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In Biden's address at the UN General Assembly he talks about climate change and Covid-19, and a foreign policy that brings together US and its allies in Europe and Asia. He said "the next decade will quite literally determine our futures."  He encouraged "competition" but he stressed he was "not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks." Biden also said the US would spend $10 billion to end hunger and invest in food systems around the world.

Biden also increased US commitment for developing countries to reduce emissions to total $11 billion by 2024- in a recent interview Indian finance minister Sitharaman says India has done its work for COP21 emissions entirely without US or other funds.

In a few days Biden will hold a Covid summit where he will call for vaccinating 70% of the world's population. 

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Only about a third of the people in southeast Asia are fully vaccinated compared to 58% in the US. With growing inequality and a slowdown in production the supply chain in this region is hit hard. The region includes Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. This region's growth rate is cut from 4.4% in April to 2.5% for 2021 by the World Bank. Manila based Asian Development Bank forecast is for 3.1% growth as coronavirus outbreaks lead to major lockdowns. This happened in Malaysia, Cambodia, and Indonesia. It has also worsened the global supply chain disruptions from clothes to cars and commodities.

As supply chains are restructured, and western countries increase manufacturing at home to avoid higher shipping costs, uncertainty of far flung supply chains, production is likely to decline.

World Bank sees 24 million more people below the poverty line in Asia this year than projected earlier.

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The government of prime minister Narendra Modi defeats a non-confidence motion brought by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The motion was defeated with 325 votes against and 126 votes in favor.

Prime minister Modi used the moment in parliament to give a report card of his administration in preparation for the 2019 elections. 

In his speech Modi focussed on the work accomplished and the tasks ahead for economic development. He stated India was well on its way to become a $5 trillion economy. The opposition tactics to foment discontent in the country and organize factional interests would not detract the government from its singleminded focus on development, he said. Modi emphasized that the pace of economic development could not be accelerated in the first 2 years of the Modi administration because of the bad loans in the country's banking system, a problem stemming from bad practices and corruption in the previous administration.

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Mexico replaces China as the U.S. top trading partner in the first half of 2019. U.S. imports from China fell by 12% and exports fell by 19% in first half 2019, according to Commerce Department. The total value of trade with China of $271 billion was less than the trade with either Canada or Mexico.

Mr. Trump said yesterday to China- "If they don't want to trade with us anymore, that would be fine with me. Until such time as there is a deal we will be taxing them." He went on to say he would place 25% tariff on additional $300 billion of Chinese goods on Sept. 1, 2019.

Meanwhile in first half 2019 the U.S. imports increased to 34% from Vietnam. Some of this could be Chinese goods transhipment through Vietnam. Japan, South Korea, India, Europe, all increased exports to the U.S.

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After being ranked 131st before the Eurocup soccer champioships in 2016 Ireland made it to the championships, beat the Netherlands, Austria and Britain, drawing with Portugal and Hungary. How did they do it? 

Analysis of performance shows some key insights on team building. One is that too much talent can be overproductive. At work it often leads to stalling, or everyone reinforcing the others biases. Its bad if one or two persons become dominant instead of allowing all to participate. If there is not enough listening and social sensitivity, enough humility, teams can deteriorate. Too many talented individuals does not lead to that much improvement if clear thinking does not prevail.

There was humility in the Iceland team and the coach was a part time coach who worked as a dentist. All the Iceland players worked together better than the stars on the English team.

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China and Huawei lack the manufacturing capabilities needed to make some of the component parts that go into 5G systems. The U.S. Commerce Department in May restricted chip makers globally who use U.S. technology from supplying semiconductors to Huawei. This means Taiwan's Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company which uses U.S. technology in manufacturing 5G component parts cannot supply Huawei.

This gives the U.S. and Japan, South Korea to catch up with initiatives of their own to match China's state subsidies model that finances its semiconductor companies and 5G companies. 

U.S. Undersecretary of State Keith Krach says "We've utilized the strengths of semiconductor equipment companies and electronic design software companies to eliminate Huawei's access to the necessary sophisticated chips to build 5G systems and their most sophisticated smartphones." Huawei he says is a security threat to the U.S.

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The Space Shuttle with astronauts Behnken and Hurley makes a sea landing in the Gulf of Mexico after a 64 day trip to the Space Station orbiting the earth. 

After the retirement of the Space Shuttles in 2011 NASA relied mainly on Russia to send astronauts up into orbit to connect with Space Stations. Under the Obama administration two private companies were hired by NASA to operate Space Shuttles SpaceX and Boeing to take astronauts up to the space station in orbit. Much of the work to build the spacecraft is financed by NASA. 

Space exploration was not a priority for the Obama administration after the financial crisis resulting from banking behaviour in 2009.The U.S. under the Trump administration is renewing America's efforts for space exploration for science and out of a curiosity for what lies outside our planet.

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This WSJ report shows how the Twitter account of Barack Obama and Elon Musk and other prominent individuals were hacked by a 17 year old Florida teenager who was into online gaming and bitcoin currency. The teenager acted as a co-worker from the IT department to convince a Twitter employee to provide access to company internal information. After doing work fo taking over and selling online accounts the teenager started an effort to penetrate Twitter's internal systems. The teenager Mr. Clark setup several fake phishing pages, including one for the internal Twitter Okata login portal. Okta is used for securely logging into to Twitter's internal company systems.

The hourslong hack of Twitter accounts happened on July 15 with A message put on Mr. Obama's Twitter account by  saying-"All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled. If you send $1000 I will send back $2000."

 

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The higher risk of infection in counties in the U.S. that did not impose stay at home orders and enforce them is shown in this report in the NYT. Florida has counties in the list and the state only imposed a lockdown in the state as a whole on March 25. People in Jacksonville and Tampa continued to travel at a higher rate than people in other parts of the country says this report in NYT. In Louisiana not till March 20 weeks after after Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans was travel reduced significantly. 

It takes 2-3 weeks of this higher travel to show up in data about infected people. Dr Fauci, the leading health expert on the crisis, says the impact of following the stay at home lockdown shows up in the reduced level of new cases in many areas, making this change in behaviour very critical.

 

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Phil Foden and Kevin DeBruyne find a way through Atletico Madrid's defense as Manchester City prevail.

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The UK vaccination drive gives a strong boost to business and household confidence in the economic recovery for 2021.

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For a robust immune response that is consistent vaccination is essential says this report from researchers at Oxford University.

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A space of one's own in the home works great in retirement as this couple discovered.

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The Swedish brand H&M has closed about a third of its stores in China after it shifted to responsible sourcing and avoided Xinjiang forced labor product sourced in China. Chinese buyers boycotted the stores. The H&M store that first opened in Shanghai 15 years ago is now closed.

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Kamakura is only an hour from Tokyo by train. The city has shrines and temples including the Great Buddha. A city of 170,000 attracting millions of people from around the world to its shrines and gardens. NHK Japan takes an early spring trip to Kamakura and its ancient temples of the Buddha.

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Real Madrid wins the Copa del Rey for the first time since 1994. It now heads into the Champions League. Many of the players are of vintage quality from Karim Benzema, Danny Carvajal, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Marco Asensio, and are a match for Pep Guardiola's winning team at Manchester City.

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Across the US a high percentage of people have seasonal allergies- over 25% in adults and 19% in children. A research institute at University of Utah found that higher temperatures from climate change leads to higher pollen counts. A warmer winter and warmer temperatures earlier than usual have worsened allergies in 2023.

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The thin 4 vote majority and different factions within the Republican members in Congress is the subject of this report in the NYT. About 38 Republicans support working in a bipartisan manner with the Biden administration. There is also a group that opposes Biden on every issue, particularly on the border issue.

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The Guardian's analysis of what the Sunak austerity budget means for the Labour party, as it prepares alternative policies for growth and a better standard of living for the British people. Can failed Tory policies, favoring certain interests, still lead to dismal results for Labour, asks The Guardian.

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A prolonged war increases world food insecurity says this report in DW.com, including a danger of famine in some parts of the world. Ukraine and Russia together provide about a fourth of the world's wheat and other foodgrains. Many Middle Eastern countries and African countries face food shortages.

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In a message of hope at Easter Prince Charles talks about how it was "profoundly moving how so many people are ready to open their homes to those in need, and how they have offered their time and their resources to help those facing such soul-destroying sorrow and hardship."

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Zelensky calls PM Modi on Dec 26 as India takes on the G20 presidency in 2023, and the presidency of the UN Security Council as an elected member for the month of December 2022. He asks PM Modi to pursue a peace formula for a settlement on the war in Ukraine

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Jacinda Ardern quits as New Zealand's leader citing burnout. She loses the support of provincial New Zealand after two years of lockdowns created strong sentiment against her. Ardern was prime minister for 5 years yet failed to implement many of the progressive reforms of the Labour party.  

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Entrenched problems at South African energy utility Eskom and this bizarre story about CEO Ruyter. Rolling blackouts have affected South Africa and the company is in severe financial difficulties. It is entirely dependent on coal and 2 new coal plants are behind schedule. It lacks the funding needed for renewable energy conversion.

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Ukraine is running out of parts for its old Russian T-72 tanks and Ukraine is in need of new western tanks to defend itself, says this report in DW.com. German reporters give this report from a tank unit in the Bakhmut and Soledar area in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine withdrew from Soledar.