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The first day of the Tour de France is a hilly route with climbing in the Basque region of Spain around the city of Bilbao.

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A wonderful video in the Guardian from the El Liceu theatre in Barcelona- about a music performance with potted plants.

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"Made in China 2025" has caused consternation and alarm in Washington about China's effort to dominate key industries of the future with state subsidies. This report in WSJ shows the European response to China's effort. A survey by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China shows 58% of companies have not been able to participate in Made In China initiatives. There is concern that global supply chains are not being utilized in robotics, aerospace, and electric vehicles, three areas under China's program.  62% of companies say they didn't know whether this was leading to increased discrimination against foreign companies.

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Kyle Wingfield meets up with Robert Mundell, Nobel winner in 1999. What does he have to say now? He thinks the oil prices are on track and would reach $130 by 2020 with 3.5% inflation, starting with $34 a barrel in 1980 doubling to $68 in 2000 and doubling again to $136 in 2020. Today its already at $136 but he thinks it will settle down lower to about $100, so hethinks were not so far off track. On inflation he looks at the price of gold at$850 an ounce , and now its still about the same, with high inflation gold should be at $1500, so he does not see the public thinking high inflation is coming. He was in favor of the Reagan tax cuts and set the groundwork for this and aslo supported the euro. He believes the Bush tax cuts should be kept as it would be disastrous for the world economy. Mundell has always believed that there is a link between economic growth and lower tax rates. He advocates corporate tax rates of 25%. Tax rates went down to 28% under Reagan back up to 40% under Clinton and down to 35% under Bush. Hewould like to see a ceiling on marginal rates of 30%. He would like to see a fixed exchange rate so that there are not these large currency rate swings, the euro should be valued somehwehere between 90 cents to the euro to $1.30. The US has a growing population and better adoption of innovation with a younger population than Europe so he sees the USA as a leader in innovation and growth and the dollar or some new global currency should be formed for a global economy. Just as he supported the euro he supports a currency for Asia. He does not see overvaluing the Chinese currency as doing much good as he sees the Japanese economy hurt by the overvaluing of its currency after a period of Japoan bashing. He is an advisor to China on currency issues....

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A law that is in the Must Have category for Parents, School teachers and Educated Children in the US, Canada, Britain and India, finally gets passed in Australia. Of huge benefit to Australian Parents and School Teachers- after December 10 2025 social media Meta Tik Tok and You Tube are required to remove all under 16 accounts. Chinese children and school teachers, parents have the benefit of such laws regulating the use of social media which in the current climate of license, of leaving childrens, parents and school teachers to fend for themselves, leaving young girls to fend for themselves, has not happened in other nations.

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Economy Minister Peter Altmaier presented the latest outlook for the German economy, saying that the economy would contract less than expected. The contraction for 2020 is expected to be 5.8% instead of 6.3%. Contraction was 10% in the second quarter. The forecast of 5.2% in 2021 was lowered to 4.4%. Some crucial sectors such as tourism and aviation will take time to recover. 

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The dollar has reached the mark of 86 yen by the begining of August 2010. Japanese analysts see the dollar at 90-100 yen as reasonable for Japan's export based companies. One factor causing this is the Chinese government increasing its holding of Japanese government bonds. By May 2010 China had accumulated 1.27 trillion yen according to the Japanese government. This rise of the yen will have a negative effect on Japanese exporting companies.

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China's population drops and fertility rates drop for a decade now- the median age is 40 years for China compared to 30 for India. Those who think India can never catch up to China lose sight of these factors- a 10 year gap is huge provided India can take it and run. India is moving from a corruption prone, governance deficit, investment deficit, engineers deficit, technology access deficit country to a country that is able to score well in governance, capital, labor and technology eliminating deficits in each sector the way China did.. The younger age China enjoyed in 1990 of 25 years median age when it started industrialization is now being transferred to India in 2026. Why is this important? A younger population with abundant capital, abundant labor, abundant technology access is the ticket to industrialization on a massive scale. India today is on the cusp of massive changes. What happens now is that the computerization and software is also getting more advanced that will accelerate India's Vikshit Bharat effort. This is why Chancellor Merz joining Modi at the Kite festival and committing Germany to a partnership with India, with it the European Union, is so significant today, as it will deliver for both India and Germany, Europe. China births drop from about 10 million to about 8 million and birth rate drops from 6.77 to 5.63 births per thousand people. China population now drops to 1,405 from 1,408 million people. Deaths rose from 10.93 million to 11.31 million.   ...

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"Cancel Culture"- how Democrats and Republicans Conservatives and Liberals see the shaming of people for their views on social media- it is having accountability for some, and seen as censorship or punishment by others. Pew Researchers show the views of different people by age, gender, political affiliation, on the idea of "cancel culture." Some say does it even help doing this on a platform like social media as it tends to exaggerate and is rarely helpful to educate people and create real conversations to increase knowledge. When people are being shamed for racism or sexism, there is little idea of getting people to change or for patient forgiveness, or educating on why certain behaviours are wrong. Yale University's 58 page document on where it went wrong on "holistic admissions" and "cancel culture," is an example of how "cancel culture" when adopted inadvertently at universities and colleges across the Nation can be misguided and not result in positive actions. In the process can this denigrate the achievements of western civilization through the Renaissance of ideas, the awakening of knowledge in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution that resulted from this. Followed by the Industrial Revolution unique in Europe and the US that created the Modern World and the standards of living, of literacy, education and healthcare, and transportation we know today. This is the question Yale and other universities are asking today in 2026. ...

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The US oil embargo in 2022 is not a big decision for president Biden. The US only imports 3% of its oil and 1% of its coal from combatant nations in Europe's east. 70% of the oil from that region cannot find buyers because of sanctions risk says the WSJ. This WSJ view from the Editorial Board says Biden's policy of not boosting US fossil fuels production is contrary to what makes sense in the current situation of high oil prices. Seen from the point of view of US commitments at COP26 Glasgow and global warming effects on the planet, president Biden's commitment to boost renewable energy and use this as an opportunity to make the US less dependent on fossil fuels presents an alternate perspective. One that is needed looking beyond the situation that is faced in 2022.

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In some countries such as Tanzania and Chad the vaccination drives have not even begun says this report in the DW.com. A new surge now underway in Africa as cases increase by 30% in June comes at abad time with African vaccination drives stalled. Only 31 million doses adminstered in Africa for a population of 1 billion people. Less than 1% of world vaccine supplies are going to poor countries in Africa and Latin America.

Vaccine companies chose to sell their vaccines to the highest bidders, putting Covax  behind. Aims of Covax are also coming down and watered down to vaccinating 20% or 30% of the population in poor countries, says this report in DW.com.

This means new variants could develop and move back to Asia and Europe, the US in 2022. It means the coronavirus could affect African economies in 2022 and beyond.

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The performance of stocks and bonds compared since 2000, and the view of experts for future performance.

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Plans of the Biden administration to bring back workers to the workforce in 2023 by increasing worker benefits. The place seen where America is lacking is participation of younger women in the workforce and older people who chose to retire during Covid. Increasing child care and benefits for child care is one line of action. Other approaches are being explored by Brian Deese of Biden's National Economic Council.

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The effort by prime minister Modi under Rozgar Mela to create 1 million new jobs in 2023 to mitigate the effect of the lockdowns during the pandemic and its effects on jobs. 71,000 new job appointment letters were given in a virtual event. Modi emphasized that "transparency in recruitment and promotion inspires confidence in the youth."  He called the process streamlined and time bound to demonstrate good governance.

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The restoration of the famous stained glass windows of Notre Dame Cathedral remains a challenge, says this report in FR24. Scientists are working on the 2000 stained glass panels of windows in a lab in the stables of a chateau, east of Paris. They were brought there after the fire two years ago. Some of them go back to the 13th century and remind us of how timeless our surroundings are.

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Boris Johnson calls for expanded funding and increased capacity for procedures at the National Health Service. Britain's NHS will carry out a million more procedures in 2022 with the extra funding. A rise in national insurance contributions by one percent will fund the additional 10% increase in capacity at NHS to deal with Covid backlogs. This is in addition to 5.4 billion pounds injected into NHS earlier over the winter.

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The 2018 Supreme Court decision allowing sports gambling and betting has serious negative consequences for sports in America by 2024. So much so that the NCAA president Charlie Baker has called for a nationwide ban on the bets on the performance of college athletes. WSJ says a nightmare scenario emerged from the experience of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player Shohei Ohtani and the betting scandal related to his interpreter.

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The changes Har Ghar Jal Mission for clean safe drinking water for every rural household by 2022 is making a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of people in India. Shown in this video on Har Ghar Jal is its implementation at the local level in India's largest state of Uttar Pradesh with a population of 228 million people near New Delhi.

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China has made an astonishing turn away from covid restrictions. Yet this comes after three years that hurt growth which will affect the recovery says this column in WSJ. China is looking for 5% growth in 2023. Problems in the way are a public affected by the lockdowns, a covid surge, housing that will take time to recover, and diversification by Foxconn and other companies away from China to India, Vietnam.

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Overdevelopment of the office market in Dallas, Houston, and Austin, cities in Texas, presents a problem in combination with the increase in remote work. The office vacancy rate in Texas is 25% in the third quarter of 2023, according to Moody's Analytics, compared to 12% for New York and 17% for San Francisco. The oversupply of buildings for office space was decades in the making, says WSJ.

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The story told in The Times how England collapsed to a 4-0 loss in Ashes Cricket Tests against Australia in 2022. Lack of preparation, poor selection of bowlers, and a better prepared Australian team led to the debacle. There is also the history of performance in Australia- since 1990 England won only 6 Tests out of 45 Test played in Australia, and lost 32 Tests, with 7 drawn.

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Boeing reports a third annual loss in a row. As production problems and delivery delays for the Dreamliner 787 Boeing cost an additional $4.5 billon in the final quarter of 2021. Of this $3.5 billion is to compensate customers for the delays, and abnormal production costs forecast to be double than earlier estimated. Boeing expects deliveries to start in April and sees losses as behind it once deliveries start.

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India registers an amazing comeback feat of 75% vaccinated with two doses on January 30, 2022, without the resistance to vaccination seen in US and Europe. For over a billion people this is nothing short of extraordinary. India's experience is similar to that in other parts of Asia and Latin America where people trust health authorites, after years of dealing with many diseases requiring vaccination in the last 50 years.