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Under its $10 billion Semiconductor Mission India is promoting the manufacturing of semiconductors in India. It is keen on getting investment from Foxconn, and Intel through its acquisition of Israel's Tower Semiconductor.

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Chinese president Xi Jinping is learning from the country's Covid experience in the way Biden and Democrats learned from their initial push for tighter restrictions in 2020-2021. Most covid restrictions, quarantines, testing is being lifted in China and efforts are being made to stabilize the economy hurt by frequent lockdowns, and a new path is being taken that responds to the Covid lockdown fatigue of the people.  This will lower Chinese growth below the central bank forecast of 3.3% for 2023, yet it also offers a learning curve for the Chinese leadership and new government that was put in place after the CCP party congress in 2022. This may be experimental in the short run but offer benefits for China and the world in the long term. For the first time it means China's trade tensions with the US are turning the corner in a way no number of tariffs and rhetoric could do between the two countries. The evidence- China's exports to the US have declined by 25% already in the last few months. Exports to the EU have declined as well by 11%. China's trade surplus in November 2022 showed a drop to $70 billion from $85 billion in October. ...

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A Kyodo News poll shows about 60% of Japanese want the Olympic games cancelled. Japan faces another wave of the pandemic with a surge in Osaka and other cities. The government's handling of the pandemic is disapproved by 71% of Japanese in a Kyodo News poll. Over 80% are unhappy with the slow vaccine rollout.   India faces a surge in cases public dissatisfaction that is similar to Japan and other countries in Europe. France and Germany have a slow vaccine rollout. In India vaccination drive is affected by a lack of supplies as in France and Germany with shortages of vaccine. The European Union in April signed contracts for over a billion doses with Pfizer and India has plans for ramped up supply of its Covishield and Covaxin vaccines to 2 billion doses by December 2021. This shows how difficult it is for advanced countries and major pharmaceutical producing countries such as as India to vaccinate their populations quickly in the initial stages of the vaccination effort. In July the vaccine effort would be in its 7th month and vaccine supply constraints are expected to ease as a result of aggressive action by governments in EU, France, Germany and India. This will also enable addressing needs in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. ...

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March 2022 was the hottest month in India for 122 years since records began. It was also extremely dry. Scientists say such a heat wave with temperatures reaching 50 degrees centigrade in April and May in India, "would have been extraordinarily rare without the climate crisis." They say it has a 1% chance even with current global warming.

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Suggestions are not to take Fridays off but instead take Mondays off and sometimes break the week with Wednesday off. Fridays off are seen as a drawback because one is seen cramming five days work into four that week. Here a Unilever manager manages her 15 days off and another week that she gets after 18 years service to somehow add the weekends to get 9 days off for a break using 5 vacation days. Taking vacations for less than a week are seen as not productive for reducing stress at work and for getting better sleep. Procrastinating vacations to when work gets slower is not recommended as the answer for many is work never gets slower and you could end up overworking. Planning ahead lets this Unilever manager plan trips that act as rejuvenating experiences up and down the Eastern seaboard after getting her vacation life in order following some misssteps. She shows how with 20 days she could create 50 days vacation during the year adding in public holidays.

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Democrats win control of the Virginia Senate and state assembly thwarting Virginia Republican governor Youngkin's efforts for a Republican takeover.

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Immigration is an important issue, it also is middle of the pack voting issue, says this report in the Washingon Post. Chicago Council poll shows that what matters a great deal is- economy in general (58 percent), inflation (53 percent), abortion and immigration both at 43 percent,  crime 39 percent, Ukraine 19 percent, Gaza 17 percent. This is also true for Independents at 41 percent, protecting democracy 51 percent, inflation 48 percent. A majority of Americans say about undocumented immigrants that they should be allowed to stay and 6 out of 10 say immigrants from other cultures have "a positive effect" and interestingly 7 out of 10 of all Americans say "immigrants mostly take jobs that nobody wants."

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Like Harry Truman Tim Walz can understand what free school lunches are about- Walz worked as a high school teacher, so did his wife Gwen. See the story on school lunches on this page.  He knows what cost of living is about with prices of groceries and gas and auto repairs rising. We want to say to America not since Harry Truman have finances of two vice presidents looked so similar- and their dedication to workers and families is genuine and of the kind that is needed for these times when working families and working men, rural families,  have deserted a Democratic party distracted by Tech millionaires and billionaires in its ranks. Tim Walz is America's Everyman in this sense of the word  with net worth excluding pensions of under $300,000, and shares the pain of meeting cost of living and other concerns that are spared from other vice presidents or presidents from wealthy backgrounds. The Minnesota Governor has modest income and wealth compared to recent presidential tickets. The former  high school teacher and congressman’s assets are mostly limited to pensions, whole life insurance and college savings. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, have net worth between $112,003 to $330,000, as of his 2019 financial disclosure, according to WSJ. The value of  federal pension benefit about roughly $800,000 to add to their net worth, based on The Wall Street Journal’s analysis. The couple did not report any dividend or capital gains income on their 2022 tax return, the most recent return available. ...

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Union Railways minister in India, Mr. Goyal, raises questions about the estimated cost of a new elevated rail train in Bombay that would cost more per kilometre than the planned bullet train between Ahmedabad and Bombay. He says this reflects corruption and lack of transparency. India has for many decades since independence been held back by corruption that has reduced much needed infrastructure development, and the goal of the new Modi government is to bring transparency and vigilance into government spending to get infrastructure development needs met in the next decade.

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For decades Gulf Coast refineries efficiently process heavy crudes like Venezuelan oil or Canadian oil sands oil. US oil is a lighter crude. This is why the heavier crude from Venezuela can now be taken for processing to Gulf Coast refineries in the US. This should lower gas prices in the US further.