, pidgins and creole languages have developed from trade and cultural interaction within the area and with the wider world. Most notable among these are Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu in Papua New Guinea. They are now both considered distinct creole languages. Use of Tok Pisin is growing. It is sometimes learned as a first language, above all by multi-cultural families. Examples of other Melanesian creoles are Unserdeutsch, Solomon Islands Pijin, Bislama, and Papuan Malay.


title: Melanesia

text: A distinction is often made between the island of New Guinea and what is known as Island Melanesia, which consists of "the chain of archipelagos, islands, atolls, and reefs forming the outer bounds of the sheltered oval-shaped coral sea". This includes the Louisiade Archipelago (a part of Papua New Guinea), the Bismarck Archipelago (a part of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands), and the Santa Cruz Islands (a part of the country called Solomon Islands). The country of Vanuatu is composed of the New Hebrides island chain (and in the past 'New Hebrides' has also been the name of the political unit located on the islands). New Caledonia is composed of one large island and several smaller chains, including the Loyalty Islands. The nation of Fiji is composed of two main islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, and smaller islands, including the Lau Islands.


title: Melanesia

text: The names of islands in Melanesia can be confusing: they have both indigenous and European names. National boundaries sometimes cut across archipelagos. The names of the political units in the region have changed over time, and sometimes have included geographical terms. For example, the island of Makira was once known as San Cristobal, the name given to it by Spanish explorers. It is in the country Solomon Islands, which is a nation-state and not a contiguous archipelago. The border of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands separates the island of Bougainville from nearby islands like Choiseul, although Bougainville is geographically part of the chain of islands that includes Choiseul and much of the Solomons.


title: Melanesia

text: In addition to the islands mentioned above, there are many smaller islands and atolls in Melanesia. These include:


title: Melanesia

text: Norfolk Island, listed above, has archaeological evidence of East Polynesian rather than Melanesian settlement. Rotuma in Fiji has strong affinities culturally and ethnologically to Polynesia.


title: Melanesia

text: Several Melanesian states are members of intergovernmental and regional organizations. Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are members of the Commonwealth of Nations and are also members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.


title: Melanesia

text: Melanesians were found to have a mysterious third archaic "Homo" species along with their Denisovan (3–4%) and Neanderthal (2%) ancestors in a genetic admixture with their otherwise modern "Homo sapiens sapiens" genomes. Their most common Y-chromosome haplogroup is M-P256.


title: Melanesia

text: The frequent occurrence of blond hair among these peoples is due to a specific random mutation, different from the mutation that led to blond hair in peoples indigenous to northern regions of the globe. This is evidence that the genotype and phenotype for blond hair arose at least twice in human history.


title: Hockey

text: Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers of players, apparel and, notably, playing surface, they share broad characteristics of two teams playing against each other to propel a ball or disk into a goal with a stick.


title: Hockey

text: There are many types of hockey. Some games make the use of skates, either wheeled, or bladed while others do not. In order to help make the distinction between these various games, the word "hockey" is often preceded by another word i.e. "field hockey", "ice hockey", "roller hockey", "rink hockey", or "floor hockey".


title: Hockey

text: In each of these sports, two teams play against each other by trying to manoeuvre the object of play, either a type of ball or a disk (such as a puck), into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick. Two notable exceptions use a straight stick and an open disk (still referred to as a "puck") with a hole in the center instead. The first case is a style of floor hockey whose rules were codified in 1936 during the Great Depression by Canada's Sam Jacks. The second case involves a variant which was later modified in roughly the 1970s to make a related game that would be considered suitable for inclusion as a team sport in the newly emerging Special Olympics. The floor game of gym ringette, though related to floor hockey, is not a true variant due to the fact that it was designed in the 1990s and modelled off of the Canadian ice skating team sport of ringette, which was invented in Canada in 1963. Ringette was also invented by Sam Jacks, the same Canadian who codified the rules for the open disk style of floor hockey 1936.


title: Hockey

text: In most of the world, the term "hockey" when used without clarification refers to field hockey, while in Canada, the United States, Russia and most of Eastern and Northern Europe, the term usually refers to ice hockey.


title: Hockey

text: In more recent history, the word "hockey" is used in reference to either the summer Olympic sport of field hockey, which is a stick and ball game, and the winter ice team skating sports of bandy and ice hockey. This is due to the fact that field hockey and other stick and ball sports and their related variants preceded games which would eventually be played on ice with ice skates, namely bandy and ice hockey, as well as sports involving dry floors such as roller hockey and floor hockey. However, the "hockey" referred to in common parlance often depends on locale, geography, and the size and popularity of the sport involved. For example, in Europe, "hockey" more typically refers to field hockey, whereas in Canada, it typically refers to ice hockey. In the case of bandy, the game was initially called "hockey on the ice" and preceded the organization and development of ice hockey, but was officially changed to "bandy" in the early 20th century in order to avoid confusion with ice hockey, a separate sport. Bandy, while related to other hockey games, derives some of its inspiration from Association football.


title: Hockey

text: Certain sports which share general characteristics with the forms of hockey, but are not generally referred to as hockey include Lacrosse, Hurling, Camogie and Shinty.


title: Hockey

text: The first recorded use of the word "hockey" is in the 1773 book "Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education" by Richard Johnson (Pseud. Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey". The belief that hockey was mentioned in a 1363 proclamation by King Edward III of England is based on modern translations of the proclamation, which was originally in Latin and explicitly forbade the games "Pilam Manualem, Pedivam, & Bacularem: & ad Canibucam & Gallorum Pugnam". The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word "hockey" when he translated the proclamation in 1720, instead translating "Canibucam" as "Cambuck"; this may have referred to either an early form of hockey or a game more similar to golf or croquet.


title: Hockey

text: The word "hockey" itself is of unknown origin. One supposition is that it is a derivative of "hoquet", a Middle French word for a shepherd's stave. The curved, or "hooked" ends of the sticks used for hockey would indeed have resembled these staves, and similar folk etymologies exist for the bat-and-ball sports of Croquet and Cricket . Another supposition derives from the known use of cork bungs (stoppers), in place of wooden balls to play the game. The stoppers came from barrels containing "hock" ale, also called "hocky".


title: Hockey

text: Games played with curved sticks and a ball can be found in the histories of many cultures. In Egypt, 4000-year-old carvings feature teams with sticks and a projectile, hurling dates to before 1272 BC in Ireland, and there is a depiction from approximately 600 BC in Ancient Greece, where the game may have been called "kerētízein" or (κερητίζειν) because it was played with a horn or horn-like stick ("kéras", κέρας). In Inner Mongolia, the Daur people have been playing "beikou", a game similar to modern field hockey, for about 1,000 years.


title: Hockey

text: Most evidence of hockey-like games during the Middle Ages is found in legislation concerning sports and games. The Galway Statute enacted in Ireland in 1527 banned certain types of ball games, including games using "hooked" (written "hockie", similar to "hooky") sticks.


title: Hockey

text: By the 19th century, the various forms and divisions of historic games began to differentiate and coalesce into the individual sports defined today. Organizations dedicated to the codification of rules and regulations began to form, and national and international bodies sprang up to manage domestic and international competition.


title: Hockey

text: Bandy is played with a ball on a football pitch-sized ice arena (bandy rink), typically outdoors, and with many rules similar to association football. It is played professionally in Russia and Sweden. The sport is recognized by the IOC; its international governing body is the Federation of International Bandy.


title: Hockey

text: Bandy has its roots in England in the 19th century, was originally called "hockey on the ice", and spread from England to other European countries around 1900; a similar Russian sport can also be seen as a predecessor and in Russia, bandy is sometimes called "Russian hockey". Bandy World Championships have been played since 1957 and Women's Bandy World Championships since 2004. There are national club championships in many countries and the top clubs in the world play in the Bandy World Cup every year.


title: Hockey

text: Field hockey is played on gravel, natural grass, or sand-based or water-based artificial turf, with a small, hard ball approximately 73 mm (2.9 in) in diameter. The game is popular among both men and women in many parts of the world, particularly in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina. In most countries, the game is played between single-sex sides, although they can be mixed-sex.


title: Hockey

text: The governing body is the 126-member International Hockey Federation (FIH). Men's field hockey has been played at each Summer Olympic Games since 1908 except for 1912 and 1924, while women's field hockey has been played at the Summer Olympic Games since 1980.


title: Hockey

text: Modern field hockey sticks are constructed of a composite of wood, glass fibre or carbon fibre (sometimes both) and are J-shaped, with a curved hook at the playing end, a flat surface on the playing side and a curved surface on the rear side. All sticks are right-handed – left-handed sticks are not permitted.


title: Hockey

text: While field hockey in its current form appeared in mid-18th century England, primarily in schools, it was not until the first half of the 19th century that it became firmly established. The first club was created in 1849 at Blackheath in south-east London. Field hockey is the national sport of Pakistan. It was the national sport of India until the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports declared in August 2012 that India has no national sport.


title: Hockey

text: Ice hockey is played between two teams of skaters on a large flat area of ice, using a three-inch-diameter (76.2 mm) vulcanized rubber disc called a puck. This puck is often frozen before high-level games to decrease the amount of bouncing and friction on the ice. The game is played all over North America, Europe and to varying extents in many other countries around the world. It is the most popular sport in Canada, Finland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Ice hockey is the national sport of Latvia and the national winter sport of Canada. Ice hockey is played at a number of levels, by all ages.


title: Hockey

text: The governing body of international play is the 77-member International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Men's ice hockey has been played at the Winter Olympics since 1924, and was in the 1920 Summer Olympics. Women's ice hockey was added to the Winter Olympics in 1998. North America's National Hockey League (NHL) is the strongest professional ice hockey league, drawing top ice hockey players from around the globe. The NHL rules are slightly different from those used in Olympic ice hockey over many categories. International ice hockey rules were adopted from Canadian rules in the early 1900s.


title: Hockey

text: The contemporary sport developed in Canada from European and native influences. These included various stick and ball games similar to field hockey, bandy and other games where two teams push a ball or object back and forth with sticks. These were played outdoors on ice under the name "hockey" in England throughout the 19th century, and even earlier under various other names. In Canada, there are 24 reports of hockey-like games in the 19th century before 1875 (five of them using the name "hockey"). The first organized and recorded game of ice hockey was played indoors in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on March 3, 1875, and featured several McGill University students.


title: Hockey

text: Ice hockey sticks are long L-shaped sticks made of wood, graphite, or composites with a blade at the bottom that can lie flat on the playing surface when the stick is held upright and can legally curve either way, for left- or right-handed players.


title: Hockey

text: Ice sledge hockey, or "para ice hockey", is a form of ice hockey designed for players with physical disabilities affecting their lower bodies. Players sit on double-bladed sledges and use two sticks; each stick has a blade at one end and small picks at the other. Players use the sticks to pass, stickhandle and shoot the puck, and to propel their sledges. The rules are very similar to IIHF ice hockey rules.


title: Hockey

text: Canada is a recognized international leader in the development of sledge hockey, and much of the equipment for the sport was first developed there, such as sledge hockey sticks laminated with fiberglass, as well as aluminum shafts with hand-carved insert blades and special aluminum sledges with regulation skate blades.


title: Hockey

text: Based on ice sledge hockey, inline sledge hockey is played to the same rules as inline puck hockey (essentially ice hockey played off-ice using inline skates). There is no classification point system dictating who can play inline sledge hockey, unlike the situation with other team sports such as wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby. Inline sledge hockey is being developed to allow everyone, regardless of whether they have a disability or not, to complete up to world championship level based solely on talent and ability.


title: Hockey

text: The first game of organized inline sledge hockey was played at Bisley, Surrey, England, on December 19, 2009, between the Hull Stingrays and the Grimsby Redwings. Matt Lloyd is credited with inventing inline sledge hockey, and Great Britain is seen as the international leader in the game's development.


title: Hockey

text: Though inline hockey is considered a variant of roller hockey "rink hockey", it was derived from ice hockey instead and uses a type of hockey puck or a ball. Both roller games use a type of wheeled skate but inline hockey uses inline skates rather than roller skates or "quads".


title: Hockey

text: The puck-based inline variant is more commonly played in North America than Europe while the ball-based variant is more popular in Europe.


title: Hockey

text: Inline hockey puck variant is played by two teams, consisting of four skaters and one goalie, on a dry rink divided into two halves by a center line, with one net at each end of the rink. The game is played in three 15-minute periods with a variation of the ice hockey off-side rule. Icings are also called, but are usually referred to as illegal clearing. The governing body is the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), just as it is for ice hockey, but some leagues and competitions do not follow the IIHF regulations, in particular USA Inline and Canada Inline.


title: Hockey

text: Roller hockey, also known as "quad hockey", "international-style ball hockey", "rink hockey" and "Hoquei em Patins", is an overarching name for a roller sport that uses quad skates. It has existed long before the invention of inline skates. The sport is played in over sixty countries and has a worldwide following. Roller hockey was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics.


title: Hockey

text: Also known as road hockey, this is a dry-land variant of ice and roller hockey played year-round on a hard surface (usually asphalt). A ball is usually used instead of a puck, and protective equipment is not usually worn.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or management is still deemed fit to hold that position, such as because they are inadequate in some aspect, fail to carry out their obligations, or make decisions that other members feel to be detrimental. The parliamentary motion demonstrates to the head of government that the elected Parliament either has or no longer has confidence in one or more members of the appointed government. In some countries, a no-confidence motion being passed against an individual minister requires the minister to resign. In most cases, if the minister in question is the premier, all other ministers must also resign.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: A censure motion is different from a no-confidence motion. Depending on the constitution of the body concerned, "no confidence" may lead to the dismissal of the Council of Ministers or other position-holders and often the dissolution of most of the leadership of the executive branch. On the other hand, "censure" is meant to show disapproval and does not result in the resignation of ministers. The motion of censure may be against an individual minister or a group of ministers. However, depending on a country's constitution, a no-confidence motion may be more directed against the entire cabinet. Again, depending on the applicable rules, censure motions may need to state the reasons for the motion, but specific reasons may not be required for no-confidence motions.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: There are a number of variations in this procedure between parliaments. In some countries, a motion of no confidence can be directed at the government collectively or at any individual member, including the prime minister. Sometimes, motions of no confidence are proposed even though they have no likelihood of passage simply to pressure a government or to embarrass its own critics, who may for political reasons decide not to vote against it.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In many parliamentary democracies, there are strict time limits for no-confidence motions such as being allowed only once every three, four, or six months. Thus, the timing of a motion of no confidence is a matter of political judgment. A motion of no confidence on a relatively trivial matter may then prove counterproductive if a more important issue suddenly arises that actually warrants a motion of no confidence. Sometimes, the government chooses to declare that one of its bills is a "motion of confidence" to prevent dissident members of its own party from voting against it.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In the Australian Parliament, a motion of no confidence requires a majority of the members present in the House of Representatives to agree to it. The House of Representatives has 151 members and so requires 76 votes in favour of the motion when all members of the House are present. A straight vote of no confidence in the Australian government and a motion or amendment censuring a government have never been successful in the House of Representatives. However, governments have on eight occasions resigned or advised a dissolution after their defeat on other questions before the House. The last time that a government resigned after being defeated in the House came in October 1941, when the House rejected the budget of Arthur Fadden's minority government.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Specific motions of no confidence or censure against the Prime Minister, ministers, the Leader of the Opposition, Senators and leaders of political parties have been successful on some occasions. Motions of no confidence against the government may be passed in the Senate but have little or no impact in the House. However, the Senate's right to refuse supply helped spark the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. The convention remains a grey area, as Westminster governments are not normally expected to maintain the confidence of the upper house.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In the Parliament of Bangladesh, there is no provision to hold motions of no confidence, as a result of Article 70 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, which prohibits Members of Parliament from voting against their party and made the removal of a sitting government unattainable.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Canada, a vote of confidence is a motion that the legislature approves and consents to be ruled by the governing prime minister or provincial premier and the incumbent Cabinet. A no-confidence motion may be directed against only the incumbent government in the legislature, with votes of no-confidence against the legislature's Official Opposition being inadmissible. Originating as a constitutional convention, it remains an uncodified practice which is not outlined in any standing orders for the House of Commons.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: At the federal level, a vote of no confidence in a motion presented by a member of the House of Commons explicitly states the House has no confidence in the incumbent government. The government may also declare any bill or motion to be a question of confidence. Several motions and bills are also considered implicit motions on confidence, and a vote of no confidence may be asserted automatically if such a bill fails to pass. Bills and motions that are considered implicit motions of confidence include appropriations or supply bills, motions concerning budgetary policy, and the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne. The failure to pass those bills may be used as an automatic assertion of a vote of no confidence, but the opposition is not obligated to assert the failure as a non-confidence motion against the government.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: If a vote of no confidence passes, the prime minister is required to either resign or request the governor-general to dissolve parliament and call a general election. The governor-general may refuse a request for dissolution if an election has recently been held or there is another leader who can likely gain the confidence of the House. If a dissolution request is refused, the prime minister must resign, and the governor-general invites the leader of another coalition/party to form a new government. Six motions of no confidence have been passed in the House of Commons: in 1926, 1963, 1974, 1979, 2005, and 2011. All successful votes of no confidence in the 20th century were the result of a loss of supply; votes of no confidence in 2005 and 2011 were the result of explicit confidence motions presented by the opposition.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The confidence convention is also present in the provincial legislatures of Canada, operating much like their federal counterpart. However, the decision to dissolve the legislature and call an election or to see if another coalition/party can form a government is left to the provincial Lieutenant-Governor.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Two Canadian territories, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, operate as a consensus government system in which the premier is chosen by the members of the nonpartisan legislature. If a vote of no confidence against the incumbent government passes, the premier and the cabinet are removed from office, and the legislature elects a new premier. In a consensus government, confidence motions may be directed against any individual ministers holding office as they are also nominated by members of the legislature.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Paragraph 15 of the Danish Constitution states that "A Minister shall not remain in office after the Folketing has passed a vote of no confidence in him." and that "When the Folketing passes a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister, he shall ask for the dismissal of the Ministry unless writs are to be issued for a general election.". The vote requires a simple majority.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Votes of no confidence against the government are rare in Denmark, only occurring in 1909, 1947 and 1975. Generally the government will resign or call for an election before a vote of no confidence.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The European Parliament can dismiss the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, through a successful motion of no confidence, which requires a two-thirds vote. A successful vote on the motion leads to the resignation of the entire Commission.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Germany, a vote of no confidence in the Federal Chancellor requires the opposition, on the same ballot, to propose a candidate of its own whom it wants the Federal President to appoint as its successor. Thus, a motion of no confidence may be brought forward only if there is a positive majority for the new candidate. The idea was to prevent the state crises that occurred near the end of the German Weimar Republic. Frequently, chancellors were then turned out of the office without their successors having enough parliamentary support to govern. Unlike the British system, chancellors do not have to resign in response to the failure of a vote of confidence if it has been initiated by them, rather than by the parliamentary opposition, but they may ask the President to call general elections, a request that the President decides on whether to fulfill.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The Parliament may, by its decision, withdraw its confidence from the Government or from a member of it. A motion of no confidence can only be submitted six months after the Parliament has rejected a previous one. The motion must be signed by at least one-sixth of the Members and must clearly state the issues to be debated. A motion of no confidence is accepted only if it is approved by the absolute majority of the total number of Members.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In India, a motion of no confidence can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Parliament of India) and after at least 50 MPs (Members of Parliament) support it , the Speaker may grant a leave and after considering the state of business in the House, allot a day or days or part of a day for the discussion of the motion (under sub-rule (2) and (3) of rule 198 of Lok Sabha Rules, 16th edition). If the motion carries, the House debates and votes on the motion. If a majority of the members vote in favour of the motion, it is passed, and the government is bound to vacate the office. Acharya Kripalani moved the first-ever no-confidence motion on the floor of the Lok Sabha in August 1963, immediately after the disastrous Sino-Indian War. As of July 2019, 27 no-confidence motions have been moved. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi faced the most no-confidence motions (15), followed by Lal Bahadur Shastri and P. V. Narasimha Rao (three each), Morarji Desai (two) and Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Narendra Modi (one each). Vajpayee lost the no-confidence motion by a margin of one vote (269-270) in April 1999. Prime Minister Desai resigned on 12 July 1979. The most recent no-confidence motion was against the Narendra Modi government and accepted by the Speaker but defeated by 325–126.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: With the Anti-Defection Law, a vote of no confidence has no relevance when the majority party has an absolute majority since it can whip party members to vote in favour of the government; it is thus impossible to remove the government by a no-confidence motion. Hence, the no-confidence exercise of the house becomes a no-confidence exercise of the party.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Ireland, if a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach or the government of Ireland is passed by the Dáil Éireann, and the Taoiseach and the government do not resign, the Dáil must be dissolved and a general election must be called.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The motion of no confidence is outlined in Israeli Basic Law Article 28 and Article 44 of the Knesset's Rule of Procedure.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Italy, the government requires the support of both houses of Parliament. Within ten days of the government's formation, a confidence motion must be passed. Five governments were forced to resign when a motion of confidence in them failed to pass in one of the houses of Parliament: the eighth De Gasperi cabinet in 1953, the first Fanfani cabinet in 1954, the first Andreotti cabinet in 1972, the fifth Andreotti cabinet in 1979 and the seventh Fanfani cabinet in 1987.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Parliament can withdraw its support to the government through a vote of no confidence. A vote of no confidence may be proposed if a tenth of the members of either house sign the proposition and within three days before the appointed date, the vote can be brought into the discussion.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Since the drafting of the Constitution of Italy, Parliament hasn't passed any no confidence motion against the whole cabinet, as government crises often ended with Prime Ministers resigning after becoming aware the majority of parliament didn't support them anymore, before a no confidence motion could be put to vote or even before such a motion was presented. The only time this instrument was used was in 1995, when then-Minister of Justice Filippo Mancuso was forced to resign after a vote of no confidence against him passed in the Senate. The subsequent Constitutional Court sentence in 1996 declared it was indeed possible to propose an individual vote of no confidence against a single minister, instead of the whole government, and that as such, the no confidence motion against Mancuso was legitimate.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The government can also make any vote a matter of confidence. In the entire history of the Republic of Italy, only two governments were forced to resign when a vote they had made a matter of confidence failed: the first Prodi cabinet in 1996, and the second Prodi cabinet in 2006. In both cases, the vote made a matter of confidence was a vote on a resolution approving the Prime Minister's address to one of the houses of Parliament.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Article 69 of the 1947 Constitution of Japan provides that "if the House of Representatives passes a non-confidence resolution, or rejects a confidence resolution, the Cabinet shall resign en masse, unless the House of Representatives is dissolved within ten (10) days."


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Malaysia's federal political system, votes of confidence in state legislative assemblies of Malaysia have removed its heads of state governments four times, most recently Faizal Azumu's Perak ministry in 2020. During the 2020–2022 Malaysian political crisis, opposition MPs demanded a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, but he resigned before this could take place.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The Constitution of Pakistan has provision for a no-confidence motion in all constituents of the Electoral College of the state. The motions can target speakers and deputy speakers of provincial and national assemblies, the Prime Minister, chief ministers of provinces, as well as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Senate. Before it can be put for a vote on the pertinent house's floor, it must have the backing of at least 20% of the elected members in all cases except those moved against speakers or deputy speakers in which case there is no minimum. After being put to vote, the motion is deemed to be successful only if passed by a majority.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The no-confidence procedure has historically been mostly used to remove speakers and deputy speakers. Of the 11 times that the motion has been invoked, nine cases targeted those posts, with four being effective. Votes of no confidence in Prime Ministers are extremely rare. In November 1989, Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto faced an ultimately unsuccessful motion of no confidence by Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. same is the case for provincial Chief Ministers, as the only instance of its use is the one moved against Chief Minister of Balochistan, Sanaullah Zehri in January 2018, who resigned before the vote could take place.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Since gaining independence in 1947, only Imran Khan was successfully removed as Prime Minister through a motion of no confidence in 2022. An earlier attempt led by the opposition was dismissed by the Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri using Article 5 of the constitution. Later on, President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly immediately after receiving advice from Prime Minister Khan to do so, causing a constitutional crisis. On 7 April 2022, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that the dismissal of the no-confidence motion, the prorogation of the National Assembly, advice of prime minister Imran Khan to president Arif Alvi to dissolve the National Assembly and subsequent dissolution of the National Assembly were unconstitutional, and overturned these actions. On 10 April 2022, the reconvened National Assembly passed the motion of no confidence against Khan by a majority vote of 172, being the first successful ousting through no–confidence motion.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Peru, both the legislative and the executive branches have the power to bring a motion of no confidence against acting legal members of the other branch. The President of the Cabinet may propose a motion of no confidence against any minister to Congress, which then needs more than half the Congress to approve it. The President of the Republic may dissolve Congress if it has censured or denied its confidence to two Cabinets. The relevant Articles 132-134 are in the 1993 version of the Constitution of Peru.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: During the 2019 Peruvian constitutional crisis, President Martín Vizcarra enacted a constitutional process on 29 May 2019 to create a motion of no confidence towards Congress if it refused to co-operate with his proposed actions against corruption.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Any MP in the National Assembly may request a motion of no confidence in either the Cabinet, excluding the President, or the President. The Speaker, within the rules of Parliament, must add such a motion to the Order Paper and give it a priority. If a motion of no confidence cannot be scheduled by the last sitting day of the annual sitting, it must be the first item on the Order Paper of the next sitting. In the event of a successful motion, the Speaker automatically assumes the position of acting president.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: On 7 August 2017, Speaker Baleka Mbete announced that she would permit a motion of no confidence in Jacob Zuma's government to proceed in the National Assembly via secret ballot. It was the eighth motion to be brought against Zuma in his presidency and the first to be held via secret ballot. After the vote was held the next day, the motion was defeated 198–177, with 25 abstentions. Around 20 governing ANC MPs voted in favour of the measure.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The Spanish Constitution of 1978 provides for motions of no confidence to be proposed by one-tenth of the Congress of Deputies. Following the German model, votes of no confidence in Spain are constructive and so the motion must also include an alternative candidate for Prime Minister. For a motion of no confidence to be successful, it has to be carried by an absolute majority in the Congress of Deputies. At least five days must pass after the motion is registered before it can come up for a vote. Other parties may submit alternative motions within two days of the registration.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Also, the Prime Minister is barred from dissolving the Cortes Generales and calling a general election while a motion of no confidence is pending. If the motion is successful, the incumbent Prime Minister must resign. According to the Constitution, the replacement candidate named in the motion is automatically deemed to have the confidence of the Congress of Deputies and is immediately appointed as Prime Minister by the monarch. If the motion is unsuccessful, its signatories may not submit another motion during the same session.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was sworn in on 2 June 2018 after a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had been approved on 1 June 2018.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Under Article 25(1) of the Constitution of Singapore, the Prime Minister of Singapore must command the confidence of Parliament less NCMPs and NMPs. Since Singapore's independence on 9 August 1965, no Singaporean Government has ever faced a motion of no confidence. However, Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew faced three no-confidence motions in 1961, 1962 and 1963, all prior to independence.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The 1960s saw the ruling PAP split between the right wing led by Lee Kuan Yew and the left wing led by Lim Chin Siong. This caused PAP's massive majority to diminish. Lee Kuan Yew faced his first confidence vote on 20 July 1961 following the PAP's defeat in the Hong Lim and Anson by-elections. This motion was rather a Motion of Confidence tabled by the Prime Minister himself. All 51 Assemblymen were present and voting. The Prime Minister won the vote by a margin of 27-8 votes. The results were as follows:


title: Motion of no confidence

text: However, among the 16 abstentions were 13 left wing PAP members, who were expelled from the PAP after the vote, and the 13 went on to form the Barisan Sosialis. On 13 July 1962, Barisan MP Lee Siew Choh tabled a motion of no confidence against Lee Kuan Yew. 3 Assemblymen were absent bringing the total membership of the Legislative Assembly to 48 present and voting. The Prime Minister won the vote by 24-16. Therefore, Lee Kuan Yew remained in office. The results for this motion of no confidence are as follows:


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Lee Siew Choh tabled another motion of no confidence against Lee Kuan Yew's government on 15 June 1963 over issues regarding the proposed merger of Singapore into the Federation of Malaysia. 5 members were absent from the Assembly and 1 seat was vacant bringing the total membership down to 45 present and voting. This time, Lee Kuan Yew's Government won the vote by a margin of 23-16. The results are as follows:


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In September 1963, the Legislative Assembly was dissolved and fresh elections were called. The rump PAP won the election with a two-thirds majority therefore staving off any further attempts by the Barisan Sosialis to move further motions of no confidence. Following merger and separation (1963-1965), and with Barisan's boycott of Parliament, the PAP was the dominant party in Parliament and motions of no confidence became "rare", in fact "non-existent". Further, Lee Kuan Yew's 1961 motion of confidence remains the only time that a Singaporean Prime Minister has ever tabled a motion of confidence in his own government.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: A motion of no confidence may be levelled against either the Prime Minister on behalf of the entire Swedish government or against an individual lower-level minister. At least 35 members of parliament (MPs) must support a proposal to initiate such a vote. A majority of MPs (175 members) must vote for a motion of no confidence for it to be successful. An individual minister who loses a confidence vote must resign. If a prime minister loses a no-confidence vote, the entire government must resign. The speaker may allow the ousted prime minister to head a transitional or caretaker government until Parliament elects a new prime minister.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Under the principle of negative parliamentarism, a prime ministerial candidate nominated by the Speaker does not need the confidence of a majority of MPs to be elected. However, a majority of MPs must not vote against the candidate, which renders prime ministerial votes similar to no-confidence votes. That means that a prime ministerial candidate, to be successful in the parliamentary vote, must have at least a total of 175 votes in favour and/or abstention. If a Speaker fails four times to have a nominee elected, an election must be held within three months of the final vote.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Traditionally, in the Westminster system, the defeat of a supply bill, which concerns the spending of money, is seen to require automatically for the government to resign or ask for a new election, much like a no-confidence vote. A government in a Westminster system that cannot spend money is hamstrung, which is also called a loss of supply.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In the British Parliament, a no-confidence motion generally first appeared as an early day motion although the vote on the Speech from the Throne was also a confidence motion. However, from 2011 to 2022, under the then-Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, only a motion explicitly resolving that "this House has no confidence in His Majesty's Government" was treated as a motion of no confidence.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In semi-presidential systems, the legislature may occasionally pass motions of no confidence, which removes only the cabinet and the prime minister. The legislature may also have the power to impeach an executive or judicial officer, with another institution or the legislature removing the officer from their office.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Russia, the lower house of the Federal Assembly (the State Duma) may by a simple majority (at least 226 votes out of 450) pass a motion of no confidence against the government of Russia as a whole. In that case, the matter goes for consideration of the Russian President, who may choose to dismiss the cabinet, which he can do anyway anytime at his own discretion, or just ignore the Duma's decision. If the Duma passes a second motion of no confidence against the same composition of the cabinet within three months, the President is forced to make a concrete decision on whether to dismiss the government or to dissolve the Duma itself and call for new general elections. The State Duma may not be dissolved on those grounds if it was elected less than a year earlier, if it has already initiated impeachment proceedings against the President himself by bringing respective accusations, if less than six months remain left until presidential elections, or if there is a state of emergency or martial law throughout the whole territory of Russia. In the above-mentioned cases, the President is then effectively forced to dismiss the government.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In France, the lower house of French Parliament (the National Assembly) may by a majority of the entire membership pass a motion of no confidence, against the French government as a whole. In that case, the government is removed from power, and the president has to appoint a new prime minister, who then has to form a new government.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: During the Third Republic, members of both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies could, with a simple interpellation and a vote, force the government into resigning, creating instability. The Fourth Republic introduced the censure motion with the majority of the membership needed to pass to replace interpellation, and removed the option of initiative by the Senate. Nevertheless, instability continued. According to historian René Rémond, President of the Council Paul Ramadier set up a precedent by submitting the composition of his government to a confidence vote after an interpellation by a deputy, despite the constitution not mentioning this process, thus recreating the problem of the preceding republic. The Fifth Republic restricted again the conditions of the motion by counting only the votes in favor of the deposition of the government, one tenth of the Assembly's membership (58 deputies) being now needed to issue such motion according to Article 49 of the constitution. Article 27 allows lawmakers to delegate their votes for the no-confidence motion if they are not available the day of the open ballot.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In Sri Lanka, the Parliament of Sri Lanka may pass a motion of no confidence against the Sri Lankan government. In that case, the government is removed from power and the President of Sri Lanka has to appoint a new Prime Minister, who has to form a new government.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: The first motion of no confidence against an entire government occurred in March 1782 when, following news of the British defeat at Yorktown in the American Revolutionary War the previous October, the Parliament of Great Britain voted that it "can no longer repose confidence in the present ministers". British Prime Minister Lord North responded by asking King George III to accept his resignation. That did not immediately create a constitutional convention. Although it is considered the first formal motion of no confidence, Sir Robert Walpole's resignation after a defeat on a vote in the House of Commons in 1742 is considered to be the first "de facto" motion of no confidence.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: During the early 19th century, attempts by prime ministers, such as Robert Peel, to govern in the absence of a parliamentary majority proved unsuccessful, and by the mid-19th century, the power of a motion of no confidence to break a government was firmly established in the UK.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In the United Kingdom, 11 prime ministers have been defeated through a no-confidence motion, but there has been only one such motion since 1925, in 1979 (against James Callaghan).


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In modern times, the passage of a motion of no confidence is a relatively rare event in two-party democracies. In almost all cases, party discipline is sufficient to allow a majority party to defeat a motion of no confidence, and if faced with possible defections in the government party, the government is likely to change its policies, rather than lose a vote of no confidence. The cases in which a motion of no confidence has passed are generally those in which the government party's slim majority has been eliminated by either by-elections or defections, such as the 1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry in the UK which was carried by one vote and forced a general election, which was won by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: Motions of no confidence are far more common in multi-party systems in which a minority party must form a coalition government. That can mean that there have been many short-lived governments because the party structure allows small parties to defeat a government without the means to create a government. This has widely been regarded as the cause of instability for the French Fourth Republic and the German Weimar Republic. More recent examples have been in Italy between the 1950s and 1990s, Israel, and Japan.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: To deal with that situation, the French placed a greater degree of executive power in the office of the French President, along with a two-round plurality voting system, which makes it easier to form a stable majority government. Furthermore, since 2014, the French president can be impeached only if three conditions are fulfilled : one of the Houses of the French parliament must adopt a sitting in High Court proposal with a two-third majority, then the other house has to follow suit in a 15-days period, then two third of the members of the High Court have to vote in favor of the president's impeachment during a one-month period where the Court must decide. The president still pursue the exercise of his functions during the process.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, of the re-elected minority government of Canada, successfully requested Canadian Governor-general Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament. That allowed Harper to delay a potential vote on the no-confidence motion presented by the opposition. (See 2008–2009 Canadian parliamentary dispute.) Three years later, in 2011, Harper's minority government was defeated by a motion of no confidence, which declared the government to be in contempt of Parliament and led to an election that year.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: In 2013, during the Euromaidan pro-European riots, the opposition in Ukraine called for a motion of no confidence against the Cabinet of Ministers, led by the pro-Russian and eurosceptic Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. At least 226 votes were needed to gain a majority in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada. However, it fell 40 votes short, and Azarov's government prevailed.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: On 1 June 2018, in Spain, the government of Mariano Rajoy was ousted after a motion of no confidence passed 180–169 after the sentence of the Gürtel corruption scandal, which involved the ruling party. Pedro Sánchez was sworn in as the new Spanish prime minister. That was the first time in the history of Spain that a vote of no confidence resulted in a change of government.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: On 25 September 2018, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was ousted after he lost a vote of no confidence in the Riksdag after an election was held on 9 September. The center-left bloc led by Löfven's Social Democratic Party won only 144 seats in parliament, 31 seats short of an absolute majority, and just one seat more than the opposition Alliance for Sweden bloc. The Sweden Democrats, having just won 62 seats, also voted with the main opposition bloc's motion of no confidence.


title: Motion of no confidence

text: On 8 March 2022, opposition parties filed the motion against then prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan. Out of 346, 172 votes have required to gain the majority in national assembly of Pakistan. On 10 April 2022, motion of no confidence was passed by 174 votes out of 346. This was the first time in the history of Pakistan that vote of no confidence resulted in a change of government.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: Brenden Russell Aaronson (born October 22, 2000) is an American professional soccer player who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Premier League club Leeds United and the United States national team.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: In May 2022, Aaronson moved to Leeds from Red Bull Salzburg in a transfer worth $30.2 million (£24.7 million), making him the second most expensive American soccer player of all time.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: Raised in Medford, New Jersey, Aaronson attended Shawnee High School for a single year before being selected to the Philadelphia Union's YSC Academy, where he played soccer and completed his high school education. During his time at YSC Academy, Aaronson had played for Union's youth teams before committing to Indiana University and signing an amateur contract with Bethlehem Steel FC.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: Aaronson appeared as an academy player playing for Bethlehem Steel FC during their 2017 season after coming through the Philadelphia Union academy.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: In October 2017, Aaronson made his first start for Steel FC in an away draw versus Tampa Bay Rowdies. Aaronson made 21 appearances for Steel FC and scored his first goal for the professional side against Atlanta United 2.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: On September 17, 2018, it was announced that Aaronson would join the Philadelphia Union at the beginning of their 2019 season. On March 17, 2019, the homegrown player scored his first professional goal in his MLS debut, helping Philadelphia tie against Atlanta United. Considered to be a back-up playmaker for the Union, injuries and suspensions gave Aaronson the opportunity to start and excel in the first team as both playmaking number 10 and left-sided box-to-box midfielder.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: At the end of his rookie season, Aaronson finished second for 2019 MLS Rookie of the year, with three goals and two assists in over 1,640 minutes played. Aaronson was the youngest player out of the five finalists.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: The 2020 season became a breakout year for Aaronson who finished the season with 31 appearances across all competitions and scoring 4 goals. Aaronson's performance during the season earned him several accolades include being named to the 2020 MLS Best XI for the regular season and the MLS is Back Tournament. The Union finished the season with the best league record earning the team's first trophy, the 2020 Supporters' Shield.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: After persistent rumors, it was announced on October 16, 2020, that Aaronson would join Red Bull Salzburg effective January 2021 after the MLS season ended. While the transfer fee was undisclosed, Philadelphia announced that it would be the highest transfer fee paid for an American homegrown player from MLS. Early news reports indicated the fee is US$6 million up front, with US$3 million in possible incentives. Aaronson made his debut for Salzburg on January 25, as a substitute during a 2–0 victory over Rheindorf Altach.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: Aaronson scored his first goal for Salzburg on February 10, 2021, scoring the game-winning goal during an eventual 3–1 win over Austria Wien. On May 1, he won his first piece of silverware with Salzburg as the club defeated LASK in the Austrian Cup final by 3–0. Aaronson scored the second goal of the match, and his fifth in all competitions since his move from Philadelphia in January.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: On May 26, 2022, Leeds United announced the signing of Aaronson on a five-year contract, beginning on July 1. Sky Sports reported the transfer fee to be £24.7 million. He made his senior league debut for Leeds as part of the starting eleven in their season opener on August 6, with a 2–1 home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. On August 21, Aaronson scored his first Premier League goal after forcing an error from Chelsea goalkeeper Édouard Mendy in a 3–0 home win over rivals Chelsea, helping Leeds secure their first victory over the Blues for 20 years.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: After showing a strong rookie season, Aaronson received his first senior call-up to the United States men's national soccer team in October 2019 for CONCACAF Nations League matches with Cuba and Canada. He did not earn a cap in either match. Aaronson earned his second call-up to the senior team for the 2020 January camp. Aaronson earned his full debut in a 1–0 win over Costa Rica. Later that year, Aaronson scored his first senior international goal during a 6–0 victory over El Salvador in December 2020.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: Aaronson was included in the 26-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, playing in all three group games.


title: Brenden Aaronson

text: Aaronson's performances for the Philadelphia Union and Red Bull Salzburg earned him the nickname of the “Medford Messi”, an alliteration that refers to his birthplace and makes a comparison with Argentine player Lionel Messi.


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin (; ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants during the 2020 Chinese census. Its built-up ("or metro") area, made up of 12 central districts (all but Baodi, Jizhou, Jinghai and Ninghe), was home to 11,165,706 inhabitants and is also the world's 29th-largest agglomeration (between Chengdu and Rio de Janeiro) and 11th-most populous city proper.


title: Tianjin

text: It is governed as one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of Chinese central government and is thus under direct administration of the State Council. Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea. Part of the Bohai Economic Rim, it is the largest coastal city in Northern China and part of the Jing-Jin-Ji megapolis.


title: Tianjin

text: In terms of urban population, Tianjin is the seventh largest city in China. In terms of administrative area population, Tianjin ranks fifth in Mainland China. The walled city of Tianjin was built in 1404. As a treaty port since 1860, Tianjin has been a major seaport and gateway to Beijing. During the Boxer Rebellion the city was the seat of the Tianjin Provisional Government. Under the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China, Tianjin became one of the largest cities in the region. At that time, numerous European-style buildings and mansions were constructed in concessions, many of which are well-preserved today. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tianjin suffered a depression due to the policy of the central government and 1976 Tangshan earthquake, but recovered from 1990s.


title: Tianjin

text: Nowadays, Tianjin is a dual-core city, with its main urban area (including the old city) located along the Hai River, which connects to the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers via the Grand Canal; and Binhai, an adjacent New Area urban core located east of the old city, on the coast of the Bohai Gulf. As of the end of 2010, around 285 Fortune 500 companies have set up base in Binhai. Since 2010, Tianjin's Yujiapu Financial District has become known as "China's Manhattan" and the city is considered one of the world's top 100 cities, including in the Global Financial Centres Index. Tianjin is ranked as a Beta (global second tier) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin is one of the top 20 cities in the world by scientific research outputs as tracked by the Nature Index, and home to multiple notable institutes of higher education in Northern China, including Tianjin, Nankai, Tianjin Normal, Tianjin Medical, Tiangong, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin University of Technology, and Hebei University of Technology.


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese characters , which means "Heavenly Ford" or "Ford of Heaven".


title: Tianjin

text: The origin of the name is obscure. One folk etymology is that it was an homage to the patriotic Chu poet Qu Yuan, whose "Li Sao" includes the verse "... departing from the Ford of Heaven at dawn ..." (, "zhāo fārèn yú Tiānjīn xī"). Another is that it honors a former name of the Girl, a Chinese constellation recorded under the name Tianjin in the Astronomical Record section of the Book of Sui. A third is that it derives from a place name noted in the River Record of the History of Jin. The most common is that it was bestowed by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming, who crossed Tianjin's Gu River on his way south to overthrow his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor.


title: Tianjin

text: Prior to the introduction of pinyin, the city's name was historically spelled as Tientsin in the Chinese postal romanization. The current name of Tianjin was adopted in 1958 after pinyin was introduced by the PRC government. Several countries, international organizations and media outlets adopted the pinyin name beginning in 1979. The Government of the Republic of China on Taiwan continues to use the postal and Wade-Giles spelling after the adoption of pinyin by the ROC government in 2009.


title: Tianjin

text: The land where Tianjin is located today was created in between 900 and 1300 CE by sedimentation of various rivers entering the sea at Bohai Gulf, including the Yellow River, which entered the open sea in this area at one point. The construction of the Grand Canal under the Sui dynasty helped the future development of Tianjin as the canal ran from Hangzhou to the Beijing and Tianjin region by 609 CE. Grain from southern China was regularly transported to the north through the canal and was used during the subsequent dynasties. Tianjin begins to be increasingly mentioned in records during the Song dynasty and gains importance during the Yuan dynasty. Tianjin experienced development under the Yuan and became a prime location for the storage of goods and grains. Tianjin became a garrison town and shipping station during the Ming dynasty. It became a center of commerce and prosperity by the 17th century.


title: Tianjin

text: During the Qing dynasty (16441911) Tianjin Prefecture or "Zhou" () was established in 1725, and Tianjin County was established within the prefecture in 1731. Later it was upgraded to an urban prefecture or "Fu" () before becoming a relay station () under the command of the Viceroy of Zhili.


title: Tianjin

text: In 1856, Chinese soldiers boarded "The Arrow", a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, smuggling, and of being engaged in the opium trade. They captured 12 men and imprisoned them. In response, the British and French sent gunboats under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to capture the Taku forts near Tianjin in May 1858. At the end of the first part of the Second Opium War in June of the same year, the British and French prevailed, and the Treaty of Tientsin were signed, which opened Tientsin (Tianjin) to foreign trade. The treaties were ratified by the Xianfeng Emperor in 1860, and Tianjin was formally opened to Great Britain and France, and thus to the outside world. Between 1895 and 1900, Britain and France were joined by Japan, Germany and Russia, and even by countries without Chinese concessions such as Austria-Hungary, Italy and Belgium, in establishing self-contained concessions in Tianjin, each with its own prisons, schools, barracks and hospitals. These nations left many architectural reminders of their rule, notably churches and thousands of villas.


title: Tianjin

text: The presence of foreign influence in Tianjin was not always peaceful; one of the most serious violent incidents to date was the Tianjin Church Massacre. In June 1870, the orphanage held by the Wanghailou Church (Church Our Lady's Victories), in Tianjin, built by French Roman Catholic missionaries, was accused of the kidnapping and brainwashing of Chinese children. On June 21, the magistrate of Tianjin County initiated a showdown at the church that developed into violent clashes between the church's Christian supporters and some non-Christian Tianjin residents. The furious protesters eventually burned down Wanghailou Church and the nearby French consulate and killed eighteen foreigners including ten French nuns, the French consul himself, and merchants. France and six other Western nations complained to the Qing government, which was forced to pay compensation for the incident.


title: Tianjin

text: In 1885 Li Hongzhang founded the Tianjin Military Academy () for Chinese army officers with German advisors, as part of his military reforms. The move was supported by Anhui Army commander Zhou Shengchuan. The academy was to serve Anhui Army and Green Standard Army officers. Various practical military, mathematic and science subjects were taught at the academy. The instructors were German officers. Another program was started at the academy for five years in 1887 to train teenagers as new army officers. Mathematics, practical and technical subjects including sciences, foreign languages, Chinese Classics and history were taught at the school. Exams were administered to students. The instruction for Tianjin Military Academy was copied at the Weihaiwei and Shanhaiguan military schools. The 'maritime defense fund' supplied the budget for the Tianjin Military Academy, which was shared with the Tianjin Naval Academy. The Tianjin Military Academy in 1886 adopted as part of its curriculum the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Among its alumni were Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui. Among its staff was Yinchang.


title: Tianjin

text: In June 1900, the Boxers were able to seize control of much of Tianjin. On June 26, European defense forces heading towards Beijing were stopped by Boxers at nearby Langfang, and were defeated and forced to turn back to Tianjin. The foreign concessions were also under siege for several weeks.


title: Tianjin

text: In July 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance recaptured Tientsin. This alliance soon established the Tianjin Provisional Government, composed of representatives from each of the occupying forces (Russian, British, Japanese, German, French, American, Austro-Hungarian, and Italian). The city was governed by this council until August 15, 1902 when the city was returned to Qing control. Eminent Qing General Yuan Shikai led efforts to transform Tianjin into a modern city, establishing the first modern Chinese police force. In 1907, Yuan supervised China's first modern democratic elections for a county council.


title: Tianjin

text: Western nations were permitted to garrison the area to ensure open access to Beijing. The British maintained a brigade of two battalions in Tianjin, and the Italians, French, Japanese, Germans, Russians, and Austro-Hungarians maintained under strength regiments; the United States did not initially participate. During World War I, the German and Austro-Hungarian garrisons were captured and held as Prisoners of War by Allied Forces while the Bolshevik government withdrew the Russian garrison in 1918. In 1920, the remaining participating nations asked the United States to join them, and the US then sent the 15th Infantry Regiment, less one battalion, to Tianjin from the Philippines.


title: Tianjin

text: Because of the rapid development of industry, commerce and finance, Tientsin was established as a municipality of China in 1927. From 1930 to 1935, Tientsin was the provincial capital of Hopeh, after which it was reestablished as a municipality.


title: Tianjin

text: Garrison duty was highly regarded by the troops. General George C. Marshall, the "architect of victory" in World War II when he was the United States Army Chief of Staff, served at Tianjin in the 1920s as Executive Officer of the 15th Infantry. The US withdrew this unit in 1938 and a US presence was maintained only by the dispatch of a small US Marine Corps unit from the Embassy Guard at Beijing.


title: Tianjin

text: On July 30, 1937, Tianjin fell to Japan, as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, but was not entirely occupied, as the Japanese for the most part respected foreign concessions until 1941, when the American and British concessions were occupied. In the summer of 1939, there occurred a major crisis in Anglo-Japanese relations with the Tientsin Incident. On June 14, 1939, the Imperial Japanese Army surrounded and blockaded the British concession over the refusal of the British authorities to hand over to the Japanese six Chinese who had assassinated a locally prominent Japanese collaborator, and had taken refuge in the British concession. For a time, the 1939 crisis appeared likely to cause an Anglo-Japanese war, especially when reports of the maltreatment by the Japanese Army of British subjects wishing to leave or enter the concession appeared in the British press. The crisis ended when the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was advised by the Royal Navy and the Foreign Office that the only way to force the Japanese to lift the blockade was to send the main British battle fleet to Far Eastern waters, and that given the current crisis in Europe that it would be inappropriate to send the British fleet out of European waters, thus leading the British to finally turn over the six Chinese, who were then executed by the Japanese. During the Japanese occupation, Tianjin was ruled by the North China Executive Committee, a puppet state based in Beijing.


title: Tianjin

text: On August 9, 1940, all of the British troops in Tianjin were ordered to withdraw. On November 14, 1941 the American Marine unit stationed in Tianjin was ordered to leave, but before this could be accomplished, the Japanese attacked the United States. The American Marine detachment surrendered to the Japanese on December 8, 1941. Only the Italian and French concessions (the local French officials were loyal to Vichy) were allowed by the Japanese to remain. When Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943, Japanese troops took the Italian concession following a battle with its garrison, and the Italian Social Republic formally ceded it to Wang Jingwei's Japan-controlled puppet state. Japanese occupation of the city lasted until August 15, 1945, with the surrender of Japan marking the end of World War II.


title: Tianjin

text: In the Pingjin Campaign of the Chinese Civil War, the city was captured after 29 hours of fighting. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took Tianjin on January 15, 1949.


title: Tianjin

text: From 1949 to February 1958, Tianjin was a municipality directly under the control of the central government. In October 1952, Tanggu New Port officially opened its doors, and the first 10,000-ton ferry arrived at Newport Pier. In February 1958, due to the "Great Leap Forward" and Tianjin's good industrial foundation, Tianjin was incorporated into Hebei Province and Hebei Province was relocated to Tianjin for eight years. During the period, under the coordination of the State Council, the city of Tianjin implemented a separate policy for central planning, which was independent of Hebei Province. However, a large number of factories and colleges in Tianjin moved to Hebei, adversely affecting Tianjin's economic development. In January 1967, due to "preparation, preparation for disasters", and concerns that Tianjin would become a battlefield, Hebei Province repatriated the provincial capital to Baoding, and the CCP Central Committee decided that Tianjin should be restored to the central municipality and remain so far. In April 1970, in the event that the Central Government had applied for funding for the construction of the subway, the Tianjin Municipal Government decided to raise funds on its own to establish the project on the basis of the name of the channel, and build it on the basis of the old walled river. In July 1973, five counties including Jixian, Baodi, Wuqing, Jinghai, and Ninghe were formally placed under the jurisdiction of Tianjin.


title: Tianjin

text: On July 28, 1976, during the 7.6 magnitude Tangshan Earthquake, Tianjin was affected by the shock waves and suffered major loss of life. In the city, 24,345 people died and 21,497 were seriously injured. 60% of the city's buildings were destroyed and more than 30% of the enterprises and Peking Port Reservoir and Yuqiao Reservoir were seriously damaged. Nearly 700,000 people were left homeless. On October 10 of the same year, the Tianjin Underground Railway was opened to traffic. In 1981, Miyun Reservoir was built on the upper reaches of the Hai River and is used to supply water for Beijing, however the reservoir stopped the river from supplying water to Tianjin, resulting in difficulty in the use of water in Tianjin. In the same year, the State Council of the People's Republic of China decided to initiate a project to solve the problem of water use in Tianjin and attract talented individuals to the city's academic centers.


title: Tianjin

text: In 1984, during the beginning of the Chinese government's economic reforms, Tianjin was listed as one of the 14 coastal open cities by the State Council and the Tianjin Development Zone's economy began to develop rapidly, However, the overall development speed of Tianjin is still slower than that of special economic zones and that of other southeast coastal areas. In 1994, Tianjin began its strategic industrial shift towards the east and developed the Binhai New Area with the Tianjin Port as the core. In October 2005, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 16th CCP Central Committee was convened. The meeting decided to incorporate the development and opening up of the Binhai New Area into the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and the national development strategy. In March 2006, the State Council executive meeting positioned Tianjin as an "international port city, a northern economic center, and an "ecological city". Since then, the dispute between the Beijing-Tianjin economic center at the policy level has come to an end. In May 2006, the State Council approved the Binhai New Area as a national integrated reform pilot area. In June of the same year, the "State Council's Opinions on Promoting the Development and Opening of the Tianjin Binhai New Area" was announced and clearly stated: "In financial enterprises, financial services, financial markets, and finance Major reforms such as opening up can, in principle, be scheduled to precede the Tianjin Binhai New Area.


title: Tianjin

text: In August 2008, China's first high-speed railway, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour was opened. In August 2008 Tianjin was the co-host city of the 29th Olympic Games. In September 2008, the Annual Meeting of the New Champions of World Economic Forum (also called Summer Davos) began to be established in Tianjin and is held every two years. In October 2010, the UN Climate Change Conference convened in Tianjin. In 2012, the Tianjin Metro Lines 2, 3, and 9 were completed and open to traffic, and Tianjin Rail Transit was formally networked.


title: Tianjin

text: In October 2013, Tianjin hosted the East Asian Games, which was the first time Tianjin hosted an international comprehensive event. In 2014, the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei was officially incorporated into the national strategy. Tianjin was positioned as "National Advanced Manufacturing R&D Base, Northern International Shipping Core Area, Financial Innovation Operation Demonstration Area, and Reform and Opening-up Preceding Area". In the same year, the first phase of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project was completed, and the water availability in Tianjin improved. On February 26, 2015, the Tianjin National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone was formally established. On April 21, the China (Tianjin) Free Trade Pilot Zone was formally established. On April 27, Jincheng Bank, the first private bank in northern China, officially opened its doors.


title: Tianjin

text: On August 12, 2015, a major fire and explosion accident occurred in a chemical warehouse in Tianjin Port, causing 173 deaths, hundreds of injuries, and property losses.


title: Tianjin

text: The first two explosions occurred within 30 seconds of each other at the facility, which is located in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, China. The second explosion was far larger and involved the detonation of about 800 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (approx. 256 tonnes TNT equivalent). Fires caused by the initial explosions continued to burn uncontrolled throughout the weekend, resulting in eight additional explosions on 15 August. The buildings of seven more surrounding logistics companies were destroyed. The cost to businesses caused by the explosion was estimated at $9 billion, making it the third most expensive supply chain disruption of 2015.


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin is located along the west coast of the Bohai Gulf, looking out to the provinces Shandong and Liaoning across those waters, bordered by Beijing to the northwest, and is surrounded on all sides by Hebei, with the exception of its eastern border, the Bohai Sea. With a latitude ranging from 38° 34' to 40° 15' N, and longitude ranging from 116° 43' to 118° 04' E, the total area is . There is of coastline and of land border. It lies at the northern end of the Grand Canal of China, which connects with the Yellow River and Yangtze River. The municipality is generally flat, and swampy near the coast, but hilly in the far north, where the Yan Mountains intrude into northern Tianjin. Extensive tidal flats occur on the coastal plain adjacent to the city. The highest point in the municipality is Jiuding Peak () in Ji County on the northern border with Hebei, at an altitude of .


title: Tianjin

text: The Hai River forms within Tianjin Municipality at the confluence of the Ziya River (), Daqing River (), Yongding River, North Grand Canal, and South Grand Canal, and enters the Pacific Ocean within the municipality, as well in Tanggu District. Major reservoirs include the Beidagang Reservoir in the extreme south (in Dagang District) and the Yuqiao Reservoir in the extreme north in Ji County.


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin has a semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk" bordering on "Dwa"). It has a four-season, monsoon-influenced climate, typical of East Asia, with cold, windy, very dry winters reflecting the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone, and hot, humid summers, due to the monsoon. Spring in the city is dry and windy, occasionally seeing sandstorms blowing in from the Gobi Desert, capable of lasting for several days. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July, with an annual mean of . With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 48% in July to 61% in October, the city receives 2,522 hours of bright sunshine annually. Having a low annual total precipitation of , and nearly three-fifths of it occurring in July and August alone, the city lies within the semi-arid zone, with parts of the municipality being humid continental (Köppen "BSk"/"Dwa", respectively).


title: Tianjin

text: In May 2014, the city's administration enacted new laws in an attempt to lower the city's pollution levels. These measures included several restrictions on days of severe pollution; halving the number of vehicles allowed on roads, halting construction and manufacturing activity, closing schools, and halting large-scale outdoor activities.


title: Tianjin

text: Foreign-born professional sportsmen have made statements regarding Tianjin's air quality, citing it as an impediment to athletic activity and being thick enough to "taste".


title: Tianjin

text: In addition, the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA) is not a formal level of administration, but nevertheless enjoys rights similar to a regular district. At the end of 2017, the total population of Tianjin is 15.57 million.


title: Tianjin

text: These districts and counties are further subdivided, , into 240 township-level divisions, including 120 towns, 18 townships, 2 ethnic townships and 100 subdistricts.


title: Tianjin

text: The politics of Tianjin is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in the mainland China.


title: Tianjin

text: The Mayor of Tianjin is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Tianjin. Since Tianjin is a municipality, the CCP Municipal Committee Secretary is colloquially termed the "Tianjin CCP Party chief".


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin's GDP reached 1.572 trillion yuan in 2014, an increase of 10.0 percent over 2013. The city of Tianjin recorded China's highest per-capita GDP with $17,126, followed by Beijing with $16,278 and Shanghai with $15,847.


title: Tianjin

text: Major industries include petrochemical industries, textiles, car manufacturing, mechanical industries, and metalworking. EADS Airbus is an important manufacturer, and has opened an assembly plant for its Airbus A320 series airliners, operational since 2009. Tianjin also hit the news in 2010, as the current fastest supercomputer in the world, Tianhe-1A, is located at the National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin. GDP in 2009 hit ￥750.1 billion, with a per capita of RMB￥62,403.


title: Tianjin

text: As one of the first state-level economic and technological development zones, the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) was founded on December 6, 1984, with the approval of the State Council. It enjoys relevant state preferential policies with the major task of attracting domestic and foreign investment to develop high and new technology oriented modern industries. As an affiliated organ of the Tianjin Municipal Government, the Administrative Commission of Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area exercises unified administration of TEDA on behalf of the Tianjin Municipal Government and enjoys provincial-level administrative and economic management rights.


title: Tianjin

text: The Tianjin Export Processing Zone is one of the first 15 export processing zones approved by the State Council on April 27, 2000. This is a special enclosed zone where the Customs conduct 24-hour administration on commodities transported into and out of the zone and relevant places. The central government granted this special economic zone special preferential policies to attract enterprises in the business of processing and trade to invest in the zone. Tianjin Export Processing Zone is located to the northeast of TEDA with a planned area of . The area developed in the first phase is 1m². A permanent wall is built to separate export processing zone and non-export processing zone.


title: Tianjin

text: The Tianjin Airport International Logistics Zone is jointly invested by Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone and Tianjin Binhai International Airport. It is located inside the airfreight area of Tianjin Binhai International Airport. It has domestic and foreign excellent airfreight logistics enterprises engaged in sorting, warehousing, distribution, processing, exhibition. It is in the process of constructing the largest airfreight base in northern China.


title: Tianjin

text: The Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone is the only free trade zone in northern China. The zone was approved to be established in 1991 by State Council. It is from Tianjin city proper, less than away from the wharf and only away from Tianjin Binhai International Airport.


title: Tianjin

text: The Tianjin Tanggu Marine High-Tech Development Area was established in 1992, and was upgraded to the national-level high-tech development area by the State Council in 1995, it is the only national-level high-tech development area specializing in developing the marine Hi-Tech industry. By the end of 2008, the zone had 2068 corporations and 5 industries there including new materials, oil manufacturing, modern machinery manufacturing, and electronic information.


title: Tianjin

text: The Tianjin Nangang Industrial Zone is a heavy and chemical industry base and harbor; an important part of the "dual-city, dual-harbor"space development strategy of Tianjin, a demonstration zone of circular economy. The total planned area of Nangang Industrial Zone is , of which the terrestrial area is .


title: Tianjin

text: Farmland takes up about 40% of Tianjin Municipality's total area. Wheat, rice, and maize are the most important crops.


title: Tianjin

text: Geothermal energy is another resource of Tianjin. Deposits of manganese and boron under Tianjin were the first to be found in China.


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin Electric Power Utility serves with construction, delivering and supporting electrical power service.


title: Tianjin

text: The Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA) is located in the juncture of the Beijing-Tianjin City Belt and the Circum-Bohai City Belt. It is the gateway to North China, Northeast China, and Northwest China. Lying in the center of Northeast Asia, it is the nearest point of departure of the Eurasian Continental Bridge.


title: Tianjin

text: At the end of 2009, the population of Tianjin Municipality was 12.28 million, of which 9.8 million were residential holders of Tianjin "hukou" (permanent residence). Among Tianjin permanent residents, 5.99 million were urban, and 3.81 million were rural. Tianjin has recently shifted to rapid population growth, its population had reached 14.72 million end.


title: Tianjin

text: The encompassing metropolitan area was estimated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) to have, , a population of 15.4 million.


title: Tianjin

text: The majority of Tianjin residents are Han Chinese. There are also 51 out of the 55 minor Chinese ethnic groups living in Tianjin. Major minorities include Hui, Koreans, Manchus, and Mongols.


title: Tianjin

text: Tianjin People's Broadcasting Station is the major radio station in Tianjin. Broadcasting in nine channels, it serves most of North China, part of East and Northeast China, reaching an audience of over 100 million. Tianjin Television, the local television station, broadcasts on nine channels. It also boasts a paid digital channel, featuring home improvement programs. Both the radio and television stations are now branches of the Tianjin Film, Radio and Television Group, established in October 2002.


title: Tianjin

text: Major local newspapers include the Tianjin Daily and Jin Wan Bao (literally, tonight newspaper), which are the flagship papers of Tianjin Daily Newspaper Group and Jinwan Mass Media Group, respectively. There are also three English-language magazines: "Jin", "Tianjin Plus" and "Business Tianjin", mostly directed at ex-pats resident in the city.