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The WSJ Dollar Index tracks the U.S. dollar's performance against 16 other currencies. It surged by 12% in 2014 with a strengthening U.S. dollar. The rise in the dollar is likely to adversely affect the 15% of U.S. GNP that comes from exports and the $200 billion plus tourism industry in the U.S.

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Details of technical history of the 34 Dreamliners in Air India fleet and action taken by Indian authorites after the Dreamliner crash. Air India has 20 Dreamliners on order and 24 options to buy additional aircraft.

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All 379 passengers on a Airbus 350 plane of Japan Airlines that crashed in Tokyo were evacuated with crew in less than 20 minutes. For 3 minutes the crew struggled to decide which exit doors to open, once this was decided the evacuation was orderly. The Airbus 350 crashed into a Japan CoastGuard plane.

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Scholz of Germany and Xi of China meet for private talks at the G-20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2024. Efforts are made to avoid tit for tat tariffs on EV's and settle Ukraine war.

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Controversy on abortion views for Ms. Brosius-Gersdorf, nominee to Constitutional Court Germany 2025. Brosius studied at the University of Hamburg in public law before doing her Masters degree in Law at University of Edinburgh in UK. After 4 years 2000-2004 pracicing law in Bonn and Berlin, she returned as research assistant to Harmut Bauer atTechnical University Dresden and University of Potsdam. In 2025 she was put forward by SPD in the Merz coalition govenment as nominee to succeed Doris Konig on the Constitutional Court of Germany. She says some in CDU distorted her views on abortion. Chancellor Merz offered his support for Brosius-Gersdorf on the highest Court.

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Business top management in Germany comes from the top 2-4% of Germany's population in education, wealth and upbringing in 2025. Sociologist Michael Hartmann, a professor at Darmstadt University of Technology, has found that for the last 100 years the top managers and boards of 400 largest German companies are made up mostly of sons of business executives and people with a advanced higher education background, that this has not changed much over that period.

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With temperatures reaching 118 degrees on the Acropolis in Athens on its rocky location union organizers say work will stop at 12 noon and the Acropolis will reopen in the evening for tourists.

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Russian seaborne crude shipments are up 18% as of June 11 over the prior year, Iran's shipments up even more by 45%. The result is increased supplies even though the Saudis tried to increase oil prices by limiting production. China's economy is slowing and faces headwinds that will not go away anytime soon of debt close to 290% of GDP higher than US or Europe. And lower imports by the US and EU as they correct the mistakes of overconcentration in China. The European Union faces high inflation and a mild recession. This is cutting demand as supplies increase. It will help the Biden administration as it seeks to give all Americans a fair chance to improve their standard of living, by reducing the cost of living and investing in the economic potential of the country in a way no other adminstration has done in the last 40 years.

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It came down to the price of eggs, bread, basic items on a grocery list. And Democratic politicians including Harris were not seen as sensitive to the pain, being the incumbent meant they were the ones who were responsible for letting prices get out of hand. This isn't just the WSJ analysis in its conversations with ordinary Americans. About 50 percent of Trump voters said higher prices were the largest factor in their decision, according to AP (Associated Press) VoteCast.  The Labor Department’s measure of consumer prices was up 20% higher in September 2024 than January 2021—the largest increase in the last 45 years for one presidential term. Average Year-Over-Year Inflation Rate by President Carter 1977 - 1981.    9.9% Ford 1974 - 1977.       8% Biden 2021 -  2024      5.2% Nixon 1969 - 1974.       5.7% Reagan 1981 - 1989     4.6% H.W. Bush 1989 - 1993. 4.3% W. Bush 2001 - 2009.     2.8% LBJ 1963 - 1969.             2.6% Clinton 1993 - 2001.        2.6% Trump 2017 - 2021          1.9% Obama 2009 - 2017.        1.4% Eisenhower 1953 - 1961.  1.4% JFK 1961 - 1963.               1.1% Overall Inflation Rate Data seasonally-adjusted Consumer Price Index for all items, current as of Aug. 2024. Chart: Adrian Nesta  Source:  BLS Consumer Price Index This also places a special burden of responsibility on the new DJT administration to take action on prices of everyday goods and groceries. ...

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Yale endowment grows by $4.5 billion to $44.1 billion at 11% return in 2025. For 1000 students  offered no cost tution for undergrads this was about a $72 million cost in 2025 when tution is set at Yale at $72,000 a year for undergrads. Of 6800 undergrad students about 15% of students offered no cost tution at the cutoff income level of $75,000. This year the cutoff is set at $200,000. Even if this adds 1000 more students this will in 2026 cost Yale a mere $72 million, a tiny fraction of  1.6% of the total endowment gain of $4.5 billion in 2025. What this shows is that these top tier schools are still wanting to look good but are not really changing a highly flawed system. It is only in 2026 that a new law the Big Beautiful Bill of DJT increased tax on university endowments from 1.4% to 8%. Better that government can address the flawed education system with tax money than let the universities in the higher tiers make education less and less affordable, destroying a pillar of the democratic system of government by giving education to only a privileged few. ...

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To reduce its reliance on China for nickel supplies and secure the supply chain LG Energy Solution has signed a $9 billion deal in Indonesia that sources nickel supplies in Indonesia and produces the EV batteries in Indonesia. The deal was signed with Indonesia's mining company Antam and Indonesia Battery Corporation. Indonesia is the largest producer of nickel with 21 million tonnes of reserves according to US Geological Survey data. The entire process will now be done in Indonesia- smelting and refining nickel, manufacturing precursors, cathode materials and cells, and assembling finished products. LG Energy Solutions is also working with Hyundai Group to build a $1.1 billion battery manufacturing plant 65 kilometres southeast of Jakarta. At this time most of the materials for EV batteries are processed in China and about 11% of the world's production of Nickel comes from Russia.  China's Amperex the world's top battery maker also has signed up with Indonesia's Antam mining company for a similar $6 billion project. For LG Energy Solutions the second largest battery maker the stable supply of raw materials and reduced dependence on China and Russia is becoming important with the situation in Ukraine.     ...

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Daily coronavirus cases dropped to the lowest level since March 30, 2021. Cases on June 19 were at 58,000 and deaths at 1154 for India's population of 1.2 billion people. The only state with cases over 10,000 was Kerala, and close to 9000 was Tamilnadu. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were at over 5000. All these states are in southern India. Only Maharashtra with about 9000 cases was in northern India. The positivity rate in Maharashtra state was 3% and in Mumbai 2%.  The Indian government has a clear vaccine policy and it is for vaccine supplies and vaccination drive to be under the federal government. This puts responsibility in one place and makes it possible to achieve the target of vaccinating 1.2 billion people by December 31, 2021, with the federal government putting all the resources it can muster into the effort. The economy is also linked to how the vaccination supply effort and vaccination drive progresses in the next 6 months, so that the goal of vaccination is closely linked to economic recovery and progress for India as a whole. A good monsoon rainy season would also help the rural economy recovery. ...

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British MP raises issue of Arab Gulf countries providing 37% of China's oil imports, excluding Iraq 27%, vs 11% from Iran and 20% from Russia- 2024 US EIA. Tom Tugendhat says China has to balance its interests in the region after the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, between Iran, Gulf monarchies, and Russia. China also faces a more credible choice of accelerating the development of renewable energy in the same way that India and the European Union face. US will act as a supplier of last resort  adding Venezuelan and other supplies but temporarily as the entire Middle East region poses quandaries for China, the US, and India, European Union. The quandary stems from the irreconciliable differences between religious sects in the region, post 1950 ideological and religious militancy,  in which neither China, India, the US, Russia or the European Union wants to get drawn into after 5 decades of bitter experience in the Middle East.

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FIFA's $3 billion in revenue from ticket sales is 3 times what it was in Qatar, prices per game are double that in Qatar. What's going on? FIFIA is being accused of price gouging practices by the Attorney Generals of New Jersey and New York. Six games including the finals are to be played in the NY-NJ area. FIFA's Infantino says it will use $11 billion in soccer revenues (90% of tickets sold for the World Cup in the US/Mexico) for this nonprofit to do soccer projects around the world.  Fans are not happy with the way FIFA is extracting higher prices to put visiting the game beyond the reach of ordinary households. Shouldn't making  it possible to watch the game for ordinary income soccer fans also be part of FIFA's responsibility- instead of taking the opportunities for visiting soccer fields away from ordinary income people. 

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There is much uncertainty about the federal elections in Germany in 2025. Four years back in 2021 Olaf Scholz had 51% of people polled saying he would make a good chancellor. This is down to 26% in Feb 2025. Merz of CDU is at 32% and Habeck of Greens at 25%. The Greens are holding onto 14% similar to 2021 with the SPD Social Democrats of Scholz at a low of 18% down from 25% in 2021. CDU is at 32% compared to 24% in 2021. AFD moving from 11% in 2021 to 21%. The immigration issue and the weak economy with the Ukraine war has hit SPD hard. The Scholz coalition also failed to invest in the economy with the FDP of Finance Minister Lindner acting as a brake on needed investment in infrastructure. The result is that the German economy burdened with higher costs for energy and a faltering auto industry is showing zero growth. The most likely outcome is a CDU coalition with the Greens and the SPD with Merz as chancellor. There is athreshold for gettinginto parliament of 4%. At this time a breakaway faction of Left parties of Wagenknecht and the FDP are both polling below 4%. The AfD is at 21% and hoping to gain from the immigration issue. Much of the uncertaintly comes from 18% of voters not planning to vote, and the 13% of voters who have not made up their mind yet and will do so on election day. ...

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Voter turnout of 83.5% in federal elections in Germany in Feb 2025 is the highest since reunification in 1990.  The Free Democrats and the Wagenknecht BSW  fail to meet the threshold of 5% for representation in parliament. The CDU manage 28.5% of the vote less than the forecast 30%, and the AfD is at 20.7%. Scholz Social Democrats drop 9% points from 25% in 2021 to 16.5% and the Greens are at 11.7% of the vote. The Left Parties get 8.7%. German broadcaster ARD cites exit polls showing 82% of voters were dissatisfied with the government coalition, 72% of voters dissatisfied with chancellor Scholz, yet the Greens  voters gave it 45% approval.  In terms of seats in the 630 seat Bundestag  Christian Democrats  208 seats Social Democrats.      121  The Greens                  85  Left Party                       64 AfD                               151        The likely outcome is resignation of chancellor Scholz and new leader for Social Democrats. A CDU SPD coalition Merz as chancellor, with Greens/ Left parties and AfD in the Opposition with equal number of seats.                                                                                                        ...