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Kamala Harris to visit Arizona and the Southern Border today. Will call for tough border action and signing into law immigration legislation negotiated by Republican Senator Lankford that would close the Southern Border. Labour's Starmer is taking the same steps in Britain, so is France under Macron and Barnier, so are Northern European socialist leaders such as Mette Frederiksen of Denmark who want to see immigration stopped so that cost of living and the economy, childcare, issues of importance for workers and families can be addressed vigorously.

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Obama vists Acrra, Ghana, July 11, 2009. It is an emotional moment for Obama, and for Ghana and the African continent as a whole. It seems the whole nation was out on the streets,on crowded rooftops, packing balconies, leaning out of windows, to get a glimpse of Obama. Particularly emotional is the moment when he stood at the Door of No Return at Cape Coast Castle, a notorious slave port perched on the ocean. He spoke about the existence of "evil" that he had seen at Buchenwald, and here again. He spoke up against the poverty of Africa that is compounded by the greed, corruption and the lack of responsibility of the elites in African countries. Obama said "Africa doesn't need strong men, it needs strong institutions." He talked about his personal experience: "I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family's story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story. Some of you know my grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya, and though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him boy for much of his life." See the related story on Nigeria, which was avoided by the President on his visit. And where because of the corruption and lack of responsible government, influential Nigerian voices themselves feel this was the right thing to do. This is one area in which Obama picks up from a strong effort by President Bush. Bush tried to frame policy by rewarding good government and building institutions through programs like the Millenium CHallenge Corporation, an antipoverty effort that gave Ghana $547 million in 2006. Both Bush and Clinton visited here....

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U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Yellen launches a sweeping review of practices for supervision of large banks in Nov. 2014. The review is designed to check "whether there are adequate methods for decisionmakers to obtain all necessary information to make supervisory assessments and determinations," and whether channels exist for decision makers to take into account divergent views when important issues arise. This is in response to questions about how the culture at the New York Federal Reserve may have stifled differing opinions on how banks should be supervised and what is proper information sharing between regulators and banks.

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Richard Barley points out that Italy has some breathing room even as the ten year yields on Italian debt reaches 6.15%, up 1.5 percentage points in 2011. Existing Italian debt has an interest rate of 4% and an average maturity of 7 years, according to Morgan Stanley. This means higher interest rates on new debt will take some time to have a serious impact. Fitch's estimates are that if 10 year yields on Italian debt went up to 7%, interest payments would go up to 6.1% of GDP by 2015 from 4.8% of GDP. This gives Italy some time to come up with solutions for competitiveness and growth issues. Italy's growth rate was only 0.1% for the 1st quarter of 2011, and debt is 119% of GDP. Italy also has a primary budget surplus which puts it in a better situation than other southern European economies.

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Support from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, and IMF head, Christine Lagarde, for Japan's Abe government's efforts to reduce the value of the yen. Bernanke says policy conducted with a view to improving the domestic economy is good policy.

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Ram Nath Kovind has 16 years of experience practicing law before the High Court of Delhi and the Supreme Court. In 2002 he represented India at the UN General Assembly. As Governor of Bihar since 2015 he has worked well with the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and helped passage of the Lokyukta legislation. He is widely seen as a good choice. Remaining out of the spotlight he has stood up for Dalits by pointing out to members of his community that the Constitution provided Dalits with right to education and representation, which provided the means to give the next generation better opportunities in life. He got his first experience in public life as personal secretary to Moraji Desai in 1977, when Desai became prime minister and leader of the Janata government.

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"Having a country invading their neighbor with impunity that is a dire message to the rest of the world, and we are not making the mistakes of the past." 

Macron speaks of Russian threats to other places, to Moldova and Romania. 

Macron shows a chart of Russian rearmament with increases from 1.2 million men in the army to 1.5 million  and 1200 military aircraft to 1500 aircraft.

'Peace cannot come at any price, by abandoning Ukraine, the collapse of Ukraine."

"We have seen this happen in the past. Who can forget the invasion began in 2014, there was a ceasefire that was agreed to in Minsk and that the same Russia did not keep the ceasefire."

"We cannot take them at their word. Ukraine has a right for peace and security. It is in our interest. And we are working with our European allies."

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India's Supreme Court dismissed petitions challenging the validity of the Army's Agnipath recruitment scheme for recruiting soldiers for a period of 4 years. A bench led by Chief Justice Chandrachud said "there was nothing for us to do in the Delhi High Court judgement." That Delhi High Court judgement called the Agnipath scheme "a well thought out one." In its February 27 judgement the Delhi High Court said: "A perusal of material on record shows that the scheme is a well thought out policy decision of the Government of India. The candidates selected under the impugned scheme would be enrolled as Agniveers, a distinct rank in the Indian Armed Forces.

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After the heat wave the monsoon in Delhi.

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Increase in hardship withdrawals from Vanguard 401(k)s in the US from 2.1% in 2021 to 2.8% in 2022 shows stress in household finances by Feb 2023.

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This report confirms in a fact check that 15% of the global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from livestock farming. This includes dairy and meat.