title: Police brutality in the United States

text: On 22 June 2020, University of Chicago reported that the police departments in the 20 largest American cities were failing to meet even the most basic international human rights standards governing the use of lethal force. The study revealed that America's biggest police forces lack legality, as they are not answerable to human rights compliant laws authorizing the use of lethal force.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Numerous doctrines, such as federalism, separation of powers, causation, deference, discretion, and burden of proof have been cited as partial explanations for the judiciaries' fragmented pursuit of police misconduct. However, there is also evidence that courts cannot or choose not to see systemic patterns in police brutality. Other factors that have been cited as encouraging police brutality include institutionalized systems of police training, management, and culture; a criminal-justice system that discourages prosecutors from pursuing police misconduct vigorously; a political system that responds more readily to police than to the residents of inner-city and minority communities; and a political culture that fears crime and values tough policing more than it values due process for all its citizens. Around 1998, it was believed that without substantial social change, the control of police deviance was improbable at best.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Police officers often still hold significant advantages in legal proceedings and in courts. Records of officer performance and misconduct are sometimes hidden from public view through laws, such as 50-a in New York (repealed in 2020). The law of qualified immunity often shields police officers from prosecution, since it only permits lawsuits against government officials when they have violated a "clearly established" constitutional or statutory right. When cases of police are investigated for crimes, the collection of evidence is typically conducted by police officers, including witness statements, and police may have been the only witnesses. Prosecutors tend to have a close working relationship with police officers, which creates another conflict of interest, and they are often reluctant to aggressively pursue cases against law enforcement. Furthermore, courts tend to sympathize with police officers over civilians, who are often viewed as the "good party" in the case. In 2015, "the Washington Post" reported that 54 officers had been charged with fatally shooting someone while on duty over the preceding decade. In the 35 cases that had been resolved, a total of 21 officers were acquitted or their charges were dropped.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: There is a direction on or around correlation between rates of police union membership and number of people killed by police. Collective bargaining rights introduced by police unions from the 1950s onward (which are negotiated largely in secret) led to a substantial increase of police killings and other abuses especially towards people from racial minorities. Unions have negotiated labor contracts that stop law enforcement agencies firing officers after egregious acts of misconduct. A University of Oxford study of the 100 largest US cities found that increased protections for officers directly correlated with increased levels of violence and other abuses against citizens by police officers. A study by the University of Chicago found that after deputies gained collective bargaining rights in Florida sheriff's offices incidents of violent misconduct increased by around 40%. Researchers at the University of Victoria also found a 40% increase of killing when collective bargaining rights we enacted, with the overwhelming majority of people being killed being non white, the authors of the study described unions as "protection of the right to discriminate". A systemic pattern of "serious violations of the U.S. Constitution and federal law," was found by a Justice Department investigation of Baltimore's police department. A Minneapolis councilperson described the Minneapolis Police Union as a "protection racket".


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Police departments in the United States typically follow an unofficial cultural code, known as the "blue wall of silence." This can also be referred to as the "curtain of silence", "cocoon of silence", "blue code", or "blue shield." According to this rule, police officers do not report misconduct or abuse committed by other officers, and they will not step in when their colleagues are engaging in illegal or abusive behavior. This is because police officers typically consider themselves as part of a larger "brotherhood" or family among other officers. However, when neglected, officers are influenced to further speak out against the police officer that made the offense. On the other hand, if an officer does decide to speak out against another police officer, that same police officer may be subjected to harassment and in some cases, be ostracized. The Blue Wall of Silence is ultimately held together by fear of exile, and when the police force is often treated as a "brotherhood," speaking against "brothers" gives a perceived reality of betrayal and infidelity. This perception often steers officers away from breaking The Wall, leading into a spiral that ends in the wall remaining amidst.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Police brutality can be associated with racial profiling. Differences in race, religion, politics, ability, or socioeconomic status sometimes exist between police and the citizenry. For example, in 2016, about 27% of sworn in police officers were people of color. The leadership of police department and police unions tend to be primarily white, as well. Meanwhile, police officers often work in non-white communities. Portions of the population may perceive the police to be oppressors. In addition, there is a perception that victims of police brutality often belong to relatively powerless groups, such as racial or cultural minorities, the disabled, and the poor.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Beginning in the 1960s, police departments began to offer cultural sensitivity and diversity trainings. However, these trainings are generally found to be ineffective and removed from the everyday reality of policing.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Since the 1970s, police departments have increasingly hired more non-white officers, following a court order to diversify police departments. The percentage of non-white officers doubled (14% to 27%) between 1987 and 2016. However, according to studies, there is no evidence that non-white officers are less aggressive to non-white civilians. Furthermore, there is no correlation between non-white officers and lower rates of police brutality or community satisfaction with policing. For example, police forces in New York and Philadelphia have comparatively diverse police forces, but they have been criticized for their aggressive tactics and racial profiling. This is explained by the fact that police department priorities are set by politicians and the larger systematic issues of police culture and racism are still prevalent.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Police brutality is often linked to the "warrior mentality" and militarization of police departments. Under this system, new recruits enter police academies, where they may be instructed in a manner similar to paramilitary training or what is called a "warrior training." Some police academies even employ independent training companies, such as Close Quarters Battle, which has trained the United States Marine Corps, Navy Seals, and the special forces of other countries. These trainings focus on fear and defensive tactics, rather than community interaction and outreach. The recruits will focus on learning how to kill and aggressively manage crisis situations, as well as engaging in drill formations and standing at attention. Recruits will learn that any situation, including seemingly routine ones (such as traffic stops) can turn deadly, and they receive minimal training in how to manage complex social situations. As noted by Rosa Brooks, "Many police recruits enter the academy as idealists, but this kind of training turns them into cynics."


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Once they are trained and working, police often think of crime as a war, in which they are "warriors," and some people are their enemies. The police are provided with military equipment, such as tanks, and some work in militarized units, such as Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams. Their equipment partially comes from the Department of Defense, due to the 1033 program. Established in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, the program allows the DoD to give law enforcement their excess equipment (local authorities only pay for shipping costs), with an estimated $7.4 billion of property transferred since the program began. Furthermore, an estimated 19% of police officers are military veterans, documenting a "revolving door" between the military and the police, a phenomenon also found among FBI agents. Police who have been exposed to war have more than a 50% higher rate of excessive force complaints than non-veterans, according to internal Boston PD documents.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Since the 1980s, police departments have adopted the broken windows theory, as advocated by criminologists like George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson. This theory posits that signs of disorder or decay in neighborhoods (such as broken windows, graffiti, loitering, drug use, prostitution, etc.) create an impression that the area is neglected, thereby leading to further chaos and crime. Therefore, if police departments directly respond to smaller neighborhood issues, they can help prevent larger issues. By the 1990s, police departments had increasingly adopted this philosophy, and they adopted policing methods inspired by it, such as stop-and-frisk in New York City (adopted in 2001). Police departments were empowered to intervene in civilian life and act as moral authorities. Meanwhile, the problems associated with poor living standards were blamed on civilians, rather than political or economic forces. Consequently, police were given the ability to increase arrests, aggressive policing, and harassment of civilians, which further contributed to police brutality and racial profiling.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Academic theories such as the threat hypothesis and the community violence hypothesis have been used to explain police brutality. The threat hypothesis implies that "police use force in direct response to a perceived threat from racial and/or economic groups viewed as threatening to the existing social order." According to the community violence hypothesis, "police use force in direct response to levels of violence in the community." This theory explains that force is used to control groups that threaten the community or police themselves with violence. This theory is applied mostly to shield non minorities from competition, fear, and perceived inconveniences. This is usually exercised on a minority, usually of African descent, without evidence or reasonable doubt. The strain minorities feel, weaken their mental health and discourages them. This ultimately caters to a white community as they no longer must worry about an African potentially winning over their economic position. Additionally, Threat Hypothesis also enables a "safer" environment for whites, as whites generally don't feel safe when around people of color. Usually, when around people of color, whites tend to police them. This makes the environment unsafe for nonwhites.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: This style of policing is a less grotesque way of wrongly punishing people of color, the far more intense example would be the act of lynching, which would display a person of color be murdered and tortured in front of an audience.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Many policies have been offered for how to prevent police brutality. One proposed solution is body worn cameras. The theory of using body cameras is that police officers will be less likely to commit misconduct if they understand that their actions are being recorded. The United States Department of Justice under Obama's administration supplied $20 million for body cameras to be implemented in police departments. During a case study attempting to test the effects that body cameras had on police actions, researchers found evidence that suggested that police used less force with civilians when they had body cameras.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Police are supposed to have the cameras on from the time they receive a call of an incident to when the entire encounter is over. However, there is controversy regarding police using the equipment properly. The issue regarding an officer's ability to turn on and off the record button is if the police officer is trustworthy. In 2017, Baltimore Police Officer Richard A. Pinheiro Jr. was caught planting evidence. The officer did not realize 30 seconds of footage was available even before switching the camera on. To solve this problem, it has been proposed to record police officers' entire shift and not allowing access for police officers to turn on and off the record button. This can cause technical and cost issues due to the large amount of data the camera would accumulate, for which various solutions have been proposed.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: According to a survey done by Vocativ in 2014, "41 cities use body cams on some of their officers, 25 have plans to implement body cams and 30 cities do not use or plan to use cams at this time." There are other issues that can occur from the use of body cameras as well. This includes downloading and maintenance of the data which can be expensive. There is also some worry that if video testimony becomes more relied upon in court cases, not having video evidence from body cameras would decrease the likelihood that the court system believes credible testimony from police officers and witnesses


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Civilian review boards have been proposed as another solution to decreasing police brutality. Benefits of civilian review boards can include making sure police are doing their jobs and increasing the relationship the police have with the public. Civilian review boards have gotten criticism though. They can be staffed with police who can weaken the effectiveness of the boards. Some boards do not have the authority to order investigations into police departments. They can also lack the funding to be an effective tool. The origins of the Civilian Review Boards date back as far as 1950, when "18 organizations formed the "Permanent Coordination Committee on Police and Minority Groups" to lobby the city to deal with police misconduct in general." Due to the political climate of the time, the Civilians Boards were used as a false solution to help the public feel as if they were heard. Unbeknownst to the public, the Civilian Review Boards would ultimately house Officers among its staff, decreasing the effectiveness.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Excessive use of force is a tort, and police officers may be held liable for damages should they take unconstitutional actions. The ability to sue in federal court was first introduced as a remedy for police brutality and misconduct in 1871 during the Reconstruction era as the Third Enforcement Act. The act allowed plaintiffs to sue directly in federal courts which were important as it allowed plaintiffs to bypass state courts during the Jim Crow era. The theory behind this solution to police brutality is that by taking the civil action to a federal court level, the case will be heard fairly and the financial judgments are intended to have a deterrent effect on future police misconduct in that department.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Since 1967, this remedy has been restricted by Supreme Court precedents through qualified immunity which grants police officers immunity from lawsuits unless their actions violated "clearly established" law. In practice, most jurisdictions rely on court precedent to define clearly established law, so to be successful plaintiffs often must show that a previous court case found the particular act at hand unlawful. For example, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals granted immunity to an officer who shot a 14-year-old who dropped a BB gun as he raised his hands, because unlike a 2011 case where an officer was held liable for shooting a man who lowered a shotgun, the boy had pulled the BB gun from his waistband. This is often a stringent requirement, and in a majority of cases since 2005, police officer have been granted immunity for their actions. Lawsuits are sometimes successful, however. For example, in a 2001 settlement, New York City was required to pay a plaintiff $7.125 million in damages and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association was required to pay $1.625 million. At that time, it was the most money the city had ever paid to settle a police brutality lawsuit and is considered the first time that a police union has paid a claim to settle a brutality suit.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: After the murder of George Floyd, there have been widespread calls to defund the police. The idea behind this is that money is diverted from policing to the areas needed to prevent crime, for example, housing, employment, welfare, etc. There have been calls for this since society has seen a lack of reform in policing around police brutality and discrimination.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: The police abolition movement is a political movement that advocates replacing policing with other systems of public safety. Police abolitionists believe that policing, as a system, is inherently flawed and cannot be reformed—a view that rejects the ideology of police reformists. While reformists seek to address the ways in which policing occurs, abolitionists seek to transform policing altogether through a process of disbanding, disempowering, and disarming the police. Abolitionists argue that the institution of policing is deeply rooted in a history of white supremacy and settler colonialism and that it is inseparable from a pre-existing racial capitalist order, and thus believe a reformist approach to policing will always fail.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Police abolition is a process that requires communities to create alternatives to policing. This process involves the deconstruction of the preconceived understandings of policing and resisting co-option by reformists. It also involves engaging in and supporting practices that reduce police power and legitimacy, such as defunding the police.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: On June 8, 2020, both houses of the New York state assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, which makes it so any police officer in the state of New York who injures or kills somebody through the use of "a chokehold or similar restraint" can be charged with a Class C felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the "long overdue" police reforms into law on June 12, 2020.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: A 2001 publication noted that local media rarely reported scandals involving out-of-town police unless events made it onto a network videotape. According to a 2002 analysis, there is often a dramatic increase in unfavorable attitudes toward the police in the wake of highly publicized events such as the Rampart scandal in the late 1990s and the killings of Amadou Diallo (February 1999) and Patrick Dorismond (March 2000) in New York City. A 1997 study found that when viewers are shown footage of police arrests, they may be more likely to perceive the police conduct as brutal if the arresting officers are Caucasian.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Public opinion polls following the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles and the 1992 killing of Malice Green in Detroit indicate that the incidents appear to have had their greatest effect on specific perceptions of the way local police treat black people, and markedly less effect on broader perceptions of the extent of discrimination against them.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: To draw attention to the issue of police brutality in America, multiple basketball players for the NBA, including Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, wore shirts labeled "I Can't Breathe," referring to the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the New York City Police Department on July 17, 2014. Concerned African-Americans also started a movement referred to as "Black Lives Matter" to try to help people understand how police are affecting African-American lives, initially prompted by the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman of the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, and further sparked by the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014. In 2016, Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback then playing for the San Francisco 49ers, started a protest movement by refusing to stand for the national anthem at the start of games, receiving widespread support and widespread condemnation, including from President Donald Trump.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: In May and June 2020, support for the Black Lives Matter movement surged among Americans as a result of the protests and unrest that broke out across the United States following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A tracking poll by Civiqs found that, for the first time ever, more white Americans supported the Black Lives Matter movement than opposed it. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned police violence against African American communities and called for racial justice while speaking at George Floyd's funeral service.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: While many celebrities have joined in on the "Black Lives Matter" campaign, many of the initiatives occurring in communities across the country are led by local members of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. The purpose of this network is to demand change at the local level and stop unfair punishment or brutality towards Black communities.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Responsibility for investigating police misconduct in the United States has mainly fallen on local and state governments. The federal government does investigate misconduct but only does so when local and state governments fail to look into cases of misconduct.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: Laws intended to protect against police abuse of authority include the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures; the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects individuals against self-incrimination and being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process; the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which bans cruel and unusual punishments; the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses; the Civil Rights Act of 1871; and the Federal Tort Claims Act. The Civil Rights Act has evolved into a key U.S. law in brutality cases. However, has been assessed as ultimately ineffective in deterring police brutality. The federal government can place charges on police officers who commit police misconduct. These prosecutions do not often occur as the federal government tends to defer to local and state governments for prosecution. The federal government also has the ability to investigate police departments if they are committing unlawful actions. When an investigation reveals violations by a police department, the Department of Justice can use §14141 to file a lawsuit. Like other tools at their disposal, the federal government also rarely uses this statute. In a 1996 law journal article, it was argued that Judges often give police convicted of brutality light sentences on the grounds that they have already been punished by damage to their careers. A 1999 article attributed much of this difficulty in combating police brutality to the overwhelming power of the stories mainstream American culture tells about the encounters leading to police violence.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: In 1978, surveys of police officers found that police brutality, along with sleeping on duty, was viewed as one of the most common and least likely to be reported forms of police deviance other than corruption.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: In "Tennessee v. Garner" (1985), the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment prevents police from using deadly force on a fleeing suspect unless the police have good reason to believe that the suspect is a danger to others.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: The Supreme Court in "Graham v. Connor" (1989) stated that the reasonableness of a police officer using force should be based on what the officer's viewpoint was when the crime occurred. Reasonableness should also factor in things like the suspect's threat level and if attempts were made to avoid being arrested.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court introduced the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, originally with the rationale of protecting law enforcement officials from frivolous lawsuits and financial liability in cases where they acted in good faith in an unclear legal situation. Starting in around 2005, courts increasingly applied this doctrine to cases involving the use of excessive force, eventually leading to widespread criticism that it "has become a nearly failsafe tool to let police brutality go unpunished and deny victims their constitutional rights" (as summarized in a 2020 Reuters report).


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: On May 25, 2022, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would ban chokeholds and carotid restraints, adopt body camera policies, limit the use of no-knock warrants to certain circumstances, and adopt updated use-of-force standards that encourage de-escalation for all federal law enforcement agents.


title: Police brutality in the United States

text: In July 2019, the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York, premiered Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson′s opera "Blue" about African-American teenagers as an ′endangered species′; often falling victim to police brutality.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is a 2002 stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The game was re-released for Windows through the Steam online distribution service, and a DRM-free version was later made available through GOG.com. It is the second installment in the "Hitman" video game series and the sequel to "". The single-player story once again follows Agent 47, a genetically enhanced human clone who worked for the International Contract Agency (ICA) as an assassin. Following the events of "Codename 47", the former contract killer has retired and started a peaceful life at a church, but after his only friend, Reverend Emilio Vittorio, is kidnapped by unknown assailants, 47 resumes work for the ICA in hopes of tracking him down.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: Like its predecessor, gameplay focuses on eliminating targets while trying to remain undetected for as long as possible, may it be by taking disguises, avoiding suspicious enemies, or other means. The more action-focused segments from "Codename 47" have been removed in favor of entirely stealth-focused missions, though players are free to choose their own style of gameplay. The game introduces the option for a first-person view, the ability to incapacitate enemies instead of killing them, and missions with multiple possible approaches.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: "Silent Assassin" received generally positive reviews from critics, who considered it to be an improvement over its predecessor in every respect. The game was also a commercial success, having sold more than 3.7 million copies as of 23 April 2009, which makes it the best-selling "Hitman" game in the original series (prior to 2016's "Hitman"). High-definition ports of "Silent Assassin" and its successors, "" and "", were released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in January 2013 in the form of the "Hitman HD Trilogy".


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: "Hitman 2" features mission-based gameplay and is presented from the third-person perspective, which can optionally be switched to a first-person view. On each level, the main character, a contract killer named Agent 47, is given a set of objectives to complete. Most levels require the assassination of one or more people. The way through which the missions are to be completed is up to the player, and there are often a variety of ways to complete missions. Instead of taking an action-oriented, aggressive approach, one can also set traps, like poisoning a drink, to terminate the target in silence. Some missions have assassination possibilities unique to the level.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: Agent 47 can find disguises or remove them from an incapacitated person to blend in with his surroundings and access restricted areas. This plays in with the "suspicion" system; a bar beside the health meter on the HUD represents how much suspicion the player garners. There are multiple ways to blend in more effectively; for example, the player can make sure to carry an AK-47 assault rifle while disguised as a Russian soldier. Despite the usage of a uniform, being near to fellow guards will increase the suspicion as they would have an opportunity to more closely examine 47. Running, climbing and being in restricted places are other ways to garner concern.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: Agent 47's cover can be blown if suspicion gets too high, and the disguise will no longer be of any use. It is possible to switch between multiple disguises throughout the level.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: "Hitman 2" uses the concept of a post-mission ranking system, in which the player is given a status based on how they completed the mission, rated along a stealthy-aggressive axis, between "Silent Assassin", a stealthy player who manages to complete the level without being noticed and only killing two non-targeting people excluding the intended target(s), and "Mass Murderer", a non-stealthy player who kills everyone. The game rewards the player for critical thinking and problem solving, encouraging the player not to treat the game as a simple shooter. Achieving "Silent Assassin" status on multiple missions rewards the player with bonus weapons. These weapons, plus items found in previous levels, can be carried over into future ones, allowing for differing means of accomplishing the tasks. Big weapons like rifles and shotguns cannot be concealed, thus the player has to either be wearing an appropriate disguise to match the weapon, or make sure no one sees the player use it.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: Following the events of "", two men investigate the massacre left by Agent 47 at the facility of his creator, Dr. Ort-Meyer, in Romania. One of them recognizes the former assassin on video footage of the events, and decides that they must "hire" him. Meanwhile, 47, having retired after erasing all evidence of his existence, leads a new life as a humble gardener at a Sicilian church owned by the Reverend Emilio Vittorio. One day, after 47 attends confession to ask for forgiveness for his past, a group of unknown men arrive at the church and abduct Vittorio, leaving behind a ransom note demanding $500,000.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: Unable to pay such a sum, 47 contacts his former employers, the International Contract Agency (ICA), for assistance. The organisation agrees to help in exchange for 47 returning to complete several contracts for them. Although he learns that the abduction was conducted by the local Mafia and kills the person who handled it, 47 is unable to find Vittorio, and is left to repay his debt to the ICA. His missions take him to various locations in Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Afghanistan and India, and each require collecting an important item for his client. In time, he eventually gives up his search for Vittorio, who he assumes is dead.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: After eliminating his last target, 47 is informed by the ICA that Vittorio's kidnapping was orchestrated by Sergei Zavorotko, the brother of Arkadij Jegorov (one of 47's five genetic donors and targets from the first game), in order to lure 47 out of retirement. In addition, he learns that all the targets were connected to the sale of a nuclear warhead to Sergei, who needed them eliminated in order to conceal the fact that he intended to arm the warheads to missiles that possessed software which would disguise them as American-made, therefore bypassing the American missile defense system, and sell them to interested parties. 47 pursues Sergei, who has taken Vittorio back to his church, and kills him and his men. Concerned for his soul, Vittorio begs 47 to renounce his path of violence and lead a good life, handing him his rosary. Unable to find inner peace, however, 47 leaves the rosary on the church's door, and formally returns to the ICA.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: One of the major complaints critics made about the first game was that it was inaccessible to most players due to its unfriendly nature, featuring difficult gameplay and a broken checkpoint system. Improvements were made to the game's AI and many levels were made smaller and more focused. Additional items would be available in the second installment, including chloroform for quietly taking down enemies and a crossbow which could silently kill opponents. The initial story for the game would take place after the events of the first game. After hearing the changes planned for "Hitman 2", "PC Gamer" declared in December 2001 that ""Hitman 2" should be everything we wished of its predecessor – and that gives us extremely high hopes."


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: "Hitman 2: Silent Assassin" received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. GameSpot gave it a score of 8.6/10, saying that it "fixes virtually all of the problems of its predecessor" and is still an "outstanding" game. Electronic Gaming Monthly scored "Hitman 2"s GameCube version 7/8/8.5: the first reviewer criticized its artificial intelligence and mission briefings, but said that "each time I circumvented the immeasurable odds and made the crucial killing blow, "Hitman 2" was briefly a blast"; the third reviewer summarized it as "an engaging adventure title that rewards patient players".


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: Despite the 7/8/8.5 scores given by Electronic Gaming Monthly, the cover of the GameCube release says "9/10 Electronic Gaming Monthly Gold Award". This score is erroneously taken from the magazine's review of the PlayStation 2 version. When confronted with the issue by Electronic Gaming Monthly, Eidos said it would remove the score in future printings.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: "Hitman 2" has sold more than 3.7 million copies as of 23 April 2009. By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of "Hitman 2" had sold 1.1 million copies and earned $39 million in the United States. "Next Generation" ranked it as the 47th-highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined console sales of "Hitman" games released in the 2000s reached 2 million units in the United States by July 2006. "Hitman 2"s PC and Xbox releases each received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies per version in the United Kingdom. ELSPA gave the game's PlayStation 2 release a "Platinum" certification for sales of at least 300,000 copies in the region.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: "Hitman 2" was nominated for "Computer Gaming World"s 2002 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to "". The editors wrote, ""Hitman 2" is a huge improvement over the original, and it's one of the best games of last year in any genre." GameSpot presented the game with its annual "Most Improved Sequel on PC" award. It was also nominated for GameSpot's "Best Music on PC", "Best Single-Player Action Game on PC", "Best Music on Xbox", "Best Sound on PlayStation 2", "Best Music on PlayStation 2" and "Best Action Adventure Game on Xbox" prizes.


title: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

text: The game's release sparked controversy due to a level featuring the killing of Sikhs within a depiction of their most holy site, the Harmandir Sahib, where hundreds of Sikhs were massacred in 1984. In response, the level was edited from the Microsoft Windows and GameCube versions of "Silent Assassin", removing all Sikh-related references.


title: Presidents Cup

text: The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup.


title: Presidents Cup

text: The Presidents Cup has been held biennially since 1994. Initially it was held in even-numbered years, with the Ryder Cup being held in odd numbered years. However, the cancellation of the 2001 Ryder Cup due to the September 11 attacks pushed both tournaments back a year, and the Presidents Cup was then held in odd-numbered years. It reverted to even-number years following the postponement of the 2020 Ryder Cup due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hosted alternately in the United States and in countries represented by the International Team.


title: Presidents Cup

text: The next Presidents Cup will be held from September 24–29, 2024 at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.


title: Presidents Cup

text: The scoring system of the event is match play. The format is drawn from the Ryder Cup and consists of 12 players per side. Each team has a captain, usually a highly respected golf figure, who is responsible for choosing the pairs in the doubles events, which consist of both alternate shot and best ball formats (also known as "foursomes" and "fourball" matches respectively). Each match, whether it be a doubles or singles match, is worth one point with a half-point awarded to each team in the event of a halved match.


title: Presidents Cup

text: There have been frequent small changes to the format, although the final day has always consisted of 12 singles matches. The contest was extended from three days to four in 2000. In 2015, there were nine foursome doubles matches, nine fourball doubles matches, and 12 singles matches. With a total of 30 points, a team needed to get 15.5 points to win the Cup.


title: Presidents Cup

text: Until the 2005 event, prior to the start of the final day matches, the captains selected one player to play in a tie-breaker in the event of a tie at the end of the final match. Upon a tie, the captains would reveal the players who would play a sudden-death match to determine the winner. In 2003, however, the tiebreaker match ended after three holes because of darkness, and the captains, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, agreed that the Cup would be shared by both teams.


title: Presidents Cup

text: From 2005 to 2013, singles matches ending level at the end of the regulation 18 holes were to be extended to extra holes until the match was won outright. All singles matches would continue in this format until one team reaches the required point total to win the Presidents Cup. Remaining singles matches were only to be played to the regulation 18 holes and could be halved. Although this rule was in force for five Presidents Cup contests, no matches actually went beyond 18 holes.


title: Presidents Cup

text: There is no prize money awarded at the Presidents Cup. The net proceeds are distributed to charities nominated by the players, captains, and captains' assistants. The first ten Presidents Cups raised over US$32 million for charities around the world.


title: Presidents Cup

text: Of the 14 matches, the United States team has won 12, the International Team has won 1, with 1 match tied


title: Armorica

text: Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; , ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast.


title: Armorica

text: The name "Armorica" is a Latinized form of the Gaulish toponym , which literally means 'place in front of the sea'. It is formed with the prefix "are"- ('in front of') attached to -"mori"- ('sea') and the feminine suffix "-(i)cā", denoting the localization (or provenance). The inhabitants of the region were called "Aremorici" ( "Aremoricos"), formed with the stem "are-mori"- extended by the determinative suffix -"cos". It is glossed by the Latin "antemarini" in Endlicher's Glossary. The Slavs use a similar formation, "Po-mor-jane" ('those in front of the sea'), to designate the inhabitants of Pomerania. The Latin adjective "Armoricani" was an administrative term designating in particular a sector of the Roman defence line in Gaul in Late Antiquity, the "Tractus Armoricani" ('Armorican Tract').


title: Armorica

text: In medieval Insular Celtic languages, the Celtic term "*Litauia", meaning 'Land' or 'Country' (from an original Proto-Celtic 'Earth', 'the Vast One'), came to be used to designate the Brittany Peninsula, as in Old Irish "," Old Welsh , Old Breton , or in the Latinized form .


title: Armorica

text: In Breton, which belongs to the Brythonic branch of the Insular Celtic languages, along with Welsh and Cornish, "on [the] sea" is "war vor" (Welsh "ar fôr", "f" being voiced and pronounced like English "v"), but the older form "arvor" is used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast to "argoad" ("ar" "on/at", "coad" "forest" [Welsh "ar goed" or "coed" "trees"]) for the inland regions. The cognate modern usages suggest that the Romans first contacted coastal people in the inland region and assumed that the regional name "Aremorica" referred to the whole area, both coastal and inland.


title: Armorica

text: Pliny the Elder, in his "Natural History" (4.17.105), claims that Armorica was the older name for "Aquitania" and states Armorica's southern boundary extended to the Pyrenees. Taking into account the Gaulish origin of the name, that is perfectly correct and logical, as Aremorica is not a country name but a word that describes a type of geographical region, one that is by the sea. Pliny lists the following Celtic tribes as living in the area: the Aedui and Carnuteni as having treaties with Rome; the Meldi and Secusiani as having some measure of independence; and the Boii, Senones, Aulerci (both the Eburovices and Cenomani), the Parisii, Tricasses, Andicavi, Viducasses, Bodiocasses, Veneti, Coriosvelites, Diablinti, Rhedones, Turones, and the Atseui.


title: Armorica

text: Trade between Armorica and Britain, described by Diodorus Siculus and implied by Pliny was long-established. Because, even after the campaign of Publius Crassus in 56 BC, continued resistance to Roman rule in Armorica was still being supported by Celtic aristocrats in Britain. Julius Caesar led two invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 in response. Some hint of the complicated cultural web that bound Armorica and the Britanniae (the "Britains" of Pliny) is given by Caesar when he describes Diviciacus of the Suessiones as "the most powerful ruler in the whole of Gaul, who had control not only over a large area of this region but also of Britain" Archaeological sites along the south coast of England, notably at Hengistbury Head, show connections with Armorica as far east as the Solent. This 'prehistoric' connection of Cornwall and Brittany set the stage for the link that continued into the medieval era. Still farther East, however, the typical Continental connections of the Britannic coast were with the lower Seine valley instead.


title: Armorica

text: Archaeology has not yet been as enlightening in Iron-Age Armorica as the coinage, which has been surveyed by Philip de Jersey.


title: Armorica

text: Under the Roman Empire, Armorica was administered as part of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, which had its capital in Lugdunum, (modern day Lyon). When the Roman provinces were reorganized in the 4th century, Armorica ("Tractus Armoricanus et Nervicanus") was placed under the second and third divisions of Lugdunensis. After the legions retreated from Britannia (407) the local elite there expelled the civilian magistrates in the following year; Armorica too rebelled in the 430s and again in the 440s, throwing out the ruling officials, as the Romano-Britons had done. At the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 a Roman coalition led by General Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic King Theodoric I clashed violently with the Hunnic alliance commanded by King Attila the Hun. Jordanes lists Aëtius' allies as including Armoricans and other Celtic or German tribes (Getica 36.191).


title: Armorica

text: The "Armorican" peninsula came to be settled with Britons from Britain during the poorly documented period of the 5th–7th centuries. Even in distant Byzantium Procopius heard tales of migrations to the Frankish mainland from the island, largely legendary for him, of "Brittia". These settlers, whether refugees or not, made the presence felt of their coherent groups in the naming of the westernmost, Atlantic-facing provinces of Armorica, Cornouaille ("Cornwall") and Domnonea ("Devon"). These settlements are associated with leaders like Saints Samson of Dol and Pol Aurelian, among the "founder saints" of Brittany.


title: Armorica

text: The linguistic origins of Breton are clear: it is a Brythonic language descended from the Celtic British language, like Welsh and Cornish one of the Insular Celtic languages, brought by these migrating Britons. Still, questions of the relations between the Celtic "cultures" of Britain— Cornish and Welsh—and Celtic Breton are far from settled. Martin Henig (2003) suggests that in Armorica as in sub-Roman Britain:


title: Armorica

text: There was a fair amount of creation of identity in the migration period. We know that the mixed, but largely British and Frankish population of Kent repackaged themselves as 'Jutes', and the largely British populations in the lands east of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall) seem to have ended up as 'West Saxons'. In western Armorica, the small élite which managed to impose an identity on the population happened to be British rather than 'Gallo-Roman' in origin, so they became Bretons. The process may have been essentially the same."


title: Armorica

text: According to C.E.V. Nixon, the collapse of Roman power and the depredations of the Visigoths led Armorica to act "like a magnet to peasants, "coloni", slaves and the hard-pressed" who deserted other Roman territories, further weakening them.


title: Armorica

text: Vikings settled in the Cotentin peninsula and the lower Seine around Rouen in the ninth and early tenth centuries and, as these regions came to be known as "Normandy", the name "Armorica" fell out of use in the area. With western Armorica having already evolved into "Brittany", the east was recast from a Frankish viewpoint as the Breton March under a Frankish margrave.


title: Armorica

text: The home village of the fictional comic-book hero Asterix was located in Armorica during the Roman Republic; there, "indomitable Gauls" hold out against Rome. The unnamed village was reported as having been discovered by archaeologists in a spoof article in the British "The Independent" newspaper on April Fool's Day in 1993.


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: Sylvia, Lady Ashley (born Edith Louisa Hawkes, 1 April 1904 – 29 June 1977) was an English model, actress, and socialite who was best known for her numerous marriages to British and Georgian noblemen and American movie stars.


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: Ashley was born as Edith Louisa Hawkes on 1 April 1904, at 112 Hall Place, Paddington, London, England, the elder daughter of Edith Florence Hyde and Arthur Hawkes. The family moved to nearby Wharncliffe Gardens, Lisson Grove, before 1910. She later renamed herself Sylvia and preferred giving her year of birth as 1906. Her 1927 marriage certificate records her name as Edith Louisa Sylvia Hawkes and her father as Arthur Hawkes (deceased), gentleman.


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: Her father was a livery stable employee, latterly porter in a block of flats and doorman at a restaurant. When he died, his younger daughter administered his estate.


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: As Sylvia Hawkes, she worked as a lingerie model and became a Cochran Dancer. After this brief career in the chorus line of musical comedy, she appeared in West End plays. In 1924, she debuted in "Midnight Follies". She appeared in "Primrose". In 1925, she acted in "Tell me More" at London's Winter Garden Theatre, and in "The Whole Town's Talking".


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: In the 1920s, Ashley regularly appeared on stage with American writer Dorothy Fields in the comedy duo "Silly and Dotty" in "Midnight Follies" at the London Metropole.


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: On 1 March 1941, Lady Ashley filed articles of incorporation to establish an organisation known as the British Distressed Areas Fund. Organised along with her sister, Vera Bleck, Constance Bennett, and Virginia Fox Zanuck, as directors, the Fund focused on soliciting financial support to provide food, clothing and medical aid for refugees of World War II. The headquarters of the organisation was located in Los Angeles, California.


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: In their joint memoir "Bring on the Girls!", P. G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton relate the story of Ashley's audition for George Grossmith Jr. for the 1924 musical "Primrose":


title: Sylvia Ashley

text: Lady Ashley died of cancer on 29 June 1977 at age 73 in Los Angeles. She is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood; her grave is 680 feet north of that of her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., at the north end of the "Garden of Legends", aka "Section 8".


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time in Europe is the variation of standard clock time that is applied in most European countries (apart from Iceland, Belarus, Turkey and Russia) in the period between spring and autumn, during which clocks are advanced by one hour from the time observed in the rest of the year, with a view to making the most efficient use of seasonal daylight. It corresponds to the notion and practice of daylight saving time (DST) to be found in many other parts of the world.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In all locations in Europe where summer time is observed (the EU, EFTA and associated countries), European Summer Time begins at 01:00 UTC/WET (02:00 CET, 03:00 EET) on the last Sunday in March and ends at 01:00 UTC (02:00 WEST, 03:00 CEST, 04:00 EEST) on the last Sunday in October each year; i.e. the change is made at the same absolute time across all time zones. European Union Directive 2000/84/EC makes the observance of summer time mandatory for EU member states (except overseas territories), though a proposal to repeal this directive and require that member states observe their own choice year-round is currently going through the legislative process , but has not seen progress since October 2020.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time lasts 30 weeks in years when the last Sunday in March is after the 28th; otherwise, it is 31 weeks.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer Time was first introduced during the First World War. However, most countries discontinued the practice after the war. It was then restarted in various countries during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. Again it was widely cancelled by the 1950s, but reintroduced in isolated cases until the late 1960s, when the energy crisis of the late 1960s and early 1970s began to prompt policymakers to reintroduce Summer Time across the continent. It has remained in place in most European countries since then.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Historically, the countries of Europe had different practices for observing Summer Time, but this hindered coordination of transport, communications, and movements. Starting in 1981 the European Commission began issuing directives requiring member states to legislate harmonised start and end dates for Summer Time.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Since 1981, each directive has specified a transition time of 01:00 UTC and a start date of the last Sunday in March, but the end dates have differed. Successive Directives laid down two dates for the end: one on the last Sunday in September applied by the continental Member States, and the other on the fourth Sunday in October for the United Kingdom and Ireland. In 1996 the end date was changed to the fourth Sunday in October for all countries. In 1998 the end date was changed to the last Sunday in October; this happened to be the same as the previous rule for 1996 and 1997. The ninth directive, Directive 2000/84/EC, currently (2018) in force, specifies this rule.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: There were proposals in 2015 and 2016 from members of the European Parliament to abolish summer time observance, but the European Commission did not at that time put forward proposals to be considered, saying it had not found conclusive evidence in favour of a change, and member states were divided. It did, however, note that a cost would be incurred if harmonisation between member states' summer time rules was lost. In 2017 the Finnish and Lithuanian parliaments both voted in favour of proposals calling on the EU to reconsider daylight saving, with similar criticism from Poland and Sweden. The European Commission at the time was reviewing the practice.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: On 8 February 2018, the European Parliament voted to ask the European Commission to re-evaluate DST in Europe. After a web survey, in which 4.6 million European citizens participated, showed high support for not switching clocks twice annually, on 12 September 2018 the European Commission decided to propose that an end be put to seasonal clock changes (repealing Directive 2000/84/EC). In order for this to be valid, the standard European Union legislative procedure must be followed, including that the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament must both approve the proposal.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Under the proposal, member countries were expected to decide by 31 March 2019 which time they would observe year round. This was however considered a fairly tight timescale by many. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which coordinates changes to the time zone database used by most computers and smartphones, notes that "With less than a year's notice there is a good chance that some computer-based clocks will operate incorrectly after the change, due to delays in propagating updates to software and data." The airline industry pointed out the complexity of revising all airline schedules, particularly in terms of ensuring slot availability on flights outside the EU, and recommended keeping the status quo or deferring the change until at least 2021. An informal meeting of EU transport ministers on 29 October 2018 suggested that many member states would not support the "unrealistic" timetable and that implementation could be pushed back to 2021.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Discussions have shown support for year-round "winter time" in e.g. Denmark, the Netherlands (), and Finland () while permanent summer time was supported in Portugal (), Germany and Poland (), and Cyprus (). Spanish opinion is split on the matter; the mainland largely favours shifting to UTC, while the Balearic Islands would prefer to remain on and the Canary Islands "'in no case' wants to have the same time zone as the mainland"; Italy is in favour of keeping current daylight saving regime.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: On 4 March 2019, the European Parliament Transport and Tourism Committee approved the Commission's proposal by 23 votes to 11. The start date was, however, to be postponed until 2021 at the earliest, to ensure a smooth transition, and the Commission is to ensure that countries' decisions to retain winter or summer time are coordinated and do not disrupt the internal market. This decision was confirmed by the full European Parliament on 26 March; it must now be approved by the Council of the European Union. As of November 2021, this approval has not yet been obtained. Under the draft directive, member states would have chosen whether to remain on their current summer time, in which case the last transition would have been on the last Sunday of March 2021, or their current winter time, which would have taken permanent effect from the last Sunday of October 2021.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: A consultation by the Irish government found that 80% of those surveyed would not support any measure that resulted in different time zones between Northern Ireland and the Republic. In July 2019, Ireland announced its opposition to the proposed directive and intends to lobby other EU states on the issue. A qualified majority of 55% of member states representing at least 65% of the European population is required for the Council of Ministers to implement a directive. In the UK, the House of Lords launched a new inquiry in July 2019 to consider the implications of the European changes, explore the preparations that should be made and the factors that should inform the UK's response. The United Kingdom left the EU on 31 January 2020, before any reform became effective; EU rules continued to apply during the transition period (up until 31 December 2020) but thereafter the UK could choose to make its own arrangements. If the UK were thus to continue observing summer/winter time, Northern Ireland would have a one-hour time difference for 30 or 31 weeks of the year either with the rest of Ireland or with the rest of the UK. In September 2018, the UK Government said that it "has no plans" to end daylight saving.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: , the decision has not been confirmed by the Council of the European Union. The Council has asked the Commission to produce a detailed impact assessment, but the Commission considers that the onus is on the Member States to find a common position in Council. As a result, progress on the issue is effectively blocked.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: European Summer Time begins (clocks go forward) at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday in March, and ends (clocks go back) at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday in October:


title: Summer time in Europe

text: "Double Summer Time" (two hours ahead of local winter time) has been observed on some occasions, notably in 1921, 1941–45, and 1947. See:


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Some may be thought of as using "permanent" summer time, since they use time zones allocated to regions further east than themselves. Belarus explicitly decided to stay permanently on (what it formerly called) summer time after 2011.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Spain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands may also be thought of as observing "summer time" throughout the winter, and "double-summer time" during summer, because of their positions to the west of the central European time zone.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In most of Europe, the word "Summer" is added to the name of each European time zone during this period: thus, in the time zone, Central European Time becomes Central European Summer Time ().


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Austria used summer time in 1916–1918, 1920, 1940–1948 (as part of Nazi Germany between 1940–1945), and since 1980.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Austria-Hungary used summer time during World War I in 1916, 1917, and 1918, in line with the German Empire.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time was introduced in Bulgaria in 1979 by a regulation of the Bulgarian Council of Ministers. Bulgaria observes the European Union rules for summer time.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Croatia was a part of Yugoslavia as summer time was introduced in 1983. Yugoslavia was the last country in Europe introducing summer time. After gaining independence in the Croatian War of Independence in 1992, Croatia followed the Central European way to change the time on the last Sunday of March and on the last Sunday of October, respectively on the last Sunday of September till 1995.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In the Kingdom of Bohemia summer time was used for three seasons during World War I, from 1916 to 1918, while part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: During World War II, when the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia became a de facto part of Nazi Germany, summer time was used from 1940. In 1940/1941 and 1941/1942, summer time was kept continuously even during the winter.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Czechoslovakia used summer time from 1945 to 1949 and from 1979 to 1992. In winter 1946/1947 (from 1 December to 23 February), winter time (CET+01:00) was used.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time has been observed in Denmark since 1980. A national association against summer time (Landsforeningen mod Sommertid) exists, which celebrated the EU commission preliminary decision in August 2018.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: The Faroe Islands has observed summer time since 1981. The islands have never been part of the EU, so the decision to observe summer time was its own.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland observes Summer Time simultaneously with Europe. Summer Time thus begins at 00:00 East Greenland Time on Sunday, and 22:00 West Greenland Time on Saturday, and ends at 01:00 EGST on Sunday and 23:00 WGST on Saturday. It was introduced in 1980 when Greenland was legally a part of Denmark without local rule. The most other EU Overseas countries and territories do not observe summer time. Exceptions, based on company decisions, are the northeastern coast around Danmarkshavn (UTC year-round) for Thule Air Base (which follows Atlantic Time and observes in accordance with US and Canadian rules).


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In Estonia summer time was not used in 1990–1996 and 2000–2001. It was used under Soviet rule in 1981–1989.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: A citizens' initiative to abolish daylight saving time was signed by 70,000 Finnish citizens. It was presented to the Finnish parliament in June 2017.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: France and Monaco follow Central European Time and Central European Summer Time. They apply EU rules regarding the start and end times and dates for summer time.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: From 1923 until the Second World War, France and Monaco observed summer time from the last Saturday in March until the first Saturday in October. During the Second World War France also observed summer time. However, after the war the practice was abandoned (since the country changed time zones instituting "de facto" permanent summer time). In 1976, summer time was reimplemented because of the oil crisis.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Since is France's "natural" time zone (extreme points correspond to UTC-0:20 to UTC+0:38), its use of in winter could be seen as a form of daylight saving time, while its use of Central European Summer Time () in summer can be seen as a form of "double summer time".


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time was first introduced during World War I by the German Empire from 1916 to 1918. After the end of the war and the proclamation of the Weimar Republic in November 1918, summer time ceased to be observed. Summer time was reintroduced in 1940, during World War II, to try to save energy for the war economy. After the defeat of Germany, summer time was retained by the occupation powers. In 1945, Berlin and the Soviet Occupation Zone even observed Central European Midsummer Time ("Mitteleuropäische Hochsommerzeit", "MEHSZ"; GMT+03:00): in 1947, all of Germany switched to midsummer time from 11 May to 29 June. After the Federal Republic (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) were established in 1949, summer time again ceased to be observed in 1950.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In 1978, West Germany decided to reintroduce summer time, following the example set by several neighbouring states in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis. However, it only came into effect in 1980, after West and East Germany reached an agreement to observe summer time simultaneously from the last Sunday in March (02:00 CET) to the last Sunday in September (03:00 CEST). Thus both German states observed the same time until the German reunification in 1990, after which the reunified Germany retained the laws and thus also the Time Act ("Zeitgesetz") of West Germany.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Büsingen am Hochrhein, a small exclave of Germany entirely surrounded by Swiss territory, did not implement summer time in 1980 but observed the same time as Switzerland; thus there was a one-hour time difference between this village and the rest of Germany. For the tz database, the zone Europe/Busingen was created in its 2013a release, because since the Unix time epoch in 1970, Büsingen am Hochrhein has shared clocks with Zurich, but not with Germany every year.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time was first introduced in Greece in 1932, from July 6 to September 1, but the idea was then quickly abandoned.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In the early 1970s and in the aftermath of the 1973 energy crisis that led many European states to implement summer time in order to save energy, Greece reintroduced summer time in 1975 for the period March–September.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time was first introduced in Hungary in 1916, and it was observed until 1919. After that, summer time was in use between 1941–1949 and 1954–1957. Summer time has been in use again since 1980 and follows EU rules.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Iceland uses but has not used summer time since April 1968. From 1908 to 1968 Iceland used GMT−01:00. Summer time was used in 1917–1919, 1921 and 1939–1967.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: The European Union Directive 2000/84/EC is valid also in the European Economic Area, but Iceland has a special exception from it.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In the Republic of Ireland, Irish Standard Time (IST) (UTC+01, Western European Summer Time) is observed during Summer (March to October). IST is sometimes mistaken for "Irish Summer Time", though this is incorrect. Winter Time (UTC+00, WET is observed in the rest of the year.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: (Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, observes UK time. , this is the same as the rest of Ireland).


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time is known as "ora legale" (literally "legal hour", referencing the fact that it is mandated by law) in Italy, and it has been adopted and abolished several times: it was observed from 1916 to 1920 and between 1940 and 1948. A law was approved in 1965 that took effect the following year, and made the application of summer time mandatory in the whole country. Since 1996, it has been coordinated with the European Union. San Marino and Vatican City State share land borders solely with Italy and observe the same time as in Italy.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In 1940 the German occupants forced the Netherlands to observe CEST, Germany's Daylight Saving Time, effectively advancing its time by one hour and 40 minutes. This time stayed in effect year round until 1942, when the normal clock followed the German DST switches.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: The use of DST was abandoned directly after the war, and not observed again until 1977, when summer time was observed again, which it currently still is.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In Norway, summer time was observed in 1916, 1940–45, and 1959–65. The arrangement was controversial, and in 1965 the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget) voted to discontinue the practice. Their neighbour, Sweden, did not use it.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: However, in 1980 summer time was reintroduced (together with Sweden and Denmark), and since at least 2002 Norway has followed the European Union in this matter.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In the years 1979–1995 the last day of summer time was the last Sunday of September. In 1996 it was changed to the last Sunday of October, to synchronise with other countries of the EU.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time (locally known by "Hora de Verão") was introduced in 1916. In the years 1922, 1923, 1925, 1930, 1933 and from 1966 to 1976 summer time was not applied.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: For many years, the official time in Madeira was one hour behind that in Lisbon, and the Azores were two hours behind. Today in Madeira, the official time is the same as that of Lisbon and, in the Azores, it is one hour behind Lisbon. The start and end dates for summer time in Portugal follow the pattern in the rest of the EU. The majority of Portugal is supposed to be operating in UTC-1.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time in Romania (locally known by "Ora de Vară") was originally introduced in 1932 (between 22 May and 2 October). Between 1933 and 1940 summer time started on the first Sunday in April and ended on the first Sunday in October. Summer time was abandoned in 1941 and reintroduced in 1979. Until 1996, with few exceptions, summer time in Romania follows European Union rules.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: A decree of the Russian Provisional Government introduced summer time () in Russia on 1 July 1917, and clocks moved one hour forward. A decree of the Soviet government led to the abandonment of this system six months later: clocks moved one hour back again on 28 December.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: A decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR reintroduced summer time in the USSR (Moscow Summer Time, for example) on 1 April 1981, and its practice continued into post-Soviet times until 2011. The changeover dates in Russia were the same as for other European countries, but clocks were moved forward or back at 02:00 local time in all zones. Thus in Moscow (local time = in winter, in summer), summer time commenced at 02:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in March, and ended at 03:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in October. (Note that "day before the last Sunday" is not the same as "the last Saturday" in a month where the last day is a Saturday.)


title: Summer time in Europe

text: On 8 February 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced cancellation of biannual clock changes in Russia in favor of a permanent switch to summer time. An hour was added in March 2011 for the last time, and clocks did not move back again. At the same time some of Russia's time zones were consolidated. After this reform many Russian cities had a "standard time" two hours more than would be suggested by their "astronomical time" (because the original standard time was already ahead of astronomical time in many areas).


title: Summer time in Europe

text: During his 2012 election campaign, Vladimir Putin proposed re-introducing summer time, as some workers had complained about not seeing any daylight during the winter, since the sun had not risen when they went to work. According to a report in the "International Herald Tribune", Russian citizens remembered the winter of 2011-12 as the "darkest winter on record" as a result of the time change. However, Putin later said it would be up to then Prime Minister Medvedev's cabinet to decide how to proceed with a seasonal time shift, and it decided to stay with the 2011 policy.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Slovakia used summer time (locally known as "Letný čas") in 1916, 1917, and 1918 (as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), then again in the early 1940s (as the Slovak Republic (1939–1945), a client-state of Nazi Germany).


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In 1979, Slovakia, as part of Czechoslovakia, established that summer time begins annually in the first weekend of April (moved to the last weekend in March in 1981) and ends in the last weekend of September.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, independent Slovakia continued to use summer time. From 1996, Slovakia has prolonged summer time by about one month so it lasts until the last weekend in October, in accordance with European Union rules.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time in Slovenia (locally known as "Poletni čas") was introduced on 16 November 1982 to be practised from 1983 on. At that time, Slovenia was one of the Yugoslav republics. The same law was valid until 1996 when the end of summer time was changed from the first Sunday in October to the last Sunday in October. In 2006, the European Union standard was adopted and is still used today.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Spain including the Canary Islands has summer time, applying EU rules regarding the start and end times and dates.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In 1918, Spain observed summer time for the first time, and then introduced and abolished several times. It was abolished autumn 1949, and then reintroduced 1974 and has been used since. Spain used GMT+00:00 before 1940 and GMT+01:00 from 1940 as standard time. The Canary Islands used GMT-01:00 before 1946 and GMT+00:00 since 1946 as standard time.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Since is Spain's "natural" time zone (extreme points, except Canary Islands, correspond to UTC-0:37 to UTC+0:17), its use of in winter could be seen as a form of daylight saving time, while its use of Central European Summer Time () in summer can be seen as a form of "double summer time".


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In Sweden summer time was originally introduced on 15 May 1916. It proved unpopular, and on 30 September in the same year, Sweden returned to year-round standard time. This continued for more than half a century.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: On 6 April 1980, Sweden again introduced summer time, and since then summer time has been observed every summer in Sweden. Except for the introduction year 1980, summer time has always started on the last Sunday in March. It ended on the last Sunday in September during the years 1980–1995, and has ended on the last Sunday in October since 1996, following a unification of start/end dates of summer time within the EU as well as in several European countries then outside the EU.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: The transit authority Västtrafik changes its clocks at 04:00, so that the last tram that leaves around 03:30 actually goes 02:30 on the last weekend of October for those who have changed their clocks at the legal time. The public transport company SL changes their clocks at the legal time, and runs extra departures during the October transition hour.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: The second last country in Europe (only before Yugoslavia ) to adopt summer time, in 1981, was Switzerland, even though summer time had been rejected by 52.1% of voters in a federal referendum in 1978.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Since 1996, Swiss summer time has followed EU regulations. It had formerly been in use in 1941 and 1942. Liechtenstein observes the same time as Switzerland. The German village of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a small exclave entirely surrounded by Swiss territory, also observes the same time as in Switzerland. It did not implement summer time in 1980 and observed the same time as Switzerland, so that in 1980, there was a time difference of one hour during the implementation of summer time in Germany between Büsingen am Hochrhein and the rest of West Germany.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time was introduced in Turkey in 1947, but suspended from 1965 to 1972. Since 1974, Turkey follows European Summer Time.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In 2008, the Turkish Ministry of Energy proposed that Turkey should abolish summer time while at the same time switching to , originally from 2009 onwards, but when this appeared infeasible, to start in 2011, the plan has not been heard of since.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: For the year 2011, Turkey switched to European Summer Time at 3:00 am (03:00) on Monday 28 March, one day later than the rest of Europe, to avoid disrupting the national university entrance examinations held on 27 March.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Once again, for the year 2014, Turkey switched to European Summer Time at 3:00 am (03:00) on Monday 31 March, one day later than the rest of Europe, to avoid disrupting the local elections held on 30 March.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In 2015, Turkey delayed the switch from European Summer Time by 2 weeks, to 4:00 am (04:00) on Sunday 8 November, two weeks later than the rest of Europe, due to the calling of a snap general election on Sunday, 1 November.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: In 2016, Turkey scrapped winter time, by permanently staying in daylight saving time zone passed Thursday 8 September.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Summer time was introduced in Ukraine in the early 1980s; from 1981 till 1989 this was Moscow Summer Time; since 1992 Eastern European Summer Time has been used.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: On 20 September 2011 the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) voted not to return from Eastern European Summer Time to Eastern European Time. This change would have had the effect of moving Ukraine into the Further-eastern European Time zone along with Belarus and western Russia (which do not observe summer time). However, on 18 October 2011 the Parliament canceled these plans and the country returned to Eastern European Time as scheduled. 295 MPs voted in favour out of 349 registered MPs.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: On 3 March 2021 the Verkhovna Rada voted on bill №4201 «Draft Law on time observation in Ukraine» which, if accepted in the second reading in March 2021, will abandon transitioning to summer time and establish year-round standard time () on the whole territory of Ukraine. The bill received 277 votes from the 370 MPs present during the first reading. On March 19 the bill was rejected in a second reading with 212 out of 226 required votes and was sent to an additional second reading instead.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Crimea and regions of eastern Ukraine under the control of pro-Russian separatists observe Further-eastern European Time.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: British Summer Time (BST) (, WEST) while local time during the rest of the year is normally referred to as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), (, WET).


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Legislation: Summer Time Act 1916; Summer Time Act 1922; Time (Ireland) Act, 1916; Summer Time Act, 1925; Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939; The Summer Time Order 1964; The Summer Time Order 1967; Summer Time Act 1972; The Summer Time Order 1997; The Summer Time Order 2002.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: The United Kingdom did not revert to GMT for the two winters between 1968–1970, remaining on CET year-round.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: The UK was, until 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020, a member state of the European Union. Since 1996, all clocks in the European Union have changed to summer or winter time on the same dates and at the same moment, at 01:00 UTC+00:00 (Thus summer time ends at 01:59:59 ).


title: Summer time in Europe

text: Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man observe the same time as the UK. Gibraltar uses the same time as Spain.


title: Summer time in Europe

text: , it appears that the UK government intends to continue to operate winter and summer time on these dates, irrespective of any EU decision on the matter. This may have the effect that Northern Ireland will have a different time zone from the Republic of Ireland.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: The provinces of Sweden () are historical, geographical and cultural regions. Sweden has 25 provinces; they have no administrative function (except for in some cases as sport districts), but remain historical legacies and a means of cultural identification as pertains, for example, to dialects and folklore.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: Several of them were subdivisions of Sweden until 1634, when they were replaced by the counties of Sweden ("län"). Some were conquered later on from Denmark–Norway. Others, like the provinces of Finland, were lost. Lapland is the only province acquired through colonization.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: In some cases, the administrative counties correspond almost exactly to the provinces, as is Blekinge to Blekinge County and Gotland, which is a province, county and a municipality. While not exactly corresponding with the province, Härjedalen Municipality is beside Gotland the only municipality named after a province. In other cases, the county borders do not correspond with the older provincial ones, which enhances the cultural importance of the provinces. In addition, the administrative units are continually subject to change – several new counties for instance were created in the 1990s – while the historical provincial borders have remained stable for centuries. Since 1884 all the provinces are also ceremonial duchies, but as such have no administrative or political functions.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: The provinces of Sweden are still used in colloquial speech and cultural references, and therefore cannot be regarded as an archaic concept. The main exception is Lapland where the population see themselves as a part of Västerbotten or Norrbotten, based on the counties.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: Particular to Stockholm and Gothenburg is the fact that both cities have provincial borders going through them: Stockholm is split between Uppland and Södermanland, whereas Gothenburg is split between Västergötland and Bohuslän. According to a 2011 GfK survey, inhabitants in the big cities — Stockholm, Gothenburg and, to a lesser extent, Malmö — identify primarily with their city, rather than with the province they live in.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: English and other languages occasionally use Latin names as alternatives to the Swedish names. The name "Scania" for Skåne predominates in English. Some purely English exonyms, such as "the Dales" for Dalarna, "East Gothland" for Östergötland, "Swedish Lapland" for Lappland and "West Bothnia" for Västerbotten (and corresponding forms) are common in English literature. Swedes writing in English have long used Swedish-language name forms only.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: The origins of the provincial divisions lay in the petty kingdoms that gradually became more and more subjected to the rule of the Kings of Sweden during the consolidation of Sweden. Until the country law of Magnus Ericson in 1350, each of these lands still had its own laws with its own assembly (the thing), and in effect governed themselves. The historical provinces were considered duchies, but newly conquered provinces added to the kingdom either received the status of a duchy or a county, depending on their individual importance.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: After the separation from the Kalmar Union in 1523 the Kingdom incorporated only some of its new conquests as provinces. The most permanent acquisitions stemmed from the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, in which the former Danish Scanian lands – the provinces of Skåne, Blekinge, Halland and Gotland – along with the Norwegian Bohuslän, Jämtland and Härjedalen, became Swedish and gradually integrated. Other foreign territories were ruled as Swedish Dominions under the Swedish monarch, in some cases for two or three centuries. Norway, in personal union with Sweden from 1814 to 1905, never became an integral part of Sweden.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: The division of Västerbotten that took place with the cession of Finland caused Norrbotten to emerge as a county, and eventually to be recognized as a province in its own right. It was granted a coat of arms as late as in 1995.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: In the Viking Age and earlier, Götaland and Svealand consisted of a number of petty kingdoms that were more or less independent; Götaland in the Iron Age and Middle Ages did not include Scania and other provinces in the far south which were part of Denmark. The leading tribe of Götaland in the Iron Age was the Geats; the main tribe of Svealand, according to Tacitus ca 100 AD, was the Suiones (or the "historical Swedes"). "Norrland" was the overall denomination for all of the unexplored northern parts, the outward boundaries of which and control by the Swedish king were weakly defined into the early modern age.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: Due to the Northern Crusades against Finns, Tavastians and Karelians and colonisation of some coastal areas of the country, Finland fell under the Catholic Church and Swedish rule. "Österland" ("Eastern land"; the name had early gone out of use) in southern and central Finland formed an integral part of Sweden. In 1809 Finland was annexed by Russia, reunited with some frontier counties annexed several decades earlier to form the Grand Duchy of Finland, and becoming in 1917 the independent country of Finland.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: The borders of these regions have changed several times throughout history, adapting to changes in national borders, and Norrland, Svealand and Götaland are only "parts" of Sweden and have never superseded the concept of the provinces.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: At the funeral of King Gustav Vasa (Gustav I) in 1560 some early versions of coats of arms for 23 of the provinces listed below were displayed together for the first time, most of them having been created for that particular occasion. Erik XIV of Sweden modeled the funeral processions for Gustav Vasa on the continental renaissance funerals of influential German dukes, who in turn may have styled their display of power on Charles V's funeral procession, where flags were used to represent each entry in the long list of titles of the dead. Having only three flags as a representation of the entities Svealand, Götaland and Wends mentioned in Vasa's title, "King of Sweden, the Goths and the Wends", would have been diminutive in comparison with the pompous displays of ducal power on the continent, so flags were promptly created to represent each of the provinces. At the funeral of Charles X Gustav more flags were added to the procession, namely the coats of arms for Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, Narva, Pomerania, Bremen and Verden, as well as coat of arms for the German territories Kleve, Sponheim, Jülich, Ravensberg and Bayern.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: Since most of the historical Swedish provinces did not have set coats of arms at the time of Gustav Vasa's death, they were promptly created and granted. However, some of the coats of arms designed for the occasion were short-lived, such as the beaver picked to represent Medelpad, the wolverine in the coat of arms for Värmland and the rose-adorned coat of arms for Småland. Östergötland was for the occasion represented by two coats of arms, one with a Västanstång dragon and one with a Östanstång lion. The current coat of arms for Östergötland, listed below, was created in 1884. The savage representing Lappland was not used in King Gustav's procession, but was adopted as a coat of arms at the funeral procession of Charles IX in 1612, where the savage was initially black. The current coat of arms for Lappland, with a red, club-carrying man, was created in 1949. The list of coats of arms appearing below is thus different from the funeral procession flags, and consists of more recent inventions, many created during a period of romantic nationalism in the 19th century.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: After the separation of Sweden and Finland the traditions for respective provincial arms diverged, most noticeably following an order by the King in Council on 18 January 1884. This established that all "Swedish" provinces carry ducal coronets, while the "Finnish" provincial arms still discriminated between ducal and county status. A complication was that the representation of Finnish ducal and county coronets resembled Swedish coronets of a lower order, namely county and baronial. The division of Lapland necessitated a distinction between the Swedish and the Finnish arms.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: Götaland ("Gothia", "Gothenland") consists of ten historical provinces located in the southern part of Sweden. Until 1645 Gotland and Halland were parts of Denmark. Furthermore, until 1658 Blekinge and Scania were parts of Denmark and Bohuslän part of Norway.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: Svealand ("Swealand") consists of the following six provinces in middle Sweden. Until 1812 Värmland was a part of Götaland.


title: Provinces of Sweden

text: Norrland ("Northland") consists today of nine provinces in northern and central Sweden. Until 1645 the provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen were parts of Norway. Swedish Lapland was united with Finnish Lapland as Lapland until 1809. Norrbotten was separated from Västerbotten and developed as a province of its own during the 19th century.


The People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force (PLASSF; ) is the space, cyber, political, and electronic warfare force and the 5th branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). It was established in December 2015 as part of the first wave of the Chinese military reforms.


title: People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force

text: With an aim to improve the army's ability to fight what China terms "informationized conflicts" () and enhance the PLA's power projection capabilities in space and cyberspace, the PLASSF is a new force purportedly designed to break stovepipes in the intelligence sharing and coordination departments of the different branches.


text: At the 2015 China Victory Day Parade, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary and Central Military Commission (CMC) chairman Xi Jinping announced sweeping reforms to the structure of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the state security apparatus. On 22 December 2015, the Chinese PLA newsletter, "Liberation Army Daily", reported that as part of the joint military exercises taking place that same year, strategic and logistical support forces were included in those exercises along with Intelligence and other high-profile units among the Central Military Commission.


text: On 31 December 2015, the PLA Strategic Support Force held its first annual meeting at the Bayi Building in Beijing. In attendance were the CMC leadership and leaders of the PLA Ground Force and Rocket Force. CMC Chairman Xi Jinping was also in attendance, giving out military flags and instructional speeches, along with CMC Vice Chairmen and CCP Political Department members Fan Changlong and Xu Qiliang. Fan Changlong read out the CMC's orders and decisions issued by Chairman Xi on the formation of the PLA's leadership and forces, while Vice Chairman Xu Qiliang presided over the meeting.


text: On 1 January 2016, the next day, Yang Yujun of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense issued a statement on the new Strategic Support Force describing it as formed by the "functional integration" of various support forces that are strategic, basic, and supportive. Another expert, Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo of the PLA Navy, noted:


text: Unlike the PLA Rocket Force, the Strategic Support Force is more dedicated to 5th Generation Information Warfare and is structured to engage in the information space, with emphasis on electronic countermeasures, network offense and defense, satellite management, and some of the functions of logistical supply and dispatch. It also responsible for influence operations, cyberwarfare, and electronic warfare.


text: On 24 July 2019, the government white paper "China's National Defense in a New Era" published by the State Council Information Office stated:


text: The PLASSF leadership and administrative officials are stationed at their headquarters in the Haidian District of Beijing; the functional departments and leadership of the subordinate units are stationed here. The PLASSF oversees all units responsible for psychological warfare, information warfare, space warfare, cyberwarfare, and electronic warfare operations formerly under the former General Staff Department.


text: This includes the cyber espionage capabilities of the former Third Department, the electronic support measures from the former Fourth Department, and the space-based ISR systems and Aerospace Reconnaissance Bureau and Satellite Main Station, General Political Department, and General Armaments Department, including the launch, telemetry, tracking, and control facilities and research and development organisations. It is believed to have at least 5 departments, though debate has existed in Western commentary over the existence of a possible sixth department dedicated to equipment.


text: The General Staff Department is under the direction of Admiral Li Shangfu, Chief of Staff. His Deputy Chiefs of Staff are Major General Sun Bo and Major General Zhang Minghua. Subordinated to the General Staff Department is the PLASSF Xingcheng "Rehabilitation" Center.


text: The Political Work Department is under the direction of Lieutenant General Feng Jianhua. His Deputy Directors are Major General Chen Jinrong and Major General Huang Qiusheng. Subordinated to the Political Department is the Political Bureau.


text: Also called the PLASSF Supervisory Commission, the Disciplinary Inspection Commission is led by Lieutenant General Yang Xiaoxiang, Secretary. The role of the Disciplinary Inspection Commission is to conduct surveillance and conduct "disciplinary inspections" on PLASSF members in accordance with Article 68 of the March 2018 "Supervision Law" passed by the 13th National People's Congress. The position of Secretary was originally held by Deputy Political Commissar Lu Jiancheng (20162019). Subordinated to the Disciplinary Inspection Commission is the Disciplinary Inspection Service.


text: Stationed at the Haidian District of Beijing, the PLASSF Space Systems Department (SSD) is the consolidation of all PLA's space-based C4ISR systems. As of 2018 it's headed by Lieutenant General Shang Hong, with Lieutenant General Kang Chunyuan acting as political commissar. The Space Systems Department also oversees all of the space launch bases including:


text: The (NSD) is the integration of all PLA information and cyberwarfare capabilities and is believed to have taken over many of the capabilities previously held by the Third and Fourth Departments of the PLA. As of 2018 it was headed by Lieutenant General Zheng Junjie, with Lieutenant General Chai Shaoling as political commissar, both of whom are also serving members of the 13th National People's Congress.


text: As for the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center, they are tasked with conducting launch monitoring, tracking and measurement, as well as launch recovery.


text: Headquartered on the Hangtian North Road of Xichang City in the Sichuan Province. It is also home to the Wenchang Aerospace Launch Site.


text: Stationed at Luoyang in the Henan Province, Base 33 serves as the metrology and instrument measurement center. They also conduct Astronomical mapping and surveying. This base is the most restricted bases in China and was off limits to foreigners until the 1980s during the decommission of various military installations. However, it is still in use and under the control of the CMC Equipment Development Department.


title: Build a Bitch

text: "Build a Bitch" is the debut single by Filipina-American internet celebrity Bella Poarch from her debut extended play, "Dolls" (2022). The song was written by Poarch alongside David Arkwright, Justin Gammella, Salem Ilese, Elie Rizk, and Sub Urban, while produced by Arkwright, Gammella, Rizk, Sub Urban, and Stefan Max. Warner Records released it on May 14, 2021 for digital download and streaming. After she achieved success on TikTok, Poarch signed a record deal with Warner in May 2021 to launch her music career. A dark-pop and pop track, Poarch revealed that the song is about one embracing oneself. A few music critics have suggested that it also contains feminist themes.


title: Build a Bitch

text: Upon release, "Build a Bitch" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its sound. The song reached the top 10 in India, Malaysia, and Singapore. It also peaked within the top 30 in multiple countries, including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The song was awarded platinum certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Music Canada (MC) in the United States and Canada, respectively.


title: Build a Bitch

text: An accompanying music video directed by Andrew Donoho was released alongside the single. It features a factory similar to a Build-A-Bear Workshop where men can create their ideal woman. Various internet celebrities appear in the visual, including Valkyrae and Bretman Rock. The music video received nominations at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, 2021 UK Music Video Awards, and 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards.