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The Economist says British prime minister David Cameron's negotiations with the European Union during the recent summit talks were a failure. The diplomacy of the Cameron administration is described as inept and is seen as damaging British interests severely. It leads to an isolation of Britain in Europe. In this negotiation French President Sarkozy is seen as coming out ahead. The inept efforts to protect Britain's financial sector are unlikely to benefit the sector.

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WSJ Editors Interview with former president Donald Trump on a range of issues from democracy, rule of law, tariffs, taxes and immigration. WSJ has not endorsed a candidate since 1928. WSJ Editors have questions about Trump statements and words on policy on immigration, democratic process and tariffs. Trump calls tariffs a beautiful word, more beautiful than any other word that he can think of, WSJ Editors disagree about a blanket use of tariffs.

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Prime minister Modi's address in Hindi to the nation on May 12 on "Atman Nirbhar Bharat" (self reliant India) as India looks ahead to a situation beyond the coronavirus. What would the economy look like as India moves forward? He says the emphasis will be on planning for the need for land, labor, liquidity, and laws to develop the Indian economy. A bold package of economic action for an investment of 20 lakh crore rupees or $280 billion was announced with details to be provided later. The basic philosophy of the next move forward was what the prime minister concentrated his speech on. Modi says there are 5 pillars for the Atman Nirbhar Bharat, or Self Reliant India. The first action not to go for incremental change- go instead for a quantum leap, be bold. This applies to both technology and investment and creating an environment where results can be achieved. Second action to make the kind of infrastructure that would set a new standard in the world. Third a "sabhi ke sapno ke aadhar," taking everyone along, be technology driven. Third action celebrate and build on India's vibrant demography, once seen as a weakness this will be turned into a strength. Fifth action be Demand driven - "demand or supply chain puri samtha ke saman karne ki jaruat che." The demand and supply chain  should be taken good care of. That also means be local and local manufacturing. Be vocal for local is the new message said Modi, because this is what worked and is saving us in the pandemic. As external supply chains failed countries in Europe and North America, it is the local supply chain for medicine, health care equipment, and food supplies, local technology for citizen id and bank accounts for direct deposit, agricultural supplies, strong and large national postal and rail networks and millions of employees spanning the country in all directions, that have proved of amazing value in this crisis. "Is local ne bhi bachaya, ham sabki jinnadari hai," - the local saved us and is everyone's responsibility.   ...

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President Biden signs the $379 billion Climate bill and tax legislation into law. Mr. Biden told a White House crowd to standing ovation "This is the biggest Climate Bill ever." At the signing event Mr. Biden tells Senator Manchin  "Joe, I never had a doubt." Senator Schumer quietly negotiated the final bill with Senator Manchin in one crucial week just recently to get it through a 50-50 split US Senate.

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Yale Prof. Fair says that evidence from his model shows the yuan appreciation having a positive effect on American jobs looks better than it really is. Two negative effects are in play. The first is that Chinese output decreases will have an effect on Chinese imports that will affect US exports. And the other effect that will come into play is the increase in US prices. His conclusion is that it unlikely we will see a large increase in American jobs from the appreciation of China's currency.

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After mentioning the transformative game of Van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Firmino, Alexander Arnold, one can only turn to the incredible resilience of Jordan Henderson against many setbacks and being written off more than once. Here he is put forward as the choice for Footballer of the Year. Precept and example counts for more here than individual game performance.

The "mentality monsters" Germany's Klopp talks about in coaching is about calming the mind and continuous improvement, hard work in practice that makes this happen. Henderson shows a lot of this work ethic and resolve.

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“The world needs more energy. The world needs more resources, and U.A.E. wanted to be unconstrained by any groups” says UAE energy minister, Suhail Al Mazrouei. On May 1, 2026 UAE with 12% of OPEC cartel production (3.6 million barrels a day) will leave OPEC. It is a change in strategy of where and how to sell oil production in the future. UAE including Abu Dhabhi oil company says it is time for it to pursue its own national interests. As its economy is diversified including tourism and other sourcesd of revenue, UAE puts volume before price support. Saudis are not diversified and seek to maintain price support and keep fossil fuels way into the future. Qatar and Ecuador have already left the cartel. Since the old days of OPEC US has emerged as the largest producer, Venezuela is coming back as a major producer, changing the situaiton now that UAE is  also not betting on and supporting efforts for keeping prices high. This is good news for India and China, Japan, major buyers of oil and with large populations increasing demand. It also helps the US because of its diversified economy. ...

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With more women getting higher education and pursuing careers, young Chinese women now prefer to be independent and postpone marraige. This has important consequences including smaller households and lower demand for some products. Women now make up more than half of all undergraduate students and half of graduate students in China. Beyond pursuing a career many women also see the importance of a loving relationship before marraige as opposed to being introduced to someone and finding a partner to go through life.

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The US Fed under Jerome Powell stress tests of 31 banks for 2024 shows the banks can withstand a rise in unemployment to 10% and 36% drop in house prices. This is relevant now that the new administration of DJT makes another effort to correct the huge trade imbalance with China, Mexico and Canada, which itself is destabilizing in the long run and needs to be addressed. The first term of DJT failed to correct the imbalance with new tariffs kept in place by the Biden administration. This is not just one's imagination, reports suggest China has poured $230 billion of subsidies into its EV industry since 2003 mandate given by premier Jen Biao to dominate that industry. And now has capacity of 20 million car production a year, twice the domestic demand in gasoline cars, wanting to send the surplus production to the US and Europe. This isn't the 1930's type of tariffs, it is simply to get a fair even playing field for trade, where no one side is massively subsidizing and dumping which is one of the principles of WTO free trade that is being broken by China and Mexico. Specifically the anti dumping clause in Article 6 of the 1994 GATT agreement on free world trading mechanism to ensure free and fair trade. ...

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This letter in the New York Times questions the wisdom of the NYT report that Mr. Rosenstein suggested in 2017 Justice Department meetings the need for invoking the 25th Amendment for the removal of the U.S. president Trump. It says this would lead to departure of Mr. Rosenstein as Deputy Attorney General and leaves the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in U.S. elections without support from the Justice Department. Mr. Rosenstein says today he does not see a need for the invoking of the 25th Amendment

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The lack of vaccine supplies is affecting countries such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, Brazil and Mexico as cases rise. Porto Alegre and Manila are being hit particularly hard.

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Lake county with 230,000 population in Ohio received 60 million pills. Ohio Counties say after the $650 million settlement verdict by US courts for CVS, Walgreens, that it cost them $1 billion for law enforcement, social services, and health services. The opioid crisis dealt another blow to communities in the US already devastated by the behaviour of banks in the 2009 economic crisis, the outshoring of entire manufacturing to China, followed by the pandemic in 2020. America is only now coming to terms with the failure of previous adminstrations as the Biden administration takes on this task of bringing America, its workers and families back to healthy thriving communities.

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Axel Springer is owned by Freide Springer (widow of Axel Springer) and Matthias Dopfner sole owners of media properties Bild, Welt, Politico The Telegraph. KKR is the owner of classified ads part of the business. By taking it private at $7.5 billion valuation it offers KKR a private equity company a way to have an offramp from the media business, which had come under scrutiny from investors. For Dopfner it was away to avoid investor pressures as he sought to expand the footprint of Axel Springer to UK and US, other countries.

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Henry Kissinger's first book is on the Napoleonic Wars and how the Austrian chancellor Metternich negotiated a peace that after 1815 kept a fragile peace in Europe till the war in 1914. Sometimes it is said that Kissinger as NSA and Secretary of State to US president Richard Nixon modeled his role from that of Metternich who with Kissinger shared a German background. This was based on realism and was based on offsetting the tyranny of Napoleon in Europe with a balance of power between Britain and Austria-Hungary. 

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This columnist opinion in Le Monde reflects the view in Europe that the US is in retreat, and in some quarters such as NYT that the new US foreign policy that sets the Monroe Doctrine as key aspect of foreign policy is a retreat- US setting the rules in the Western Hemisphere around democracy and governance. It says the US has set aside the ambition first proclaimed in 1945 and revived in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. US administrations under Clinton and Bush took this posture after 1991 of dominant position but it did not reflect reality. US like Russia was dragged into many remote conflicts that had little to do with the standard of living, and economic advancement of the US. The US has a dilapidated infrastructure, broken healthcare system, and operates in a world trading system that has deindustrialized the nation and shipped out jobs and factories for 20 years, and worse is exposed to drug and people trafficking gangs in Mexico and Venezuela. The Monroe Doctrine 1823 asserted the US right to keep European colonial powers out of America, and it was possible only because the British also supported it in the 19th century till the US built up its Navy under TR and FDR. With Russia recognized as a European power the US is able to get its support for the US to tackle the situation in the Western hemisphere presented by drug and people trafficking gangs in Mexico and Venezuela. Tariffs are intended to get a new world trading system with new rules. Infrastructure building is underway on a scale that will far surpass China by 2030. This is not a retreat but an advancement for the Nation and the American people after three decades of failed policy. It lets the European powers Germany, France and Britain deal with Russia's requirement that NATO withdraw from its borders and recognition of Russia as a Northern European power. European history has shown that since 1700 that when faced with a majority of nations in Europe any dominant power in Europe is forced to negotiate a peaceful resolution of conflict because of it's limited resources to carry on a conflict. This should lead to a peaceful resolution in Ukraine, that allows rebuilding, and also gives the US an opportunity to rebuild its economy and standard of living for the American people. This will be a win-win for both the Russians and the Western Europeans, and both Latin America and the US, China and the US, India/Japan/Brazil and the US. ...