text:
Export–Import Bank of the United States

The Export–Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the official export credit agency (ECA) of the United States federal government. Operating as a wholly owned federal government corporation, the bank "assists in financing and facilitating U.S. exports of goods and services", particularly when private sector lenders are unable or unwilling to provide financing. Its current chairman and president, Reta Jo Lewis, was confirmed by the Senate on February 9, 2022.

The Export-Import Bank was established in 1934 as the Export-Import Bank of Washington by an executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its stated goal was "to aid in financing and to facilitate exports and imports and the exchange of commodities between the United States and other Nations or the agencies or nationals thereof." The bank's first transaction was a $3.8 million loan to Cuba in 1935 for the purchase of U.S. silver ingots. In 1945, it was made an independent agency within the executive branch by Congress.

Under federal law, the EXIM must be reauthorized by Congress every four to five years. Following a brief lapse in Congressional authorization on July 1, 2015, which prevented the bank from engaging in new business, it was reauthorized through September 2019 via the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act of December 2015. In December 2019, President Donald Trump signed the Export-Import Bank Extension into law as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, which authorized the bank until December 31, 2026.

Over its lifetime, the Export-Import Bank has helped finance several historic projects including the Pan-American Highway, the Burma Road, and post-WWII reconstruction. While supporters argue that the bank allows small and medium-sized businesses to participate in the global market, critics allege that it shows favoritism to large corporations and special interests.

Overview
The Export–Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is a government agency that provides a variety of tools intended to aid the export of American goods and services. The mission of the Bank is to create and sustain U.S. jobs by financing sales of U.S. exports to international buyers. EXIM equips U.S. exporters and their customers with tools such as buyer financing, export credit insurance, and access to working capital. Second, when U.S. exporters face foreign competition backed by other governments, EXIM provides buyer financing to match or counter the financing offered by almost 96 ECAs around the world. The Bank is chartered as a government corporation by the Congress of the United States; it was last chartered for a three-year term in 2012. The Charter details the Bank's authorities and limitations. Among them is the principle that EXIM does not compete with private sector lenders, but rather provides financing for transactions that would otherwise not occur because commercial lenders are either unable or unwilling to accept the political or commercial risk inherent in the deal.

The EXIM's products are intended to assist export sales for any American export company regardless of size. The bank's charter provides that EXIM makes available "not less than 20%" of its lending authority to small businesses although they have often fallen short of the 20% threshold. In fiscal year 2013 however, 76% of the value of loans and guarantees went to the top 10 recipients.

Similar banks, known generally as export credit agencies (ECAs), are operated by 60 foreign countries. As the United States is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) they conduct their activities by obeying OECD rules and principles. The goal is to permit exporters in various countries to compete on the basis of the quality of their goods and services, not on preferential financing terms. ECAs of countries which are not participants of the OECD, such as the China Exim Bank are not required by their governments to follow OECD rules.

Personnel

 * R. Walton Moore, (chairman) 1934–1941
 * George N. Peek, (President) 1934–1935
 * R. Walton Moore, (chairman) 1934–1941
 * Warren Lee Pierson, (President) 1936–1945
 * Wayne Chatfield-Taylor, (President) 1945
 * Jesse H. Jones, (chairman) 1941–1943
 * Leo T. Crowley, (chairman) 1943–1945
 * William McC. Martin, Jr., (chairman) 1946–1949
 * Herbert E. Gaston, (chairman) 1949–1953
 * Glen E. Edgerton, (chairman) 1953–1953
 * Glen E. Edgerton, (chairman) 1954–1955
 * Lynn U. Strambaugh, (Vice Chairman) 1954–1960
 * Samuel C. Waugh, (chairman) 1955–1961
 * Tom Killefer, (Vice Chairman) 1960–1962
 * Harold F. Linder, (chairman) 1961–1968
 * Walter C. Sauer, (Vice Chairman) 1962–1976
 * Henry Kearns, (chairman) 1969–1973
 * William J. Casey, (chairman) 1974–1976
 * Stephen M. DuBrul Jr., (chairman) 1976–1977
 * Delio E. Gianturco, (Vice Chairman) 1976–1977
 * John L. Moore, Jr., (chairman) 1977–1981
 * H. K. Allen, (Vice Chairman) 1978–1981
 * William H. Draper III, (chairman) 1981–1986
 * Charles E. Lord, (Vice Chairman) 1982–1983
 * John A. Bohn, Jr., (Vice Chairman) 1984–1986
 * John A. Bohn, Jr., (chairman) 1986–1989
 * William F. Ryan, (Vice Chairman) 1986–1989
 * John D. Macomber, (chairman) 1989–1992
 * Eugene K. Lawson, (Vice Chairman) 1989–1993
 * Rita M. Rodriguez, (Acting Chairman) 1993–1993
 * Kenneth D. Brody, (chairman) 1993–1995
 * Martin A. Kamarck, (Vice Chairman) 1993–1996
 * Martin A. Kamarck, (chairman) 1996–1997
 * Rita M. Rodriguez, (Acting Chairman) 1997–1997
 * James A. Harmon, (chairman) 1997–2001
 * Jackie M. Clegg, (Vice Chairman) 1997–2001
 * John E. Robson, (chairman) 2001–2002
 * Eduardo Aguirre, (Vice Chairman) 2001–2003
 * Philip Merrill, (chairman) 2002–2005
 * April Foley, (Vice Chairman) 2003–2005
 * James H. Lambright, (chairman) 2005–2009
 * Linda M. Conlin, (Vice Chairman 2006–2009)
 * Wanda Felton, (Vice Chairman) 2011–2013,2014–2016
 * John A. McAdams, (Acting Vice Chairman) 2013
 * Fred P. Hochberg, (chairman) 2009–2017
 * Charles J. Hall, (Acting Vice Chairman) 2016–2017 (Acting Chairman) 2017
 * Scott Schloegel, (Acting Vice Chairman) 2017–2019
 * Jeffrey Gerrish, (Acting Chairman) 2018–2019
 * Kimberly A. Reed, (chairman) 2019–2021
 * James G. Burrows Jr., (Acting Chairman) 2021–2022
 * Reta Jo Lewis, (chairman) 2022–present

 * William McC. Martin, Jr. 1945–1946
 * Clarence E. Gauss 1946–1952
 * Wilson L. Townsend 1952–1953
 * Hawthorne Arey 1949–1953
 * Hawthorne Arey 1954–1961
 * George A. Blowers 1954–1961
 * Vance Brand 1954–1959
 * James S. Bush 1959–1963
 * George Docking 1961–1964
 * Charles M. Meriwether 1961–1965
 * Elizabeth S. May 1964–1969
 * Hobart Taylor, Jr. 1965–1968
 * Tom Lilley 1965–1972
 * John C. Clark 1969–1976
 * R. Alex McCullough 1969–1977
 * Mitchell P. Kobelinski 1973–1976
 * Margaret W. Kahliff 1976–1982
 * Donald E. Stingel 1977–1981
 * Thibaut de Saint Phalle 1977–1981
 * Richard W. Heldridge 1982–1988
 * Rita M. Rodriguez 1982–1999
 * James E. Yonge 1982–1984
 * Richard H. Hughes 1985–1985
 * Simon C. Fireman 1986–1989
 * Richard Houseworth 1988–1991
 * Constance B. Harriman 1991–1994
 * Cecil B. Thompson 1991–1994
 * Maria Luisa Haley 1994–1999
 * Julie Belaga 1994–1999
 * Dan Renberg 1999–2003
 * Dorian Vanessa Weaver 1999–2003
 * Max Cleland 2003–2007
 * Linda M. Conlin 2004–2006
 * J. Joseph Grandmaison 2006–2009
 * Bijan R. Kian 2006–2011
 * Diane Farrell 2007–2011
 * Larry Walther 2011–2013
 * Wanda Felton 2011–2013, 2014–2016
 * Fred P. Hochberg 2009–Present
 * Sean Robert Mulvaney 2011–2015
 * Patricia M. Loui 2011–2015
 * Charles J. Hall 2016–2017

Early history (1934–1944)
EXIM was organized originally as a District of Columbia banking corporation by Executive Order 6581 from Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 2, 1934, under the name Export–Import Bank of Washington. The stated goal was "to aid in financing and to facilitate exports and imports and the exchange of commodities between the United States and other Nations or the agencies or nationals thereof", with the immediate goal of making loans to the USSR and Latin America. Roosevelt created a Second Export–Import Bank of Washington with Executive Order 6638 on March 9, 1934, with the specific goal of aiding trade with Cuba. The Bank's first transaction was a $3.8 million loan to Cuba in 1935 for the purchase of U.S. silver ingots. The First and Second Export–Import Banks were combined in 1936 when Congress transferred the obligations of the Second Export–Import Bank to the first.

Independent agency (1945–present)
Congress made the bank an independent agency on July 31, 1945, with the Export–Import Bank Act of 1945. On March 13, 1968, further legislation changed the name to "Export–Import Bank of the United States". EXIM became a self-sustaining (self-funding) agency in 2007, though the loans remain backed by the government.

The Government Corporation Control Act of 1945 requires the Bank to be reauthorized by Congress every four to five years. Reauthorizations have been approved several times:

It was last chartered for a three-year term in 2012 and in September 2014 was extended through June 30, 2015. Congressional authorization for the bank lapsed as of July 1, 2015. As a result, the bank could not engage in new business, but it continued to manage its existing loan portfolio. Five months later, after the successful employment of the rarely used discharge petition procedure in the House of Representatives, Congress reauthorized the bank until September 2019 via the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act signed into law on December 4, 2015, by President Barack Obama. In December 2019, President Donald Trump signed the Export-Import Bank Extension into law as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (P.L. 116–94) which authorized the bank until December 31, 2026.

EXIM institution the China and Transformational Exports program in an effort to assist American exporters in competing with Chinese companies and to maintain American advantages in specified industries.

Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway runs from Alaska to Chile through 14 countries with important transportation links to nearly all of continental Latin America. The highway was constructed beginning in 1936 with the last phase complete in 1980.

EXIM Bank credits and loans supported construction of the Pan-American Highway in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. In Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia EXIM supported construction of highway spurs connected to the Pan-American Highway. EXIM approved twenty credits to U.S. companies including Caterpillar, Koehring Co., Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing, The Galion Iron Works, and Thew Shovel to help build the highway.

Burma Road
Constructed between 1937 and 1938, the 717-mile Burma Road links Lashio in present-day Myanmar (previously Burma) to Kunming in Yunnan Province, China.

The $25 million credit approved by EXIM in December 1938 was crucial in ensuring that the supply route remained open by providing the transportation vehicles and support material to operate the new road and by providing China with purchasing power during WWII. An additional $20 million to the Universal Trading Corporation was approved in 1940. A 1939 journal article in Foreign Affairs noted that China used part of the $25 million to purchase 2,000 three-ton trucks from Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.

Post-WWII reconstruction and the Marshall Plan
EXIM played a critical role during the years between the end of Lend-Lease (September 1945) and the beginning of the Marshall Plan and the World Bank's first authorizations (May 1947 – 1948). At the end of WWII, it was recognized that the U.S. did not have a credit facility capable of handling the demand that would result from the cessation of hostilities. One of the major rationales behind the Export–Import Bank Act of 1945, the basis of EXIM's current charter document, was the necessity to dramatically increase EXIM's lending capacity to adequately respond to Europe's post-war reconstruction needs. The 1945 EXIM Annual Report predicated EXIM's role in the immediate post-WWII period: "the Export–Import Bank was to be the principal source of long-term dollar loans for an extended period of time." This assertion was based on the lack of interest by private capital in lending to foreign government buyers and delays in ratification of the Articles of Agreement for the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Export–Import Bank Act of 1945 increased lending authority from $750 million to $3.5 billion, almost a fourfold increase to help address these shortfalls.

In 1945 and 1946 credit was offered to France, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Italy, Ethiopia, Greece, Poland and Austria to purchase equipment, facilities, and services from the United States. The financing was designed to aid reconstruction of the nations and to repair their import and export capability through the purchase of new machinery, currency exchange, and improvements and repairs to infrastructure and transportation systems.

When the Marshall Plan was initiated in 1948, EXIM concentrated its lending on non-Economic Recovery Act nations in North and South America.

First credits to post-Soviet nations
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the USSR was dissolved in 1991, U.S. companies were able to conduct business freely with Eastern Europe for the first time since the end of WWII. EXIM was one of the first financial institutions to provide financing for exports to the former Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the newly independent nations that emerged after 1991. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush waived the Jackson–Vanik amendment, which had officially blocked normal trade relations with communist countries since 1975. This waiver permitted all E guarantee and insurance programs to U.S. companies wanting to do business with the USSR and several former communist countries.

EXIM resumed business with Czechoslovakia in March 1990. On January 25, 1991, EXIM approved the first transaction to Czechoslovakia since 1947. Financed by First Interstate Bank of Los Angeles, CA, the guarantee allowed Tonak Hat Company to purchase computers from a U.S. company, Digital Equipment Corporation of Massachusetts. Since 1991, EXIM has supported exports to 25 of the nations that emerged after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

First credit to India
After a visit to India in January 2015, President Obama announced that the EXIM will finance $1 billion of exports of 'Made-in-America' products, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation will lend $1 billion to small- and medium-sized rural enterprises and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency will commit $2 billion for renewable energy. Obama and Modi agreed on issues that had previously stopped U.S. companies from establishing nuclear reactors in India.

Support
Supporters say that the bank emphasizes trying to help small and medium size businesses expand their exporting capabilities. CEO and president of the National Association of Manufacturers Jay Timmons stated: "The EXIM plays a critical role in manufacturer's ability to export to new markets and keep up with growing global competition. The Bank assists nearly 290,000 export related jobs and each year is helping more and more small and medium-sized manufacturers grow their businesses and hire new workers. More than 85% of all EXIM transactions directly benefit small business exporters—the economic engine that powers our economy and job creation."

When Obama was campaigning for president in 2008, he stated that the Export–Import Bank had "become little more than a fund for corporate welfare." During the Bank's reauthorization struggle, May 2012, he said that the Export–Import Bank plays a very important role in reaching his goal of doubling exports over 5 years. At the reauthorization ceremony Obama stated: "We're helping thousands of businesses sell more of their products and services overseas, in the process, we're helping them create jobs here at home. And we're doing it at no extra cost to the taxpayer."

Special interests-based criticism
The Bank has been criticized for favoring special interests. These interests have included corporations such as Boeing or Enron as well as foreign governments and nationals, such as a 1996 $120 million low-interest loan to the China National Nuclear Power Corporation (CNNP) supporting the export of US-made technology.

More recently the bank authorized $33.6 million in loans to Abengoa, a Spanish Green energy company on which former Governor Bill Richardson is a member of the board of directors. As of May 2014, Richardson was also listed as a member of the advisory committee of the Export–Import Bank.

Boeing
65% of loan guarantees over 2007 and 2008 went to companies purchasing Boeing aircraft. In 2012, the Bank's loan guarantees became even more skewed, with 82 percent of them going to Boeing customers.

However, EXIM supporters note that Boeing is the largest exporter in the United States by dollar value, and must be protected in their capacity as the only remaining comprehensive U.S. commercial aircraft manufacturer. Support of Boeing is seen as particularly critical as Comac, China's state-owned and heavily subsidized commercial aircraft manufacturer, aggressively seeks to leech market share from both Boeing and Airbus. Also important to note, Boeing is not the only US aircraft manufacturer previously supported by EXIM. During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, EXIM supported other US aviation manufacturers such as the Douglas Aircraft Company, the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Company (Convair), and the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation.

The cost and effectiveness of the bank are controversial. While the EXIM projects will earn the U.S. government an average of $1.4 billion per year for the next 10 years, an alternative analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found that the program would lose about $2 billion during the same period, partly due to discrepancies in how credit risk is accounted for. Both conservative and liberal groups have been critical of the bank, and some continue to demand its termination.

Budget-based criticism
Critics also purport the existence of "unseen" costs created by the Export–Import Bank's subsidies, including artificially raising the price of new airplanes and potentially adding $2 billion to the deficit over the next decade.

Forbes contributor Doug Bandow wrote in 2014, "The agency piously claims not to provide subsidies since it charges fees and interest, but it exists only to offer business a better credit deal than is available in the marketplace. The Bank uses its ability to borrow at government rates to provide loans, loan guarantees, working capital guarantees, and loan insurance."

If the normal principles of economics or finance are applied, then it is seen by critics as unlikely that the bank has profited and most unlikely that it makes the annual profit that it has stated, because the bank's calculations of profit fail to make proper adjustment for risk. Best practice in finance and economics, as well as in banking, is to adjust the cost of capital or discount rate to reflect risk, or, equivalently, to use a fair-value estimate. On this basis the criticism is that "This simple approach—which is based on a method outlined in a National Bureau of Economic Research paper by Debbie Lucas of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—suggests that the EXIM's long-term loan guarantee program actually provides guarantees at a loss for taxpayers, not a profit. Moreover, this analysis reveals that the EXIM's loan guarantees are made at sufficiently generous terms that borrowers receive subsidies of about 1% of the amount borrowed. That translates into a $200 million cost for taxpayers on the $21 billion in loans that the bank will make in 2012."

Environment-based criticism
In February 2009, the EXIM settled a seven-year-long legal proceeding brought by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace together with the cities of Boulder, Arcata and Oakland. The plaintiffs said that the EXIM and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation provided financial assistance to oil and other fossil fuel projects without first evaluating the projects' climate change impacts. In 2005, the plaintiffs were granted legal standing to sue. This is considered a landmark decision because it is the first time that a federal court has specifically granted legal standing for a lawsuit exclusively challenging the federal government's failure to evaluate the impacts of its actions on the Earth's climate and U.S. citizens. In its settlement agreement, the EXIM agrees to evaluate the carbon dioxide emissions as part of its determination for qualification for a project. However, EXIM fossil fuel financing and associated greenhouse gas emissions grew swiftly after the settlement agreement, coinciding with Chairman Hochberg's tenure. Between 2009 and 2012, EXIM fossil fuel financing grew from $2.56 billion to nearly $10 billion.

Environmental groups in 2010 said that the EXIM was on a "fossil fuel binge", which "makes a mockery" of President Obama's stated commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. In December 2009, EXIM Directors approved $3 billion in financing for the ExxonMobil-led Papua New Guinea Liquid Gas project in December 2009. The project has reportedly caused violence and in April 2012, the Papua New Guinea government ordered in troops to quell opposition from villagers after a landslide linked to a quarry that had been used by the project killed an estimated 25 people.

In 2010, environmental groups criticized the EXIM Directors for approving $917 million worth of financing for the 3,960 megawatt coal-fired Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project in India after initially rejecting the project on climate change grounds. Environmental groups say that in reversing the decision the agency's Chairman, Fred Hochberg and Board of Directors "caved in" to political pressure from Wisconsin politicians. In 2011, several environmental groups protested at Export–Import Bank headquarters, unsuccessfully urging Chairman Hochberg and Board of Directors to reject $805 million in financing for the 4,800 megawatt Kusile coal-fired power plant in South Africa, which environmental groups say is the largest carbon emitting project in the agency's history, which will not alleviate poverty but will emit excessive local air pollution, which health experts say causes damage the respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems and deaths resulting from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases. EXIM's 2011 announcement of support for Kusile asserted claims of environmental advancements including that "Kusile will be the first coal-fired power plant in South Africa to include sulfur dioxide scrubbers." However, in 2023 the South African energy utility Eskom proposed to circumvent the Kusile sulfur dioxide pollution control system, which the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimates could result in 680 deaths.

In December 2012, the Center for Biological Diversity, Pacific Environment, and Turtle Island Restoration Network filed a lawsuit against Chairman Hochberg and the EXIM for the agency's financing of Australia Pacific LNG's liquid natural gas projects inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The lawsuit alleged that EXIM financing for the projects violates U.S. environmental and cultural heritage laws. Their amended lawsuit included EXIM's loan for the Australia Pacific LNG project and a $1.8 billion loan for the Queensland Curtis which together totaled $4.8 billion. In March 2016, a California federal judge ruled against the environmentalists arguing that the EXIM financing represented only 10% of the project which is backed by ConocoPhillips, Origin Energy Ltd. and Sinopec and rejecting the loan would not stop the project. The environmentalists appealed the decision.

In 2019 Friends of the Earth (US) criticized EXIM President Kimberly A Reed for supporting the liquid natural gas (LNG) industry despite the lifecycle climate impacts of the fossil fuel, citing the U.S. government's Fourth National Climate Assessment finding that more frequent and extreme weather events are severely damaging the environment and the economy, while increasing harm to human health and loss of life. Friends of the Earth (US) also criticized EXIM for approving $5 billion in financing the Mozambique LNG project, citing the project's damage to the surrounding ecosystem (including to endangered species), displacement of local communities, and lack of economic benefits for local people.

In May, 2023 EXIM Chair Reta Jo Lewis, Vice Chair Judith Pryor and Director Spencer Bachus voted to approve nearly $100 million in Export-Import Bank financing for an oil refinery expansion project in Indonesia (EXIM Director Owen Herrnstadt abstained). Environmental groups criticize the approval as directly violating President Biden's commitments to end overseas fossil fuel financing, including at the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference. The approval was also repudiated by the White House National Security Council, which stated the "decision does not reflect administration policy."

Criticism of green energy-based financings
Conversely the EXIM has also faced scrutiny for pursuing green energy projects. The EXIM provided $10 million of loan guarantees in 2011 to Solyndra, a company that ultimately became bankrupt.

title: Export–Import Bank of the United States


text:
Pierres, Calvados

Pierres is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Valdallière.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Pierres, Calvados


text:
Shar-Kali-Sharri

Shar-Kali-Sharri (, DShar-ka-li-Sharri; ) reigned c. 2217–2193 BC (middle chronology) as the ruler of the Akkadian Empire. In the early days of cuneiform scholarship the name was transcribed as "Shar-Gani-sharri". In the 1870s, Assyriologists thought Shar-Kali-Sharri was identical with the Sargon of Akkad, first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, but this identification was recognized as mistaken in the 1910s. His name was sometimes written with the leading Dingir sign demarking deification and sometimes without it. Clearly at some point he was deified and two of his designations marked his divine status, "heroic god of Akkade", and "god of the land of Warium". He was the son and successor of Naram-Sin who deified himself during his lifetime.

Biography
Shar-Kali-Sharri succeeded his father Naram-Sin in c. 2217 BC. According to the Sumerian King List his reign lasted 25 year which is closely matched by the year name from his rule. He completed the establishment of direct Akkadian rule, a process initiated by his predecessor. It is known, from the seal impressions of three of her majordomos (example - "Sar-kali-sarri, king of the subjects of the god Enlil. Tuta-sar-libbis, the queen: Iskun-Dagan, scr[ibe] and her major[d]omo, (is) [her] servant"), that the wife and queen of Shar-Kali-Shari was Tuta-sar-libbis.

Naram-Sin maintained control over the various city-states by the simple expedient of appointing some of his many sons as key provincial governors, and his daughters as high priestesses. Shar-Kali-Shari would have inherited this system on his ascension but is not known if he had any offspring or, for the most part, the nature of his provincial governors. It has been suggested that he was governor of Nippur before assuming the crown. This is supported by the fact that text show that he was crowned in Nippur, a process that included his sister Tudanapšum who had been named high priestess of Enlil at Nippur.

It was traditional for rulers in Mesopotamia to make an occasional "royal progress" visiting the major cultic sites. One such progress is known from the reign of his father Naram-Sin, fourth ruler of the Akkadian Empire. He was accompanied by three of his children, Bin-kali-šarrē, Tudanapšum, and crown prince Shar-Kali-Shari. It is known that Shar-Kali-Sharri made a royal journey to Sumer early in his reign which lasted at least six months. Cities known to have been included in the royal progress were Umma, Zabala, Isin, Girsu, and Nippur with many royal gifts dispensed and much feasting. In a show of military strength at least five sagina (generals) accompanied Shar-Kali-Shari.

It is known that the governor of Adab under Shar-Kali-Shar was Lugal-gis based on three clay sealings reading "[S]ar-kali-sam, god, hero of Agade: Lugal-gis, scribe and go[vernor] of Ad[ab, (is) his] servant." (noting that the Dingir followed the rulers name here). His successor as ensi of Adab under Shar-Kali-Shali was Ur-tur, known from tablets found there. Many Adab tablets dated to his reign remain unpublished in the Istanbul Museum. The governor of another city-state, Lagash is known. Lugal-ushumgal, was a governor (ensi) under Naram-Sin and that continued under Shar-Kali-Shari. Several inscriptions of Lugal-ushumgal are known, particularly seal impressions, which refer to him as governor of Lagash and at the time a vassal (, arad, "servant" or "slave") of Naram-Sin, as well as his successor Shar-kali-sharri. One of these seals proclaims:

"Shar-kali-sharri da-num lugal a-ga-deki lugal-ušumgal ensi lagashki arad2-su "Shar-kali-sharri, the mighty king of Agade, Lugalushumgal, ensi of Lagash, is thy servant.""

- Seal of Lugalushumgal as vassal of Shar-Kali-Sharri.

Lugal-ushumgal was Governor of Lagash, a vassal of Naram-Sin and later of Shar-Kali-Sharri. His successor as governor Puzer-Mama declared himself ruler of Lagash, possibly on the death of Shar-Kali-Shari, and began the 2nd Dynasty of Lagash

One of the primary duties of the ruler of Mesopotamia was the maintenance of the Ekur temple of the chief god Enlil. Work on the temple, initiated by Naram-Sin, was completed by Shar-Kali-Shari. So important was this process that it was featured in seven of his year names, even naming the general appointed to lead the task, Puzur-Eshtar. Inscribed bricks of Shar-Kali-Shari were found during the excavation of Nippur: "'The god Enlil instructed (him). Sar-kali-sarri, the mighty, king of Agade, builder of Ekur, temple of the god Enlil at Nippur. As for the one who removes this inscription, may the gods Enlil,  Samas, and Astar tear out his foundations and destroy his progeny.'"

In a tablet inscription (HS 195) he also marked, after visiting the source of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the giving of a cult object to Enlil at Nippur. "'The god Enlil decreed (it to him) Sar-kali-sarri, mighty king,cup bearer of the god Enlil, king of Agade, king of the subjects of the god  Enlil. (The god Enlil)... as fa  as  ... from  ... gave to him in its entirety. After he reached the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, he personally dedicated (this object) to the god Enlil in Nippur.'"

Shar-Kali-Shari also built new temples to Annunitum and to Ilaba (the tutelary deity deity of the Akkadian Empire) at Babylon, as reflected in a year name, with a further one to Ilaba at Zabala.

Based on his year names the reign of Shar-Kali-Shari was fairly peaceful with the usual scuffles with nomadic groups like the MAR.TU and the Gutians as well as the traditional butting of heads with the Elamites. The economic texts from that period also would indicate a reasonable degree of prosperity. Clearly the Gutians were growing in influence during his reign as at some point they made Adab their capital, though whether as a vassals of Akkad or not is unknown. That said, there was a historical tradition that the Akkadian Empire began to unravel during his rule. One much later Neo-Babylonian copy of an inscription (BM 38302) of Shar-Kali-Shari (which also marks the building of the temple of Ilaba in Zabala) indicated that he face a widespread revolt at one point which he overcame. This reflects the Great Revolt faced by his father Naram-Sin though it cannot be discounted that passage of millennia had blurred the history of one ruler with the other. "'Sar-kali-sam, the mighty, king of Agade, builder of the ... of the temple of the goddess Astar at Zabala. [W]hen the four quarters together revolted against him ... [fr]om beyond the Lower Sea as far as the Upper [S]ea, he smote the people and all the Mountain Lands for the god Enlil and brought their kings i[n] fette[rs] before the god Enlil. Sar-kali-sam, the mighty, by the ... authority of the  god Enlil, sh[owed] mercy to no one in those battles. He reached ... the source of the Tigris River and ... the source of the Euphrates River and cut down cedar wood in the Amanus (Mountains) in order to ... the temple of the goddess Astar. As for the one who removes this  inscription,may the gods Enlil, Samas, and Astar tear out his foundations and destroy his progeny. Colophon - According to the text of a stele of marhusa stone. That which was written (on) the stone,  Nergal-sumi-ibni of the Issakku family wrote out quickly.'"

According to the Sumerian King List and later literary compositions, after Shar-Kali-Sharri's death in c. 2193 BC, the region fell into anarchy, with no king able to achieve dominance for long. The king list states:

 * "Then who was king? Who was not the king? Igigi, Imi, Nanum, Ilulu: four of them ruled for only 3 years."

The Akkadian Empire then resumed some semblance of order for a time with the 21 year reign of Dudu followed by the 15 year reign of Shu-turul.

Year names of Shar-Kali-Sharri
Lists of year names can be found for many rulers from the time of the Akkadian Empire, including Shar-Kali-Sharri. They shed light on the length of his reign and the main events: "# Year the King of Agade sat (on his throne)
 * 1) Year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri went down to Sumer ...
 * 2) Year after Shar-Kali-Sharri went down to Sumer (and) [the crown] upon (his) head ...
 * 3) Year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri appointed Puzur-Eshtar the shagina (general), to build the temple of Enlil
 * 4) Year after the year Shar-Kali-Sharri appointed Puzur-Eshtar, the shagina, to build the temple of Enlil
 * 5) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri laid the foundations of the temple of Enlil in Nippur
 * 6) Year the foundations of the temple of Enlil (in Nippur) were laid
 * 7) Year following the year in which the foundations of the temple of Enlil in Nippur were laid
 * 8) Year the king Shar-Kali-Sharri brought to the temple of Enlil …
 * 9) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri a vase of libation in gold (for the temple of Enlil and) cut down cedar timber for the temple of Enlil
 * 10) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri laid the foundations of the temples of the goddess Annunitum and of the Ilaba in Babylon and captured Sharlag(ab) the king of Gutium
 * 11) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri was victorious over MAR.TU in the Djebel Biszri
 * 12) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri brought the battle against Elam and Zahara in front of Akshak and … and was victorious
 * 13) Year in which the yoke was imposed on Gutium
 * 14) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri …
 * 15) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri … Agade
 * 16) In the year in which Enlil … … Shar-Kali-Sharri
 * 17) In the year in which Enlil … Shar-Kali-Sharri …
 * 18) Year Shar-Kali-Sharri the king of Agade...
 * 19) In the year in which Shar-Kali-Sharri ..."

title: Shar-Kali-Sharri


text:
Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1998 (previously bill no. 1 of 1998) is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which permitted the state to ratify the Treaty of Amsterdam. It was approved by referendum on 22 May 1998 and signed into law on the 3 June of the same year. The referendum was held on the same day as the referendum on Nineteenth Amendment, which related to approval of the Good Friday Agreement.

Background
The Amsterdam Treaty was signed on 2 October 1997 by the member states of the European Union, amending provisions of the Maastricht Treaty (which had been approved by the Eleventh Amendment in 1992) and the Rome Treaty (which had been approved by the Third Amendment in 1972). Following the Supreme Court decision of Crotty v. An Taoiseach (1987), a constitutional amendment was required before the state could ratify the Treaty. The Treaty of Amsterdam contained a number of optional protocols that member-states could activate at a later time after its adoption. The Eighteenth Amendment permitted the Republic to choose to exercise these options, provided it had the support of the Oireachtas (parliament).

Changes to the text
The following subsections were inserted after Article 29.4.4°:

The existing subsections 5° and 6° of Article 29.4 were renumbered as subsections 7° and 8° respectively.

Oireachtas debates
The Eighteenth Amendment was proposed by Minister for Foreign Affairs David Andrews on behalf of the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition government led by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. It was also supported by Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left, while it was opposed by the Green Party, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party. It passed final stages in the Dáil on 26 March 1998. It passed final stages in the Seanad on and proceeded to a referendum on 22 May 1998.

Campaign
A Referendum Commission was established by Minister for the Environment and Local Government Noel Dempsey. This was the first referendum at which a Referendum Commission was established. It was chaired by former Chief Justice Thomas Finlay. At the time, its role included setting out the arguments for and against the proposal.

Aftermath
The European Communities (Amendment) Act 1998 amended the European Communities Act 1972 to provide a statutory basis for decisions under the Amsterdam Treaty. The Treaty took effect across the European Union on 1 May 1999.


text:
Le Pin

Le Pin (French for the pine) is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:

 * Le Pin, Allier, in the Allier département
 * Le Pin, Calvados, in the Calvados département
 * Le Pin, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime département
 * Le Pin, Deux-Sèvres, in the Deux-Sèvres département
 * Le Pin, Gard, in the Gard département
 * Le Pin, Isère, in the Isère département
 * Le Pin, Jura, in the Jura département
 * Le Pin, Loire-Atlantique, in the Loire-Atlantique département
 * Le Pin, Seine-et-Marne, in the Seine-et-Marne département
 * Le Pin, Tarn-et-Garonne, in the Tarn-et-Garonne département
 * Le Pin-au-Haras, in the Orne département
 * Le Pin-en-Mauges, in the Maine-et-Loire département
 * Le Pin-la-Garenne, in the Orne département
 * Le Pin-Murelet, in the Haute-Garonne département

Other uses

 * Château Le Pin, a winery in the Gironde département, commune and appellation of Pomerol

title: Le Pin


text:
Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2001 is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which provided constitutional recognition of local government and required that local government elections occur at least once in every five years. It was approved by referendum on 11 June 1999 and signed into law on 23 June of the same year. The referendum was held the same day as the local and European Parliament elections.

Background
The structure of local government in Ireland dates back to the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, subject to amendments since then. There was no reference to local government in the Constitution as adopted in 1937. Local elections were held at irregular intervals: the local elections held previous to the adoption of the Amendment were in 1991, 1985 and 1979. Constitutional recognition of local government was proposed by the All-Party Committee on the Constitution, including a requirement to hold regular election.

Changes to the text
Insertion of a new Article:

Oireachtas debate
The Amendment was sponsored by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government and was proposed in the Dáil on 11 May 1999 by Minister of State Dan Wallace on behalf of the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition government led by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. It was passed final stages in the Dáil on 12 May where it was opposed by opposition parties Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Green Party, the Socialist Party and Independent Tony Gregory. Their opposition was to elements of the drafting rather than the principle of constitutional recognition of local government. It passed final stages in the Seanad on the same day, and proceeded to a referendum on 11 June 1999.

Campaign
A Referendum Commission was established by Minister for the Environment and Local Government Noel Dempsey. At the time, its role included setting out the arguments for and against the proposal.

Result
Note: For this referendum, the constituencies used were each county and city, which were deemed to be constituencies for the purpose of the poll. Usually in Irish referendums the general election constituencies are used.


text:
Jesse Carver

Jesse Carver (7 July 1911 – 29 November 2003) was an English footballer, best remembered for his enlightened management of some of Europe's finest clubs.

Club career
Carver started out in football as a player, joining Blackburn Rovers as an 18-year-old groundstaff boy and spent seven years at Ewood Park, becoming the first choice centre-half in 1931, playing almost 150 games for the First Division side. Although under six foot and short for a stopper his strong tackling and intelligent reading of the game more than made up for his lack of inches. In 1936, he joined Newcastle United for £2,000, making his debut against Barnsley in August, and with Carver playing the Toon's highest finish was 4th in the Second Division. After playing 70 times in the league and six in the FA Cup between 1936 and 1939 for Newcastle United, Carver's playing career was cut short by the Second World War. During the war years, he worked as a policeman.

Managerial career
After the war, Carver became assistant trainer at Huddersfield, and he began to realise that he had more talent as a coach than as a player. He successfully applied to coach Dutch club Xerxes in Rotterdam. He built his training routines around using the ball, instead of boring repetitive lapping, Xerxes flourished, and heading the championship and he was asked to coach the national team, a position he held for two years.

After one season coaching at Millwall, he was appointed trainer to the England 'B' team on the successful 1949 tour of Holland and Finland. A job at the FA looked likely, but as the FA hesitated, Juventus jumped in and offered him the coach's job. He led Juve to the championship in his first season at the club.

Carver still wanted to prove himself in England, however, and in the summer of 1952, he was persuaded to return to coach West Brom. He had an immediate impact, with the team playing attacking football and up among the league leaders. Carver left late January 1954, as he wasn't appointed manager, despite his success, leaving the job to his assistant Vic Buckingham. Torino lured him back to Italy, and he ultimately saved the club from relegation.

He only stayed at Torino a year, before moving to Roma. His salary at Roma was £5,000; he and his wife had an apartment in the Via Archemedes, where his neighbours included ex-King Farouk and Ingrid Bergman. Several English First Division clubs coveted him, but in early 1955, Coventry City tempted him with a salary close to £100 per week (at a time when most players were earning £15). But perhaps the challenge at Coventry was more compelling, than the lure of the cheque book.

Football writer Brian Glanville who was close to Jesse in Italy, revealed in recent years, that months after accepting the Coventry job, Carver was offered the England manager's job but turned it down because he had given his word to City chairman Erle Shanks. The FA were prepared to sack Walter Winterbottom to make the position his.

Carver arrived in Coventry with a tan that complemented his man-about-town personality, and with his tailored light grey suits and camel coat, he looked more like a Hollywood film mogul than a football manager. He warned supporters not too expect too much but his words went unheeded – promotion talk was, as always, in the air.

His innovations were far-reaching, from wooden shoes and bathrobes for the players to prevent them catching cold whilst getting out of the showers, to made-to-measure lightweight continental boots for all the players. He also bought 40 footballs, one for each player on the staff as he expected them to practice their ball skills at all times.

He also brought over from Italy former Swedish national coach George Raynor as his number two, another man with an outstanding reputation on the continent.

Over 24,000 fans were at the opening day win over Bournemouth, and the football was slick and exciting. At home, Carver's team were unbeatable, but away from home, they struggled for results and promotion hopes looked slim. Throughout the autumn, rumours persisted of a move back to Italy, but these were quashed by chairman Shanks.

By now, it had become apparent that Carver and Raynor's continental style was not quite enough to win promotion amidst the hurly-burly of the Third Division, and Carver re-shaped his approach. In December, he bought Ken McPherson from Middlesbrough, a big bustling centre-forward, and the team won five games on the trot, culminating in a 5–1 thrashing of Millwall in front of a crowd of 30,000.

But there was another major story brewing. Behind the scenes, Carver had made it clear to Shanks – he wanted to leave. The Midlands didn't suit his wife's health and he made an urgent request to be released from his three-year contract. The board reluctantly agreed and Carver left the club on New Year's Eve. City released him on the understanding that he didn't work in England during the remaining period of his Coventry contract. He denied that there were any other offers for his services, but within hours of him returning to Italy, on 3 January Lazio announced he would be their new manager.

He led Lazio from 13th place to fourth place in the second half of the 1955–56 Serie A season. In 1956–57, he finished third.

He did return to a coaching job at Tottenham Hotspur in 1958, but failed to settle; later, he moved to Portugal. After a spell in the US, he retired to England in the 1970s.

He died on 29 November 2003, in Bournemouth.

Manager
Juventus
 * Serie A: 1949–50

title: Jesse Carver


text:
Le Pin, Calvados

Le Pin is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

title: Le Pin, Calvados


text:
Monopolowa

Monopolowa, originally a Polish brand, is a vodka made in Austria by Gessler. It is distilled from potatoes and is marketed under the brand name of J. A. Baczewski.

History
"Monopolowa" means "under monopoly", in this case referring to a privilege given to the szlachta (nobility) in Poland, giving them exclusive rights to produce and sell vodka in their territories.

Monopolowa was produced by J. A. Baczewski, a distillery founded by Jewish merchant, Lejb Beczeles, from 1782 until World War II. After the war, Gessler, an Austrian company, bought the licence and the rights to production. In 1990, the Starogard Gdański based branch of Polmos, a privatized offshoot of the former state-owned monopoly, started to produce several of J.A. Baczewski's products under license from Altvater Gessler - J.A. Baczewski International (USA) Inc. However, in the late 1990s, that license was terminated and production in Poland was halted.

Awards

 * Top 10th Percentile Vodka: Proof66.com
 * 2010 The Beverage Testing Institute International Review of Spirits Award: Gold Medal. Rated: 93 points (Exceptional) & Best Buy
 * 2009 The International Wine and Spirit Competition: Silver Medal
 * 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition: Silver Medal
 * 2008 The Beverage Testing Institute International Review of Spirits Award: Gold Medal. Rated: 92 points (Exceptional)

title: Monopolowa


text:
Pierrepont, Calvados

Pierrepont is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

Geography
The commune is part of the area known as Suisse Normande.

The commune is made up of the following collection of villages and hamlets, Le Grand Clos, Le Mesnil Jacquet and Pierrepont.

The river Laize runs through the commune, along with the stream The Val d'Anis.

title: Pierrepont, Calvados


text:
Placy

Placy is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune of Cesny-les-Sources.

title: Placy


text:
IDF Achzarit

The Achzarit ( in Hebrew: "cruel", feminine inflection) is a heavily armored personnel carrier manufactured by the Israeli Defence Forces Corps of Ordnance.

History
The Achzarit is based on the Soviet-built T-54/T-55 tank, beginning with those captured from Arab armies during the Arab–Israeli wars. To make space for a troop compartment, the eight-and-a-half tonnes turret, the original superstructure of the chassis and the transversely mounted engine were removed. Non-Explosive Reactive Armour was installed over the original hull. The first model of the Achzarit entered in service in 1988.

Protection
The Achzarit can withstand both shaped-charges and armor-piercing projectiles which would destroy conventional IFVs. The manufacturers claim that the machine can withstand repeated 125 mm APFSDS hits over its frontal arc. At 44 tonnes, the machine is exceptionally heavy for an infantry carrier. The fact that 14 tonnes of the vehicle's weight is made up of additional advanced special composite armor, gives some indication as to its high degree of protection.

Weapons
It is armed with three 7.62 mm machine guns, including one Rafael Overhead Weapons Station, a machine gun controlled from within the cabin, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. As a lesson from the Second Intifada, a ballistic glass turret was installed over one of the hatches to enable the commander to see outside without being exposed to small arms fire and shrapnel.

Several Achzarit in service have been upgraded with a 12.7 mm Samson Remote Controlled Weapon Station in place of the standard 7.62 mm Rafael Overhead Weapon Station.

A version with RCWS-30 was also built.

Operations
Because of its heavy armor, the Achzarit is sometimes called a Heavy APC (HAPC).

Achzarit APCs took part in Operation Rainbow in Rafah, after a comparatively lightly armored M113 APC was destroyed by an RPG. Achzarit APCs were also involved in the Gaza War (2008–09).

title: IDF Achzarit


text:
Atlantic Sun Conference

The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. Originally established as the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC) in 1978, it was renamed as the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2001, and briefly rebranded as the ASUN Conference from 2016 to 2023. The conference still uses "ASUN" as an official abbreviation. The conference headquarters are located in Atlanta. On May 8, 2024, the conference announced it would move its headquarters from Atlanta, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida in the fall of 2024.

Formation
The conference was first formed on September 19, 1978, as the Trans America Athletic Conference, at the Dallas–Fort Worth Regional Airport Marina Hotel. Its charter members were Oklahoma City University, Pan American University (later renamed University of Texas-Pan American), Northeast Louisiana University (now known as the University of Louisiana at Monroe), Houston Baptist University (now Houston Christian University), Hardin-Simmons University, Centenary College of Louisiana, Samford University, and Mercer University, all of whom were previously D-I independents. None of the eight charter members remain in the conference today.

Almost immediately after its formation, the conference experienced a shake-up in its membership. Oklahoma City departed to become a charter member of the Midwestern City Conference (known today as the Horizon League), while UTPA returned to D-I independent status—both had only played a single season in the infant league. The TAAC was quick to replace the outgoing members with Northwestern State University and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, along with Georgia Southern University in 1980, but this instability would prove to be a trend through the coming years—over the next 20 years, the conference would accept 16 new members, with many of these leaving after only playing a handful of seasons. 1982 saw the departure of another charter member, Northeast Louisiana, to the Southland Conference. Additionally, it saw the arrival of Nicholls State University, who originally planned to join the TAAC as a full member. However, due to an oversight by the NCAA, adding in a new program who had not competed in Division I for at least five years would result in the offending conference forfeiting their automatic bid to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. To get around this, the TAAC announced that Nicholls State would compete as a provisional member, ineligible for the men's basketball tournament until it completed its D-I transition in 1985. However, it, along with Northwestern State, left the conference in 1984 to join the Gulf Star Conference instead.

Expansion, contraction, and rebranding
The remainder of the 1980s saw mostly growth for the conference, adding Georgia State University in 1983, Stetson University in 1985, and the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1986. However, near the end of the decade, the conference was hit with 5 departures over 4 consecutive years, beginning with Houston Baptist transitioning to the NAIA in 1989. This was followed by Hardin-Simmons dropping to NCAA Division III in 1990, UTSA and Arkansas–Little Rock leaving for the Southland and Sun Belt conferences in 1991, respectively, and Georgia Southern leaving for the Southern Conference in 1992. In the midst of this, the conference began to relentlessly pursue expansion throughout the 1990s to offset these losses, adding Florida International University in 1990, Southeastern Louisiana University and the College of Charleston in 1991, the University of Central Florida in 1992, Florida Atlantic University in 1993, Campbell University in 1994, Jacksonville State University in 1995, Troy State University in 1997, and Jacksonville University in 1998. Of these 9 schools, though, only 2 ended up staying with the conference for longer than 15 years.

The turn of the millennium saw another charter member in Centenary depart in 1999 for the Mid-Continent Conference (now the Summit League); the league was able to offset this with the addition of Belmont University in 2001. Around this same time, the conference sought to rebrand itself, changing its name from the Trans America Athletic Conference to the Atlantic Sun Conference. The newly rebranded A-Sun continued to expand into the 2000s, adding Gardner–Webb University in 2002, Lipscomb University in 2003, East Tennessee State University, Kennesaw State University, and the University of North Florida in 2005, and Florida Gulf Coast University & the University of South Carolina Upstate in 2007. It also lost its fair share of members as well—largely some of the aforementioned members that had been added during the '90s, such as FIU, Florida Atlantic, and Troy to the Sun Belt, Georgia State to the Colonial Athletic Association, and UCF to Conference USA, but it also saw the departure of Samford to the Ohio Valley Conference, leaving Mercer as the only remaining charter member.

Present
The start of the 2010s gave the A-Sun a bit of a reprieve from conference realignment, losing only Campbell and Belmont in 2011 and 2012 to the Big South and OVC, respectively, and only adding recent D-I upgrader Northern Kentucky University in 2012. 2014 saw the departure of its final charter member, Mercer, to the Southern Conference in 2014; however, the Bears continued to compete in the ASUN as an affiliate for beach volleyball and added men's lacrosse to its ASUN membership in 2022. The ASUN continued to expand and contract slowly through the mid-2010s, losing only Northern Kentucky and East Tennessee State (along with Mercer), and only adding the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2015.

This slow pace didn't stay for long, however. The second half of the decade saw the conference rebranding a second time, to simply the ASUN Conference Two years later, the University of North Alabama arrived from the Division II Gulf South Conference, and Liberty University left the Big South for the ASUN. More recently, Bellarmine University joined from the Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference and NJIT left for the America East Conference in 2020–21.

Failed CCSA merger
On January 22, 2020, it was announced that the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association and the ASUN would merge to create a new Division I multisport conference. The timeline below was released with the announcement of this merger and expansion plan:

 * June, 2023 – ASUN Conference expands to 20 members.
 * Before July 1, 2023 – ASUN transfers rights to the ASUN name and marks to the CCSA.
 * July 1, 2023 – ASUN 7 joins the CCSA. The CCSA adopts the ASUN name as a multisport conference. The 13 remaining members would adopt the name United Athletic Conference.

The ASUN had planned on expanding to 20 members and then splitting the conference similar to how the Original Big East Conference was split in 2013 into the American Athletic Conference and the New Big East Conference. The new ASUN Conference governed by the CCSA would have made up of the ASUN 7 including all of the members that would have been in the ASUN Conference for at least 8 years to meet the requirements for a new multisport conference. The members would have included Florida Gulf Coast University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of North Florida, and Stetson University. The United Athletic Conference (not to be confused with the United Athletic Conference, the football merger between the Western Athletic Conference and the ASUN in 2023) governed by the original ASUN Conference would have included Bellarmine University, Liberty University, University of North Alabama, and ten other undisclosed schools that would have joined through expansion.

On November 16, 2020, The ASUN Conference announced that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the quickly changing landscape in conference realignment, the creation of a new multisport conference would not be possible at the time of the release or with the aforementioned timeline. This comes after the news that NJIT would be leaving the ASUN for the America East Conference in 2021, weakening the ASUN 7 and lowering the chances that a new conference would be created with only six members.

Addition of football
Arguably its biggest move in recent years was the announcement that the conference would be adding the University of Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky University, and former member Jacksonville State University, as incoming members on January 29, 2021, with the intent of sponsoring football in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in 2022. However, with these three schools joining in 2021, the league partnered with another conference beginning to sponsor football also in 2022, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), to allow the three teams to join the WAC as football affiliates for 2021, branding it interchangeably as the "ASUN–WAC Challenge" and "WAC–ASUN Challenge"; the two leagues will receive a combined bid to the FCS playoffs.

As soon as it was announced, however, the football league was thrown into jeopardy, as Jacksonville State announced it would be leaving once again in 2023 for Conference USA (C-USA), an FBS conference. Liberty was also invited to C-USA for 2023, but had already competed as an FBS independent for some time and was not included in the ASUN's new football league. With the WAC also losing Sam Houston, another football-sponsoring school, to C-USA, the two conferences announced they would be renewing their alliance for the 2022 season. On September 17, 2021, the ASUN announced Austin Peay State University, a football-sponsoring school, as a new member for the 2022–23 season. In May 2022, local media in Charlotte, North Carolina, also reported that Queens University of Charlotte would start a transition from the Division II South Atlantic Conference as a new ASUN member, also effective on July 1 of that year. The ASUN officially announced this move on May 10.

The ASUN also expanded its associate membership in the 2020s. The conference started the decade with five associate members—Coastal Carolina in both beach volleyball and women's lacrosse, Mercer in beach volleyball only, and Akron, Kent State, and Howard in women's lacrosse. All of the women's lacrosse associates left by the 2021–22 school year. Akron and Kent State left after the 2020 season when their full-time home of the Mid-American Conference began sponsoring the sport. Coastal Carolina also left after the 2020 season for the SoCon. Howard moved several sports not sponsored by its full-time home of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference to the Northeast Conference, with women's lacrosse moving after the 2021 season. Coastal Carolina moved beach volleyball to C-USA after the 2020–21 school year.

However, the 2021–22 school year saw the arrival of eight new associates, as well as the return of former women's lacrosse associates Coastal Carolina and Delaware State for that sport. ASUN beach volleyball added Charleston, Stephen F. Austin, and UNC Wilmington. The largest change in associate membership involved the relaunch of ASUN men's lacrosse. Full member Bellarmine was joined by five new associates—Air Force, Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, Robert Morris, and Utah.

The ASUN lost five beach volleyball members for 2022–23. The conference's four associates in that sport left for the Sun Belt Conference (SBC), which added that sport. Charleston, Stephen F. Austin, and UNC Wilmington all left the ASUN after a single season and Mercer also moved beach volleyball to the SBC. Also, departing full member Jacksonville State moved beach volleyball to its future home of C-USA a year before its all-sports move to that league.

Also for 2022–23, Mercer moved men's lacrosse into the ASUN after the SoCon shut down its men's lacrosse league, and new D-I member Lindenwood became an associate in both men's and women's lacrosse.

On October 14, 2022, Conference USA and Kennesaw State jointly announced that KSU would start a transition to FBS after the 2022 football season and join C-USA in 2024.

ESPN reported on December 9, 2022, that the ASUN and WAC had agreed to form a new football-only conference that plans to start play in 2024. The initial membership would consist of Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, and North Alabama from the ASUN, and Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton, and Utah Tech from the WAC. UTRGV would become the 10th member upon its planned addition of football in 2025. The new football conference also reportedly plans to move "from what is currently known as FCS football to what is currently known as FBS football at the earliest practicable date." On December 20, the two conferences confirmed the football merger, announcing that the new football league would start play in 2023 under the tentative name of ASUN–WAC Football Conference. This was followed in April 2023 by the new league rebranding itself as the United Athletic Conference (UAC). The UAC is playing a six-game schedule, and initially planned to start full round-robin conference play in 2024, although this is likely to change with two schools joining by 2025. Neither conference's announcement mentioned any plans to move to FBS.

Return of Atlantic Sun
On September 1, 2023, it was announced that the ASUN would undergo another rebranding to reinstate the use of the name Atlantic Sun. The conference still uses "ASUN" as its official abbreviation.

Addition of swimming and diving
The ASUN added men's and women's swimming & diving for the 2023–24 season, taking most of its initial membership from the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association, which had been founded as a partnership of several all-sports conferences, including the ASUN, as a home for that sport (the CCSA's scope would later expand to include beach volleyball). Two associate members came from the American Athletic Conference, which dropped men's swimming as a sponsored sport after the 2022–23 season. The initial membership for that sport is:
 * Two full members, Bellarmine and Queens, compete in both the men's and women's leagues.
 * Two other full members, Florida Gulf Coast and North Florida, sponsor only the women's sport.
 * The two full men's members were joined by associate members Florida Atlantic, Gardner–Webb, Old Dominion, and SMU. SMU will only compete in the 2023–24 season, after which it will join the Atlantic Coast Conference, which sponsors the sport for both sexes.
 * Gardner–Webb is also an associate in women's swimming & diving; it was joined in that status by former full ASUN member Liberty and UNC Asheville.

Current full members

 * Notes

Future associate members

 * Notes

Former full members
School names and nicknames listed here reflect those used during the schools' time in the TAAC/ASUN. One school has changed both its name and nickname and three others have changed only their nicknames.

Four former full members are now associates:
 * Florida Atlantic, which left the ASUN in 2006, rejoined for women's swimming & diving in 2023.
 * Gardner–Webb, which left in 2008, rejoined for men's and women's swimming & diving in 2023.
 * Mercer, which left in 2014, has been a men's lacrosse associate since 2022. It was also an associate in women's lacrosse from 2014 to 2017 and beach volleyball from 2014 to 2022.
 * Liberty, which left in 2023, remains an associate in women's lacrosse, and became an associate in women's swimming & diving when the ASUN added that sport in 2023–24.

 * Notes:

Former associate members

 * Notes:

Membership timeline
undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined

 * Northeast Louisiana became the University of Louisiana at Monroe (Louisiana–Monroe) in 1999.
 * Pan American, later known as Texas–Pan American or UTPA, merged with the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2015 to create the new University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). The new school inherited UTPA's athletic program.

Sports sponsored
As of the 2023–24 school year, the ASUN sponsors championship competition in 10 men's and 12 women's NCAA sanctioned sports.

In 2008, the ASUN, in an agreement with the Southern Conference (SoCon), Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), and Big South Conference, formed the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) for schools sponsoring men's and women's swimming and diving within the associated conferences. For the past several years, the ASUN's Commissioner has served as the president of what was initially a swimming & diving-only conference. In 2014 the CCSA expanded to include several other schools from other conferences, and the following year the conference added beach volleyball (women-only at the NCAA level) as a sponsored sport, changing its name to the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association. Currently the conference has 17 member schools, with five men's swimming and diving teams, nine women's swimming & diving teams, and six beach volleyball teams. A more recent change to the roster of ASUN sports took place after the 2013–14 school year. Under a cooperative agreement between the ASUN and SoCon, the two leagues agreed to split lacrosse sponsorship. The SoCon took over the ASUN men's lacrosse league, while women's lacrosse sponsorship remained with the ASUN. The full alliance in women's lacrosse amicably ended after the 2017 season, with the SoCon sponsoring that sport from the 2018 season forward, but the two leagues continued in a cross-scheduling agreement until the SoCon dropped women's lacrosse after the 2021 season.

Still more recently, on September 13, 2016, the ASUN and Big South announced a football partnership that allows any ASUN members with scholarship football programs to become Big South football members, provided they are located within the general geographic footprint of the two conferences. At the time of announcement, the only ASUN member with a scholarship football program, Kennesaw State, was already a Big South football member. Should any ASUN member add scholarship football, or any non-scholarship football program of an ASUN school (at the time of announcement, Jacksonville and Stetson) upgrade to scholarship football, that team will automatically join Big South football. North Alabama joined Big South football under the terms of this agreement; although the school's home state of Alabama had no schools in either conference at the time it was announced as a future ASUN member, three of its neighboring states were home to six of the ASUN's eight members at that time.

When the ASUN announced the July 2021 entry of Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, and Jacksonville State, it also stated that it would launch a scholarship FCS football league, but did not specify when football competition will begin. No current member is required to add football or change its current football standing. At a press conference on February 23, 2021, the ASUN announced that it had entered into a separate football partnership with the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which had previously announced the relaunch of its football league at the FCS level in fall 2021 with the arrival of four new FCS member schools. The three incoming ASUN members joined the four incoming WAC members in a round-robin schedule branded as the "ASUN–WAC Challenge". Both conferences proposed an amendment to NCAA bylaws that would allow the alliance to receive an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. The alliance had seven members, one more than the six normally required for an automatic bid, but were not in the same league for an adequate period to meet the current NCAA "continuity" requirement. The two leagues' proposal was successful, resulting in an automatic qualifier from the seven-team Challenge, colloquially dubbed "AQ7". With the 2022 arrival of Austin Peay providing the ASUN its sixth scholarship FCS program, the ASUN will start its football league in the 2022 season. However, because the ASUN and WAC were each left with only five playoff-eligible football members for 2022 after Jacksonville State (ASUN) and Sam Houston (WAC) started FBS transitions in that season, both leagues renewed their football partnership for 2022. As noted earlier, the two conferences fully merged their football leagues in 2023 as the United Athletic Conference.

Shortly after the addition of football was announced, the ASUN announced that it would reinstate men's lacrosse in the 2022 season, with the lacrosse partnership with the SoCon retained for the time being. The two full ASUN members with men's lacrosse programs, Bellarmine and Jacksonville, separated for that sport, with Bellarmine joining the new ASUN lacrosse league and Jacksonville remaining in SoCon men's lacrosse. Air Force moved from SoCon men's lacrosse; men's lacrosse independent Utah joined; and all three Horizon League members with men's lacrosse programs also joined, with Detroit Mercy moving from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and Cleveland State and Robert Morris moving from independent status. The SoCon maintained its automatic NCAA tournament berth by adding another lacrosse independent, Hampton. The ASUN men's lacrosse league was initially to be administered through the CCSA while operating under the ASUN name as part of the ASUN's intended plan to split into two conferences. This arrangement was scrapped along with the planned conference split once NJIT left for the America East; the men's lacrosse league is now directly administered by the ASUN.

The ASUN added two new beach volleyball members, Charleston and UNCW, in July 2021. At the same time, Coastal Carolina left ASUN beach volleyball for the newly formed Conference USA beach volleyball league. With the demise of SoCon women's lacrosse after the 2021 season, Coastal Carolina and Delaware State returned to the ASUN in that sport after respectively spending one and four seasons in the SoCon.

The SoCon dropped men's lacrosse after the 2022 season due to further conference realignment. Jacksonville returned men's lacrosse to the ASUN, and full SoCon member Mercer became an ASUN men's lacrosse affiliate. Lindenwood, which started a transition from D-II to D-I in 2022 as a new member of the Ohio Valley Conference, became an affiliate in both men's and women's lacrosse (neither of which is sponsored by the OVC). Also in 2022–23, the ASUN lost all four of its beach volleyball affiliates (Charleston, Mercer, Stephen F. Austin, UNCW) to the new beach volleyball league of the Sun Belt Conference.

As noted previously, the ASUN added men's and women's swimming & diving in 2023–24.

Men's sports
Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the league which are played by ASUN schools:

In addition to the aforementioned sports:
 * Queens sponsors men's rugby and triathlon, neither of which has NCAA recognition of any type. It also considers its male cheerleaders to be varsity athletes.

Women's sports
Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the league which are played by ASUN schools:

In addition to the aforementioned sports:
 * Bellarmine considers the members of its all-female dance team to be varsity athletes.
 * Queens considers its cheerleaders and dance team (the latter all-female, though listed on its athletic website as coeducational) to be varsity athletes.

All Sports Championships
The Jesse C. Fletcher and Sherman Day Trophies are awarded each year to the top men's and women's program in the conference. The Bill Bibb Trophy, combining the men's and women's results for the best overall program, was first awarded in 2006–07. East Tennessee State won this overall trophy seven of the nine years it has been awarded; Florida Gulf Coast won in 2012–13, 2014–15 and 2015–16.

Men's basketball
''This is a partial list of the last 10 champions. For the full history, see ASUN men's basketball tournament.''

Women's basketball
''This is a partial list of the last 10 champions. For the full history, see ASUN women's basketball tournament.''

Baseball

 * ASUN Conference baseball tournament

title: Atlantic Sun Conference


text:
Planquery

Planquery is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

title: Planquery


text:
Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Twenty-first Amendment of the Constitution Act 2001 (previously bill no. 16 of 2001) is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which introduced a constitutional ban on the death penalty and removed all references to capital punishment from the text. It was approved by referendum on 7 June 2001 and signed into law on 27 March 2002. The referendum was held on the same day as referendums on the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which was also approved, and on the ratification of the Nice Treaty, which was rejected.

Background
Capital punishment in Ireland had been abolished by the Criminal Justice Act 1990. The purpose of the amendment was therefore not to end the practice, but rather to forbid the Oireachtas from reintroducing the death penalty in future, even during a state of emergency. This is the only explicit exception to the sweeping powers otherwise granted to the state during such an emergency.

The last execution in Ireland occurred in 1954 when the murderer Michael Manning was hanged, the sentence being carried out by Albert Pierrepoint who travelled from Great Britain where he was an official hangman. The penalty has been abolished in law since 1990. It is furthermore a condition of the membership of any country of the European Union that it abolish capital punishment. Ireland is also party to a number of international agreements forbidding the death penalty. These include Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights which forbids capital punishment even during time of war.

Changes to the text
Article 15.5 to be renumbered as 15.5.1° and the insertion of a new subsection to Article 15.5:

Addition of the highlighted text to the first sentence of Article 28.3.3°:

Deletion of the highlighted text from Article 13.6:

Deletion of the following subsection from Article 40.4:

Subsections 6° and 7° of Article 40.4 renumbered as subsections 5° and 6° respectively.

Oireachtas debate
The Twenty-first Amendment was proposed in Dáil Éireann by Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform John O'Donoghue on 11 April 2001 on behalf of the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition government led by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. One member spoke against, Fine Gael TD Brendan McGahon; otherwise, it had the support of all members of the Dáil. It passed final stages without amendment on the same day. It passed all stages in Seanad Éireann on 1 May, and proceeded to a referendum on 7 June 2001.

Campaign
A Referendum Commission was established by Minister for the Environment and Local Government Noel Dempsey. It was chaired by former Chief Justice Thomas Finlay. At the time, its role included setting out the arguments for and against the proposal.

Result
The Twenty-first Amendment was approved on a low turnout (34%), by 62% in favour to 38% against. There were media reports after the referendum on the Twenty-first Amendment that opponents of the death penalty had mistakenly cast a "no" vote, in the belief that they were being asked to vote on capital punishment per se rather than on an amendment that would prohibit it.


text:
John Pardoe

John Wentworth Pardoe (born 27 July 1934) is a British retired businessman and Liberal Party politician. He was Chairman of Sight and Sound Education Ltd from 1979 to 1989.

Early life and education
Pardoe was the son of Cuthbert B. Pardoe and Marjorie E. W. (née Taylor). He attended King's College School, Cambridge, and was a chorister in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge. He then went to Sherborne School, a boarding independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, followed by Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was active in the famous Footlights drama club; one critic of their 1955 revue panned future comedian Jonathan Miller, whilst predicting a bold comedic future for Pardoe. He gained an MA at Cambridge.

Early career
Pardoe worked for Television Audience Measurement Ltd from 1958 to 1960, Osborne Peacock Co. Ltd from 1960 to 1961 and Liberal News from 1961 to 1966.

Political career
In the 1964 general election, Pardoe unsuccessfully stood as the Liberal candidate against Margaret Thatcher in Finchley. In the 1966 election, the Liberal Party increased its number of MPs from nine to twelve: one of them was Pardoe, who captured the North Cornwall seat from the Conservative Party's James Scott-Hopkins. He rapidly became the party's Economic Affairs spokesman in parliament and was respected for the intellect of his views, if not for the often partisan nature of his comments. Pardoe was Treasurer of the Liberal Party from 1968 to 1969.

In the 1960s, Pardoe was a member of Mebyon Kernow as well as the Liberal Party.

In 1976, after the resignation of Jeremy Thorpe, Pardoe was a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party. He lost to David Steel, who received 12,541 votes to Pardoe's 7,032.

Pardoe played the fairy-tale Liberal prime minister in BBC Radio 4's Christmas pantomime, Black Cinderella Two Goes East in 1978, on the basis that Liberal prime ministers exist only in fairy tales.

At the 1979 general election, he lost his seat, possibly because of his outspoken support for neighbouring MP Jeremy Thorpe, who was then about to stand trial at the Old Bailey for conspiracy and incitement to murder.

At the general election of 1987, Pardoe served as campaign manager of the SDP-Liberal Alliance.

Outside politics
From 1967 to 1973, Pardoe was a consultant to the National Association of Schoolmasters. He was a director at William Schlackman Ltd from 1968 to 1971, Gerald Metals (1972–83) and a Member of the London Metal Exchange from 1973 to 1983.

Pardoe was a presenter of LWT's Look Here television programme from 1979 to 1981. In the same period, he was also a Senior Research Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute. From 1985 to 1989, he was a member of the Youth Training Board.

Personal life
In 1958, Pardoe married Joyce R. Peerman; the couple have two sons and a daughter. Pardoe lives in Hampstead, north west London.

His recreations are walking, reading, music and carpentry.

title: John Pardoe


text:
Le Plessis-Grimoult

Le Plessis-Grimoult is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Les Monts d'Aunay.

title: Le Plessis-Grimoult


text:
Plumetot

Plumetot is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

title: Plumetot


text:
Igigi

Igigi are the mythological figures of heaven in the mythology of Mesopotamia. Though sometimes synonymous with the term "Anunnaki", in the Atrahasis myth the Igigi were the younger beings who were servants of the Annunaki, until they rebelled and were replaced by the creation of humans.

Etymology
The name has unknown origin. It was originally spelt i-gi4-gi4, but was later also written as í-gì-gì. This latter may have been a play on words, as in Sumerian, the combination can be interpreted as numerals adding to 7 (the number of Great Gods), or multiplying to 600 (which in some traditions was the total number of gods).

Atrahasis
Akkadian Paradise is described as a garden in the myth of Atrahasis where lower rank deities (the Igigi) are put to work digging a watercourse by the more senior deities (the Anunnaki).

 * When the gods, man-like,
 * Bore the labour, carried the load,
 * The gods' load was great,
 * The toil grievous, the trouble excessive.
 * The great Anunnaku, the Seven,
 * Were making the Igigu undertake the toil.

The Igigi then rebel against the dictatorship of Enlil, setting fire to their tools and surrounding Enlil's great house by night. On hearing that toil on the irrigation channel is the reason for the disquiet, the Anunnaki council decide to create man to carry out agricultural labour.

title: Igigi


text:
Nanum of Akkad

Nanum or Nanium, according to the Sumerian King List, was one of four rivals (the others being Ilulu, Igigi, and Imi) vying to be king of the Akkadian Empire during a three-year period following the death of Shar-kali-sharri. This chaotic period came to an end when Dudu consolidated his power over the realm.

title: Nanum of Akkad


text:
Imi

Imi, according to the Sumerian King List, was one of four rivals (the others being Igigi, Ilulu, and Nanum) vying to be king of the Akkadian Empire during a three-year period following the death of Shar-kali-sharri. This chaotic period came to an end when Dudu consolidated his power over the realm.

title: Imi