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Discussion on how the FDA approves Drugs, should it be more flexible and speed up introduction of drugs for cancer that have limited potential.

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You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”  Harris mother told her when she was growing up. Vice President Kamala Harris said last year with a sense of humor and even a folksy philosophical sense. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” The way Kamala said or its deeper meaning has set this off for a thousand memes on the internet for Kamala fans. KHive refers to 2 groups of fans the earlier ones many of them women  when she was senator, and the later ones who learned about her passion for the issues relating to a better life for workers and families across these 51 states. Now there is a Kamala fervor on the internet. Harris campaign is also working itself into this fervor instinctively. Though no one may realize this not even Kamala herself there is a sense of Gandhi in this. Her grandfather and mentor was a civil servant who was raised in the Gandhian tradition of public service unmatched anywhere in the world for its dedication and determination for knowledge and for freedom. ...

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This is one of the weakest job recoveries the U.S. has experienced. The U.S. economy is seven million jobs below pre-recession employment and the labor participation rate is at 64.2%. It was 66.4% in 2006. Consumer prices are increasing even as the average wage has remained the same at $22.87. Increases in food and energy prices put a squeeze on the middle class, as it tries to get by on less.

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The Indian Express looks at a draft of the National Curriculum Framework of India, which modifies the current system of rote learning and separation of the sciences and engineering from the humanities and liberal arts subjects. The current system leaves the students at secondary level lacking the foundational skills for a modern economy. NCF tries to address this. In line with the multidisciplinary approach taken by the National Education Policy (NEP) for India in 2020, the NCF encourages students to develop multidisciplinary thinking skills by mixing arts subjects and humanities with science subjects and math. The NCF proposal is to assess students in grades 10 through 12 over 4 years and not one board exam every year. This fits in with NEP's vision for a 'holistic" education.  The NEP "envisions a reenergizing and complete overhaul of the higher education system including moving towards a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education." The NCF takes this to the school level. Indian Express points out that combating climate change for instance requires a knowledge of science and manufacturing, but also of politics, sociology, economics, and other disciplines. The significance of humanities in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is shown by many research papers, says this editorial.  To avoid rote studies and memorization instead of critical thinking skills, the NCF sees room for play, activity, discovery and discussion based learning. ...

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Perpignan, France, is a small town at the foothills of the Pyrenees, near Spain. It was called Perpignan Catalan. Its mayor is Aliot who is from the RN National Rally party. It is one of the poorest regions in France. The RN was elected after several tries in which the other parties banded together against RN till it did not work anymore. This report in The Guardian looks a the change the RN brought and says it was about more police, cleanliness, and television. No structural changes have happened that would reduce poverty or bring more jobs and opportunity to the area, or improve the infrastructure and public services. As a result it is more visual but as one resident says I kept my doors open anyway, so that no real change happened. This change for the better has not happened under Macron and it is this frustration that led voters to give Aliot and RN a chance in Perpignan. Yet this report shows it has not changed much, that the poverty and lack of opportunity is real and other solutions than RN are needed. And still the LR and Macron's Renaissance party keep making derogatory remarks and labelling the alternatives from the Socialist parties as unrealistic even though the Socialist Alliance calls for investing $140 billion in infrastructure, public services and cost of living action to improve the lives of ordinary working people and families. ...

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China's central bank reduces its reserve requirement ratio, required money set aside by commercial banks and not used for lending. It lowered by half percentage point to 13% the amount of reserves Chinese banks are required to set aside. As the economy has cooled recently with trade tensions with the U.S., China's growth has slowed to 6%. The move frees up $126 billion for lending. In a speech this week president Xi used the word "struggle" over a dozen times. The State Council has plans to allocate more money for vocational training, to expand railways construction.  Analysts of S&P recently estimated China's economic growth over the next decade at 4.6% on average if the trade dispute gets to a stalemate, if trade dispute worsens it could drop to 3.7%. The trade dispute has dampened the mood at China Development Forum in Beijing, with attendees saying the distrust between the U.S. and China is based on deep concerns about each other. Besides the lending increase planned, the central government is pushing local governments to find projects to create jobs. Local governments fear this would worsen the already high debt burden they carry. ...

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Having Powell at the Fed at this time is a major asset for the US economy as he tries to navigate the tariffs situation in 2025. Powell is widely credited with tackling inflation and the supply chain shock following the pandemic that led to surging inflation. Powell has said that the DJT tariffs have come from other nations not allowing a level playing field by subsidizing their industries and giving unfair advantage to their companies, DJT has justified tariffs action as limited to ensuring a level playing field, calling reciprocal as limiting tariffs to what the other nation charges the US, a way of saying this is based on fairness principle in trade and business.

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Landler and Barry say in this report in the NYT that the situation of government paralysis in the U.S. parallels the one in the UK with no-deal Brexit around the corner. President Trump wants a border wall (steel or other kind) on the border with Mexico as a campaign pledge. In the UK Conservative party faction supporting Leave from the European Union, including supporters of Boris Johnson, seek Leave at all cost. Johnson called the shortage of Mars bars a small inconvenience, as the Theresa May government prepares to push its own Brexit deal through Britain's parliament. In a separate report the NYT tries to show that over 80% of the drugs come in through entry ports and the border crossings are largely families or unaccompanied children. For the first time -since the 1950's and the segregation struggles in the U.S. -populists battle the elites in the large cities, say Barry and Landler. The rural urban divide, is seen in both sides of the Atlantic, in Europe and the U.S. ...