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Chuck Hagel on the need to bring in more countries to handle difficult situations such as the one the US faces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says thats why the world now has a G20 and not a G8. No country can face these situations alone especially when there is a mutual interest of many countries in these situations. He calls it a 20th century reaction to 21st century realities. He says the 2 wars cost more than a trillion dollars. One sees a new respect for international institutions such as the UN, World Bank, IMF, and GATT renamed WTO, even with Republicans. Chuck Hagel's point makes a lot of sense and is generally accepted in people's understanding of the situation from the Defence Department to the Administration, and among respected politicians. It is putting it onto practice that is the hard part. As Hagel puts it, it is important to remember what Lyndon Johnson told Senatior Russell, that he knew the Vietnam war could not be won, and yet he did not want to pull out and be the first American President to lose a war. This is a contradiction because if it can't be won its going to be lost under the next President or the one after that, in this case Gerald Ford. Hagel says it not ours to win and lose. Here he points to the interconnectedness and shared interests of all nations. Every great threat to the U.S., whether it is economic, terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation, health pandemics, environmental degradation, energy or water and food shortages, is also a threat to global partners ansd rivals. So its wrong to view engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan through the lens that says its about winning or losing. And he asks win what? Too many cultural, ethnic and religious dynamics are involved for any one nation to control. Hagel concludes by saying that the US, the Defense Department, the Obama administration, must get this right, as it affects the global architecture for the next generation. Fresh thinking is needed. Single issue engagement is obsolete in the 21st century in dealing with global partners or rivals, or countries with aspects of both....

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Already Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan are negotiating. India will join South Korea. Britain will follow. Only Canada and China are holding back because of the imbalance in trade heavily in their favor and a failure to see that it is about fairness. In the EU only Germany has a surplus many nations have a deficit, it seeks to start negotiating at the first opportunity. Contrary to what most of the American and British media says Lighhizer and Jamieson have thought this thing through for many years before arriving at the Tariffs advice they gave the US president as his 2 USTR. It is these two not the president acting on his own whim as the media like to show. And Lighthizer has done this before- as Deputy USTR in the 1980 with Japan on the opposite side and come out of it with winning solutions for the US and for the world.

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Mr. Kasowitz  is hired by U.S. president Trump as his personal attorney on the Russia probe by Congress of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Kasowitz  has worked with Trump for 15 years helping keep his divorce records sealed, and in lawsuits. He is known as an aggressive litigator with his own firm of 270 attorneys- Kasowitz, Benson Torres LLP. This follows the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. election with wide ranging powers. This report says Senator Joe Lieberman who is being considered for the post of new FBI chief works at this law firm, creating a potential conflict of interest situation.

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Paul Ryan says in May 2016 that he will not endorse Donald Trump as the nominee of the Republican party for president of the U.S.

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The US military is finally, after years of being left out and over 300,000 young Americans losing their lives from fentanyl drugs being brought into the US- after Coast Guard is overwhelmed by the scale of activity- is finally now being enlisted in the effort to save lives and restore the integrity of America's borders. The deaths in this war are more than 3 times that in the Vietnam War and Korean War combined which were about 100,000. Yet ineffective political leaders have not responded with American strength in the face of the magnitude of losses. And ignored or neglected the firm basis on which president Monroe proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine to keep colonial powers out of this hemisphere. The result is that America and the youngest of its people America's most precious resource, have paid the price. America can do a better job of protecting the interests of the people of this hemisphere because of its great traditions of good government over several centuries going back even to the British days- it is America's solemn duty and responsibility to do so to the people of this hemisphere. ...

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Former U.S. president Bush says the U.S. has an important role as a beacon of freedom, human rights and democracy in the world. The U.S. should not shrink from the challenges in the name of a false and temporary stability, and flexibility should not mean ambiguity, difficulties should not mean shrugging away from America's role. Patience, creativity and active American leadership are needed. The Bush administration supported the struggles of people in central Europe and in other countries. This is from a speech Bush gave at the Bush Institute, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, a year into the Arab Spring. A speech that was giving voice to the aspirations of people in the Arab world.

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The fiscal 2016 U.S. budget of president Obama proposes government spending at 7% or $74 billion above the caps set in a bipartisan deficit reduction deal reached in 2011. It proposes $561 billion in defense spending with an increase of $38 billion, and $530 billion in non defense spending with an increase of $37 billion. Across the board cuts known as the sequester were set in 2013 following a 2011 bipartisan budget deal plan to take $2 trillion out of the federal budget deficit over 10 years. Spending caps were set at the time and a supercommitte was setup to look for ways to trim $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. With the failure of the supercommittee the sequester went into effect until Sen. Murray (Democrat) and Sen Paul Ryan (Republican ) agreed to ease cuts through fiscal year 2015 ending in September. The Democratic president's effort is to remove the caps in 2016 to invest more in infrastructure, medical research, other strategic priorities and defense.

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Tunisia's president Moncef Marzouki comments on the violent demonstrations in Arab countries after the anti-Islamic video in Sept. 2012. He says the violent demonstrations do not reflect the true feelings of the vast majority of Arab people. He says the Arab Spring is not pro or anti-western but focussed on social justice and democracy, and not even about religion when truly understood.

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The Tunisian revollution was middle class, un-Islamic and pro-western. The people in the streets of Cairo are young, connected, non-ideological and pragmatic. They are looking for an end to despotic regimes. This is the way Cohen describes the demonstrators after his visit to Tunis. Egypt's opposition leader El-Baradei tells Cohen's colleagues Kirkpatrick and Slackman that he is pretty sure that an elected government in Egypt woulld be a moderate one. The policies of a community activist from the south side of Chicago, who as US President fails to take a clear stand in favor of freedom from repression and economic freedom for people in the Arab world.

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Just as president Trump calls for reopening of churches in the U.S., France says it will reopen churches in the start of June. Required is social distancing of one metre for people attending church, handwashing and wearing masks.

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This report in WSJ says Fox News took issue with Tucker Carlson host of the FNN network prime time TV show for remarks he made about colleagues on the network.  Before FNN Carlson worked for MSNBC,CNN and Arkansas Gazette newspaper. He was co-host of CNN show "Crossfire." Mr. Carlson is paid $20 million a year. Since the days of president Lincoln and the Douglas debates political debate has created new audiences. In their current form they bring advertising revenues for networks on the right and the left and skilled practitioners of the art are in demand at television networks. What is new is that this discourse has gradually deteriorated to where it has broken down in some ways.

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A new $490 billion aid package in Japan is designed to help families and small business. Families with small children will get $900 per child and small business will get $22,000 each if they can show they were affected by the pandemic. Wage increases for nurses and care workers. Economy minister Yamagiva in the new Fumio Kishida government says this aid will "bring security and hope to the people by rebuilding the economy." Japan is following the US by providing aid to the people and business to help rebuild after the lingering effects of the pandemic. In the US president Biden is expected to pass a $2 trillion package including help for child care, paid leave for caregivers and mothers, other aid, and a big investment to tackle climate change.

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Born 1904, he joined the Indian Independence Movement in 1926. Union Home minister, and then prime minister to succeed Jawaharlal Nehru in 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri was the first Indian prime minister to take up the cause of Indian agriculture. It was under his leadership and with the kind help of U.S. president Lyndon Johnson that the Green Revolution was launched in India after periodic famines in northern India for many centuries of its history. 

As Transport Minister he introduced new rules for woman drivers and conductors in public buses and trains.

This story in The Hindu says he had to swim across the Ganges river with the books tied to his head to attend school. Shastri was known for his exceptional humility in public life. 

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The large majority of vaccine disinformation has been traced to just 12 persons, according to a report cited by the White House. This report is from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. They have a combined following of 59 million on social media with Facebook being the largest. Of 812,000 Facebook posts looked at by CCDH 65% came from these 12 persons.

On Facebook alone 73% of all anti-vaccine content comes from these 12 persons. These 12 include a religious zealot, a wellness blogger, some physicians who have taken on pseudoscience, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Only 3 have been removed from one platform of the 12 persons. US president Biden is critical of the role of social media in this pandemic.

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The role of the former Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo, as Commerce Secretary. She pushed forward the CHIPS and Science Act through Congress securing votes from 17 Republicans and all except one Democrat in the House of Representatives. She is committed to moving fast on issues such as investments in America. Gina Raimondo believes that "the most important thing to do to compete with China is to invest in America." She says in an interview that America needs to dominate in certain areas of technology, including critical materials, electric vehicle batteries, semiconductors, artificial intelligence. This report looks at her role at the Commerce department and her relationships with president Biden, Congress, and foreign leaders including Piyush Goyal who is Minister for Industry in India.
 

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NYT reporters Kantor, Abrams and Haberman describe the life of Ivanka Trump, and ways in which she has become the closest person to Trump. She has made an effort to study the issues relating to women and plans to act as a moderating influence on the Trump administration. This report cites aides who say the two have a special relationship and discuss thoughts from morning until late into the night. Ivanka Trump says she is perceived differently since the election campaign even though she is the same person. Even making a small influence on the president would be a great deal, says Ivanka Trump. At Trump's urging and the invitation from Merkel, she participated in a women's summit at the G-20 with Merkel and other leaders in Germany.

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Experts say the artificial sweetmers in Diet Coke increase the risks of stroke or dementia by 3 times. President Trump of the U.S. takes 12 diet cokes a day, according to the NYT report cited here. Some studies even show weight gain from soda with artificial sweeteners even though these sodas have no sugar and less fat. The problem they say is in how the diet soda is paired with food high in carbohydrates or fast foods with poor nutrients. Taking a diet soda with a Big Mac or fast foods is not healthy than if it is consumed alone. Another problem is that more needs to be known about the effects of artificial sweeteners, because new findings and research could come up with surprises. 

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China lets the yuan drop to below 7 to the dollar as it responds to president Trump threat of additional tariffs of 10% on $300 billion of Chinese goods. Previously the People's Bank of China, China's central bank, defended seven to to the dollar. The weaker Chinese currency would be an offset to the tariffs on Chinese goods.

This has risks for China as in the capital flight from China in 2015-2016. Debt denominated in foreign currencies has built up under an illusion of currency stability, especially for property developers in China with about $55 billion of such debt, according to Moody's.

China's other response was to suspend agricultural purchases from the U.S.

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Even today mask use can vary widely in the U.S. as seen in this map from the NYT. After repeated surge across the U.S. from the northeast to the south and west mask use has increased in the U.S. Texas has made it mandatory and president Trump wore a mask at Walter Reed Army hospital. Ypu.gov and other surveys show mask use as high as 80%, not universal as health agencies want to see, higher than Canada, Finland or Denmark.

Other factors such as gatherings at beaches, restaurant and bars, and earlier sport stadiums gatherings are additional factors for a surge. Young people's cooperation has lagged behind accounting for about 50% of cases in some southern states recently being among young people.

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Khairat el-Shatar, financial leader of the Muslim Brotherhood was nominated as the party's candidate for president in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood controls the newly elected parliament and the body that is writing the new constitution. It is in a struggle with the military about limiting the military's role under the new constitution. The Brotherhood sees the election of its candidate as president as important to not diluting its influence in relation to the military and other parties. Khairat has committed to following a moderate course in setting Egypt on a new path, with a focus on reviving the economy.

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The Progressive Party of Tomislav Nikolic wins 23.5% of the parliamentary vote, the Democratic party of president Boris Tadic 22.1% and the Socialist party of Ivica Dacic 16%. Serbians cast a protest vote against high unemployment of 24% and corruption in government. There is still a sense that the joining the EU is the best option for Serbia. Even though nationalist parties, some allied to former president Milosevic, won a significant portion of the vote, the nationalist sentiment is balanced now with a sense that Serbia must now look to the future for what is best for the next generation and economic progress.

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Loretta Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, is likely to become the next Attorney General of the U.S. This is the first time since President Monroe in 1817 that a top prosecutor was directly appointed as Attorney General. She was first nominated in 1999 as U.S. attorney in the Clinton administration, and returned to this office in 2010. She does not have any ties to president Obama. This should help speed up the nomination. Her long experience as a prosecutor, her experience with civil rights and terrorism related cases, and her openness, are cited as key qualifications.

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A look at the views of Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia and Strobe Talbott, a State Department advisor, on how the Obama administration missed signals of a more assertive policy from Russia during the period Medvedev was president. At the time Medvedev offered a softer tone from Russia and the U.S. extended cooperation. With the return of Putin as president for a second term, his more strident views on the role of Russia in the world following the collapse of the Soviet Union have emerged, especially in tems of policies in Syria and Ukraine.

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The plan for the government to step in with hundreds of billions of dollars to remove the illiquid mortgage and other assets from the financial institutions that have them finally has full support. Paulson says it will be less costly than the alternative and President Bush calls these steps essential after a series of efforts by Paulson and Bernanke to put out brushfires and move from crisis to crisis. And Congress fully supports the President and Paulson. Speaker Pelosi makes clear her intnetion to adjourn Congress only after this business is taken care of, no matter how long it takes.

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Revival of the old city of Diriyah in Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia, where Imam Wahhab and Muhammad ibn Saud, the original chief from the Saud family have their origins. With the help of Imam Wahhab, this tribal chief united the Arabian peninsula in 1744, till the fall to the Ottomans in 1818, lasting 74 years. U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt helped set up Ibn Saud of the original Saud family, as monarch of a new Saudi state in 1932, when it was possible for the French, British and Americans to setup states in the Middle East region to protect their interests. Ibn Saud's son is the current King Salman, who plans to set up a museum complex in Diriyah, and visits the place on weekends.