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Winfield House in  central London where DJT spent the night on his state visit to the Royal family. Compare this to Blair House in Washington DC home of the publisher Preston Blair during the 1830's which serves as the residence of foreign guests to the US. Winfield House sits on many acres compared to Blair House near the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in its modest appearance on the street itself. A contrast between two nations. Winfield House is used as ambassador's residence by the US Ambassador and has 35 rooms compared to the few rooms in Blair House. Blair House has more historic significance as residence of Harry Truman, and it is where Blair as Lincoln's emissary offered Robert Lee the command of the Union Army after Fort Sumter surrendered, marking the start of the Civil War.

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The documentary "Last Train Home," directed by Lixin Fan, shows the life of migrant workers and their families in China. Fan sporadically spent 3 years with one family, Zhang Changhua and Cheng Suqin, to capture glimpses of this family's life as one of China's 130 million migrant workers. The family left a village in Sichuan province, to work in a factory in Guangzhou, which manufactures denim jeans. For 7 days a week -once working 15 hours a day for 29 days straight- the Zhang family works continuously, just to send money back home to the grandmother who raises 17 year old Qin and another child. The daughter is rebellious as she is resentful of the parent's absence. This is the story of migrant families throughout China, the quiet hidden ordeal, that is behind the cheap products available in western countries. And Fan documents this well with scenes at the railway station, as the family catches the last trains back to Sichuan, for the yearly trip back to the village. There is a whole society in transition, and there are many sides to this story, this is the human one of families caught up in this transition. Lack of farm subsidies and taking over of farmland for building and construction has hurt life in agricultural areas. The Communist party has made dissent difficult. And the imposition of a decades old registration system that denies education and social services to migrant workers from the villages, creates huge strains on family life. Fan says- before the showing of this film at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village- that he hopes to raise questions in the minds of viewers. Does the blame for this go to the government, the factory owners and companies, or the West, something Fan says he is not able to answer. That there is little official opposition to the film- in the same manner that the suicides at Hon Hai, and the factory conditions there and in other factories across China, are being freely reported- suggests that China is coming to terms with the different angles from which to view the economic transition that has taken place over the last two decades. It is also a belated recogniton of the whole range of questions raised by a singleminded policy of manufacturing for western markets, especially when these markets with debt-laden consumers may present huge uncertainty in the future....

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NYT's Futterman looks at Spain's Carlos Alcaraz's rise from being in the top 100 players in 2021 to winning the US Open in 2022 and expected to win the French Open in 2023 on clay courts. His father is a nationally ranked tennis player from Spain. Looking at the calm attitude and confidence shown this relates to being surrounded by tennis enthusiasts including a local sponsor at company Postres Reina and its owner Lopez Rueda. Alcaraz's grandfather setup red clay courts in La Palmar, a private club in the Murcia region of Spain. This provided a setting in which this family thrived in developing the game to a higher level.

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President Biden's plan to reduce payments to 5% of income instead of 10% for income driven payments on student loans. Loan balances would not grow as long as payments are made. After 10 years of payments student loan balances would be forgiven where balances are less than $12000 in place of the current 20 years.   This is the first effort to create a student loan safety net. Borrowers making less than $30,600 as individuals or $64,200 for a family of four will not be required to make monthly payments on loans. Under the current system loan balances kept growing till borrowers were left with huge and often unpayable student undergraduate loans.

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Raila Odinga runs for a third time in the Kenyan elections. He ran against Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2013 and 2017 elections. After supporting his deputy vice president William Ruto for president, Kenyatta shifts to Odinga. The Times looks at Kenya today and the current election in a country long split along tribal lines with the Kikuyu tribe of Kenyatta family dominating  since independence. In the 2007 election Odinga ran against Mwai Kibaki with the results being considered flawed even though Kibaki was made president. A reconciliation after post election violence was arranged by Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General. In that arrangement Odinga was made prime minister. This is the fourth time Odinga at 77 years is contesting the election.

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Housing markets in US that went up with jump in demand during the pandemic, markets in Nashville, Austin, Phoenix, are now in downswing. Migration patterns turbocharged by the pandemic are now fading. Overbuilding, slowing in population growth and lack of affordability are creating  vacant office space, and unsold single family homes. From 2020 to 2022 Austin house prices jumped by 60% with very low borrowing costs,, now in 2024 they are down 11% from the peak in 2022. Demand  dropped with a surge in interest rates creating unaffordability. By 2023 home sales reached a 30 year low. even today Austin homes are seen as 35% overvalued as home prices increased at over twice the rate of per capita incomes of 22%.

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Summit County median rents in the towns of Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco, in the Rocky Mountains near Denver, Colorado now exceed $4000. This pushes low paid workers making $36,000 a year serving tourist visitors to the state further away to longer commutes along stretches of rural highway. This NYT report looks at the different lives in the state with 70% of homes vacant or rented out in Summit County as second homes, and the two different worlds based on family wealth and the workers serving these communities. The lack of affordable housing near resorts. Breckenridge and other communities in the Rocky mountains are giving homeowners thousands of dollars to add deed restrictions to limit renting to local residents.

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Immigration declined in the 1920's so that when FDR became president it was easier to build a working class coalition. After 1965 when president Johnson signed into law a bill that allowed family unification it was seen as not adding significantly to legal immigration. Yet in the period after 1965 millions of immigrants entered the US. This writer says the Democrats have forgotten that FDR built the Democratic worker base when immigration was not an issue. Today the rise in immigration has muddled the Democrats efforts to build back the working class coalition of FDR, with loss of support from workers and non college educated people who see migrants crossing the border as a serious problem.

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The term "lazy girl job" is a misnomer because it refers to work life balance choices made by women who prefer to do remote work, avoid micro manager bosses, and pay attention to health and exercise, lifestyle choices. Being able to take a walk midday and take a bike ride in the evening at 5.00 pm with work cut off times is a preference for many young people. It follows the trend of quiet quitting where lifestyle choices and health take precedence over existing flawed ways of work that ignore family, health and exercise needs. The pandemic has created a new awareness about what is important in life and a new set of priorities. Young people are following their heart.

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During the latter period of the pandemic midsized companies encouraged workers to take minivacations to avoid burnout from excessive hours of work in the pandemic environment. These companies found that happier workers were more productive workers. In 2024 workers are continuing to protect their mental health following the pandemic by adding mini vacations using the opportunities to work remotely. Workers are doing this across the workplace for all ages because this saves their official vacation days and because vacation days are scarce. Only 15 days after working 5 years and 18 days after working 10 years, these vacation days are precious for mental health and for medical situations in the family, and for essential time off work to rejuvenate.

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The number of people working lesss than 35 hours per week is approaching 7 million according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of these families are seeing furloughs of afew days amonth, pay cuts and shorter working hours. All this means buying at the discount store, like this family which keeps careful track of account balances while shopping, and keeping a meticulous track of purchases tossed into the shopping cart with a calculator so as not to go over the budget. This may be the reason companies like P&G have introduced affordable lower end brands, so as not to permanently lose these customers to store brands. See the link to P&G's discount brand strategy, which couples with its developing super premium brands at the same time, yet barely eking out a 1-2 % revenue gain in 2009 and 2010 by its estimates.

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Health insurance premiums for family plans increased by 9% in 2011 according to a survey by Kaiser Family Foundation. A similiar survey by Mercer showed premium increases around 6%. Another change is that health insurance plans are becoming less comprehensive and deductibles are higher, with higher copays and employees contributing more to premiums.

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It says a lot about America at this time in 2025, and should be reassuring to all that these women are standing tall in their effort to do this- to pursue satisfaction of contributing to national life and professional lives, and being good parents involved in raising children. Shown in this report in WSJ as examples of Conservative Women are Alabama Senator Katie Britt 43 years, May Mailman deputy assistant to the President, and ,Shannon Clark. Other women shown are former North Carolina governor Nikki Haley,  Karoline Leavitt, press secretary to the president, Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas. They all say their faith, grit, family and spouse, and setting priorities, are helping them both make it in their careers and be engaged parents at the same time. Pew Research shows of women in both parties Republican and Democratic, about 70% want careers outside the home, and about 88% want good parenting at the same time.   ...

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A threefold increase in immigration to meet staff and labour shortages makes using immigration as an issue in the next election risky for Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives in Britain. In a strange twist it is the Conservatives under Boris Johnson who campaigned on immigration  to take Britain out of the EU now having a record on immigration of this kind. In 2019 Sunak battlecry " get Brexit done" was for lower immigration from a level of 245,000 that year. In 2022 it was a net migration of 720,000 for Britain. Most of this has come from student, work and family visa routes, and legal asylum channels from Ukraine Hong Kong and Afghanistan. Now economists believe it is a result of shortages of labour and staff, and high domestic wages.

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Lord Mountbatten's elder sister Alice was the princess of Battenberg in Germany. Prince Philip's mother was Alice. In this way the last Viceroy of India, a naval officer in World War II, and Prince Philip, are intimately connected. It was Lord Mountbatten who formed a friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru as he negotiated with Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Nehru for the independence of India after the war.  This legacy continued for Prince Philip as he and Princess Elizabeth established a friendly relationship with post 1947 India. After the overthrow of the Greece monarchy following World War I, Prince Philip and the Greece royal family sought refuge in England. Both Mountbatten and Philip are great grandsons of Queen Victoria. Mountbatten is a name adopted by Lord Mountbatten's father to avoid anti-German sentiment in England, adding Mount to Batten from Battenberg. Mountbatten's father was German and became a naturalized British citizen, serving in the British military.  Prince Philip adopted it as his surname after he went to live with his maternal uncle as a young boy. Prince Philip joined the Britannia Naval War College. In 1934 he was introduced to Princess Elizabeth by Lord Mountbatten at a family wedding.  The relationship is significant because of the contribution the two Mountbattens made to the transition to self-rule or Swaraj in India and to the British Commonwealth with its role for India and Britain. ...

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Ines Pohl of DW.com reflects on the U.S. Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. It turns out he says to be a sort of Trump Festival, with the candidate and his family everywhere, not much discussion of the platform or policy issues- he says it offered the world a spectacle never seen at such a convention- 15,000 journalists from all over the world covering 2500 delegates, all the delegates mere onlookers at this entertainment extravaganza. John McCain, Mitt Romney, former presidential candidates not present, and president Bush and family not present, all staying away because of derogatory remarks. Not the kind of display of unity to bring together different segments of the party. The lone dissenter at the convention turned out to be rival Ted Cruz who made a speech without supporting Trump, and is booed off the stage. Cruz won in some important primaries including Texas, Oklahoma, and in votes cast on voting day in Louisiana, in addition to Wisconsin, appealing to evangelical voters in a section of the South, and in western states such as Nebraska and Idaho, typical Republican territory. Ohio's John Kasich is called "petulant" by campaign manager, and stays away- Kasich won in his home state of Ohio, a state president George Bush needed to win over Kerry, especially with its evangelical voters. Pohl adds humor in his coverage by referring to the traitors Bush, Kasich and especially Cruz, who are dispensed with, as the Republican delegates rally behind Trump on the last day of the convention.  ...

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Under a proposed capital infusion into Peugeot the French government, Dongfeng Motor of China, and the Peugeot family would each control 15% of the company. Dongfeng and the French government would buy new shares of about $7.50 to $8 each, and providing 800 million euros each. The Peugeot family would provide 100 million euros. Currently the Peugeot family controls 25.4% of the shares and 38.1% of voting rights. Earlier GM sold its 7% stake in Peugeot, and Peugeot turned to its partner in China for the capital increase. Peugeot shares declined by 11% to 10.21 euros on Jan 23, 2014, as a result of investor concerns about the prospect of three different shareholders interests. Peugeot expects to use the capital increase for technology investments as it struggles to come out of a prolonged slump in its European markets. One of the conditions made by Dongfeng Motor is that the current chairman Thierry Peugeot be succeeded by an executive not connected to the Peugeot family or the French government....

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Billie Jean King whose effort and persistence created the game of Women's Tennis, is alive and well with some words of encouragement, advice. Billie Jean King Commencement address at California State University Los Angeles, where she graduates in history in 2026, sixty two years after letting go college to play tennis. She grew up in Long Beach, with her brother, her parents a fireman who played basketball and a mother who was a teacher. For those who remember she comes from the period of Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith and in Australia Rod Laver, in the seventies. Stadiums are named after her at the US Open Tennis championships, and it was Billie Jean who helped create women's tennis. Some of her advice- "We can never understand inclusion unless we have been excluded." (the first African American player Althea Gibsen is celebrated in a postage stamp yet African Americans barely made it into the sport during her time. Billie Jean asked why it was all white dress, white people, white clubs.) "I like completing things. Finish what I started." (Sixty two years after postponing college in 1962 Bille Jean completes her history degree at Cal State LA in 1986). Billie Jean in another interview says history is so important and the only way to effect change that is good is to know what happened before and why. This is true for another pioneer for women a law student at Stanford named Sandra Day O'Connor of Arizona ranch territory that in those days stretched endlessly on all sides. Gandhi would agree. Hind Swaraj could not be written in 1909 by Gandhiji on a steamship to South Africa from London without asking about history and what had happened to create the Empire in India for the British East India Company traders, with warehouses and private armies, one that extended to Shanghai and Hong Kong in China. Gandhi says in 1909 "English merchants were able to get a footing in India because we encouraged them. When our princes fought among themselves they sought the assistance of Company Bahadur. That corporation was versed alike in commerce and war. We created the circumstances that gave the company control over India." Billie Jean gives some perspective on life and its lessons-"Wherever we are in life we can connect and we can impact change." "At 82 I have learnt about perspective and a few life's lessons- Champions practice their strengths. Concentrate on what you are strong and practice it." "Anything you do winning or losing, good or bad, its feedback not failure. Don't take things personally." "Don't let others define you. You define yourself." "Pressure is a privilege and champions adjust or adapt." "Just remember legacy is what others think about you, what is important is the value of the contributions you make." "Three principles for inner and outer success. Relationships are everything. Relationships with yourself, your family, your loved ones, your faith, and your friends. No. 2- Keep learning and keep learning how to learn. Be a problem solver and a innovator. Our decisions, our actions, our voices will shape what comes next. Have fun. Be fearless and make history." ...

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Europe's second wave affected mostly younger people with mild or fewer symptoms. Latest data show that this is changing so that infections from young people are spreading to older members of the same family. In Italy the median age of newly affected is rising with more than one third from people over the age of 50 years. In Britain the number of hospitalizations have doubled in September to more than 2000, and in Spain deaths are rising sharply to 547 in the first week of October. With multigenerational families and older people offering care of grandchildren it is particularly difficult to isolate completely in Italy and Spain.

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August 12, 2015 marks the change in shareholding structure at The Economist. Pearson, which sold its stake in the Financial Times newspaper to Japan's publisher Nikkei, sold its stake in The Economist, as it shifted its focus to the education industry. Pearson had a non-controlling 50% stake in the magazine since 1928. Three fifths of these shares are being sold to a minority shareholder, Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family in Italy. The rest of the Pearson shares are being bought by the parent company, The Economist Group. In this editorial the magazine's editors describe the background in which this takes place, and the reasons why this will be good for the magazine and its independence. The shares held by The Economist Group are controlling shares, which ensure the independence of the publication.

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Portugal showed growth in GDP of 1.1% in the second quarter of 2013 from the prior quarter, according to Eurostat. Higher petroleum exports and better prices were part of the reason for the improvement in exports. At the same time Portugal's business leaders and mid sized businesses are improving competitiveness and exports as a way to create growth. Here the NYT's Raphael Minder shows the progress in exporting olive oil at a midsized olive producing farm business in the Alentejo region of Portugal. Morais de Almeida and Miguel de Almeida shifted direction to export to Brazil at this 127 year old olive farm business called Herdade de Manantiz. Manantiz had to use European and Portuguese rural development subsidies for 40% of the cost to put in its first irrigation system, as banks have reduced credit. The Almeida family tapped into family savings for the rest of the funds. This investment of 197,000 euros will help quadruple production at the 529 acre olive farm and generate exports. Brazil took in 524 bottles, and buyers are being contacted in Sweden and Japan for the oil produced from galega olives, unique to Portugal....

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A law professor at George Washington University, who also comes from an Sicilian Italian American family, writes about his encounters with Scalia showing passionate opinion and steadfastness. Scalia was educated at Xavier Jesuit high school, and Georgetown University. He remained true to his conservative beliefs about the the law over three decades since his appointment by president Reagan in 1986, and an originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution as the framers in the eighteenth century had intended. He is the first Italian American Supreme Court Justice, a fact that enabled him to win approval in the Senate 98-0.

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On the occasion of the start of the Indo-Pacific Framework economic alliance setting a path to a new supply chain for the US and European Union, this account of how Mohandas Gandhi was treated as one of their own by the workers of Europe serves as a reminder from the past. The only foundation that is sound in principle and deserves our support for the new supply chain that is to be forged for EU, US and India and the countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa, is one that will support American and European workers and families as well as workers and families of the partners in the Free World such as India and other countries.  The Davies family were Quakers and Socialists, who owned a textile mill in Darwen, Lancashire. In 1931 when Mohandas Gandhi visited England for a Round Table Conference to discuss self-rule he was invited by the Davies family to Darwen. The enthusiasm of the workers in Lancashire for Gandhi can be seen in this report in the BBC about that visit. Gandhi's sympathy for the workers and the common feeling of support can be seen from this account of the visit by Darwen's local historian Mr. Heys. Gustan Green was 10 years old in 1931 when she met Gandhi. She said "My father said I want you to see Gandhi, then in the future you can say that you witnessed that brave man. I stood by this door into the works that was my first sighting of Gandhi. He looked down at me, stroked my hair, grinned and walked away. He never said a single word." Gandhi's sympathies were with the workers. Gandhi said "They treated me as one of their own. I shall never forget that." ...

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Ken Murray, a retired family medicine professor at the University of Southern California, describes how doctors address the option of prolonging life when the prospects of survival improve say from 5% to 15%. The choice is based on the human need to find closure in an atmosphere that gives comfort, a sense of peace and a sense of place with home and family, with hospitals not deisnged to and not able to perform that role. Murray gives the example of his cousin Torch, who he says was born at home by the light of a flashlight, who decides to not choose aggressive treatment, which would have prolonged his life for no more than 4 months. Instead he spent the next 8 months with family and did everything he could do with the 8 months that made for quality of life, rather than just choosing quantity in and out of hospitals. He died peacefully in his sleep. The heroics in and out of hospitals would actually have deprived the patient of the opportunity to reach a sense of closure that comes from the comfort of home, family, and arriving at a sense of peace....