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This report in Indian Express says the bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in India remains on track with members of JICC in Japan meeting with senior officers of India's NHSRCL, and chief project managers.

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Age discrimination is a problem in France more than in Germany or other countries in Europe. A person over 55 is half as likely as younger people to be hired by companies. This makes raising the pension age from 62 to 64 much harder for the government. In the US people are working for much longer.

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the oldest person on the U.S. Supreme Court dies at 87. The U.S. Supreme Court is unique in that there is no retirement age as in India and other countries. She died of pancreatic cancer. She is one of the rare jurists in that she continued to work almost to the end. She was unique in other ways because she got along well with colleagues on the court of different persuasion. Justice Scalia who was the complete opposite in thinking and views than Ginsburg said that this did not matter much as Ginsburg was "fun to be with." Former president Clinton nominated Ginsburg in 1993. Recently Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh joined Roberts, Alito, and Thomas,  for a 5-4 majority on the court for conservatives. Ginsburg was a woman's rights advocate in the 1970's. She will be missed mostly for her vigorous personality and feisty attitude to life working and being active even with her health condition. The death of Ginsburg means that the court is now deadlocked with 4 to 4 and no majority for conservatives or liberals. The country has also changed. Both conservatives and liberals claim they uphold the constitution of the country. Ginsburg saw this as the inclusiveness the founders intended- for women, and minorities. The conservatives see this also from the vantage of inclusiveness as the country has splintered into those who are largely college educated and tech savy, and the high school educated and less tech savy more rural and in small town that lost jobs and social services from the shift of manufacturing to China. The conservatives  see the lack of inclusiveness for the rural communities and small towns left out in the tech booms of the last three decades and shift of manufacturing overseas. Cultural attitudes add another layer to basic economic issues and a sense of alienation on both sides. In this climate and with an approaching election in 41 days the Republicans want to nominate their conservative choice supported by their Senate majority, and the Democrats want to block this appointment till after the election.   ...

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Ben Bernanke former Fed chairman gets a Nobel Prize for an economic paper written in 1983 that showed the role central bankers need to adopt to prevent a banking crisis from transforming into an economic depression. Banks could feel the effects of a crisis but also could cause an economic crisis as happened in 2009 with catastrophic mortgage lending practices. Other economists with similar research including Douglas Diamond of the University of Chicago, and Philip Dybvig at Washington University also received the Nobel Prize.

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About 19% or one in five do not have access to books at home in Britain, new research shows. A recent report shows 51% of parents find books just too expensive. The National Literacy Trust Report shows 64% of parents say the amount of money they have to spend on books has decreased. The findings are alarming as 1 in 13 children do not read at all, and only half of the children read daily.  This has serious repercussions on children's futures- in school, in college and in the job market. Reading habits develop with access to books at home and at libraries. Owning books encourages children to develop reading habits. The very basis of the fair societies and democracy of the UK, US and Europe is the access to books and reading for all parts of society and people at all income levels. Without this democracy cannot be sustained as the population is less and less literate and unable to preserve and protect its freedoms or misled by political leaders. The current threats to freedom Mr Biden has pointed out at Independence Hall in Philadelphia arise from this neglect that opened up with the neglect of manufacturing communities in the US and Europe which gradually eroded incomes and access to the goods and services that were opened up through the improvements of the last half of the 20th century. And improvements then lost in the "free markets" period of the last three decades that shifted manufacturing and jobs overseas, and reduced incomes of ordinary people.  ...

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A humble diligent focused Diogo Jota who never went to Benefica or Sporting or the big clubs but worked his way step by step and into the hearts of the Portuguese people and soccer fans everywhere. A tribute in the BBC Sports to Portugal's famous soccer player who died in a car accident.

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Wilber and Tau of the WSJ report that Special Counsel Mueller in the Russia investigation has impaneled a grand jury to further strengthen his investigation. Mr. Mueller has put together a team of 16 attorneys with long experience as prosecutors. By working with a grand jury Mueller and his team are working only a few blocks from the U.S. federal courthouse where grand juries meet, which helps the team to conduct its investigation. A number of experts consulted by WSJ say this means a vigorous investigation is now being put together.  The U.S. Congress is also acting independently to support Mueller. Legislation being sponsored by Sens. Thom Tillis and Chris Coons on August 3, 2017, make it possible to reinstate Mr. Mueller in a situation where he is fired by the president. Under the legislation a special counsel can challenge his removal and a three judge panel could reinstate him. Separately Sens. Graham and Cory Booker are also putting forward legislation for the same purpose. All Senators are from both parties, the two Republicans are from North and South Carolina. In a rare show of unanimous bipartisan support for Russia sanctions following the involvement in the 2016 U.S. election, the entire U.S. Congress over 500 members voted in favor- except for 5 members. The vote in the House 419 to 3, and in the Senate 98 to 2. Such a level of unanimous support is rarely seen, suggesting how the U.S. Congress views this matter as of the highest importance. ...

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One in every 12 women or 2 million will be a victim of some form of sexual violence in England and Wales every year a police chiefs  report says. One in 20 adults or 2.3 million will be perpetrators.The alarming scale of violence against women and girls is shown in the national analysis for England and Wales of the National Police Chiefs Council. Violence against women has grown 37% over 5 years. Two million women are affected, says NPCC, from stalking, harrassment, sexual assault and domestic violence. And people involved are getting younger. Police chiefs are demanding that tech companies take down extreme material and warning about the influencers who are "radicalizing" men online. The attitude and culture towards violence in general has deteriorated in the UK and the US, and the violence against women of this magnitude shows that a lot of work will be needed to change this attitude and culture. It truly is a National Emergency in the UK and in the US. ...

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California has lots of water after record breaking rains in 2024 but this is not the situation in the Central Valley leading agricultural region of California and the nation. Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley in California say they are getting a reduced allottment of water because of concern about endangered fish species. Farmers in the Central Valley the fruit and vegetable basket of California will get just 40% of their usual alottment of water this year and will plant less crops. Some ranches planting only 60% instead of 80% of their land. In 2014, 2015 and 2022 droughts the farmers lost about $7 billion and it cost 40,000 jobs, say University of California researchers. This area is a top producer of almonds, pistachios, and tomatoes. Westland Water District, which covers this area and is largest irrigator in the US, has a study that shows correlation between water and poverty in this part of California. Just when it is recovering the water supply is being cut. ...

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Efforts to correct the chaotic type of urban development that has taken place in Spain, with many unfinished buildings in the ill fated property boom, is the subject of this report in The Guardian.

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Afghan warlord of a previous era Hekmatyar is proving difficult to buyout or win over, a strategy pursued with Iraqi insurgents. Younger Taliban insurgents are even harder to convert or buyout. THis raises questions about the chances of this kind of effort succeeding in Afghanistan, especially considering the "allergy" to foreign presence or foreign boots on the ground among Afghan people and the part religious fervour plays. Religious fervour was much less of a factor with Iraqi Sunni insurgents. Add to this the terrain differences, between desert and high mountains, makin the kind of house to house searches and securing of areas extremely difficult.

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Ford plans to reduce the weight of its F-150 pickup truck by about 700 pounds, a 15% reduction in weight, by switching parts of the body from steel to aluminium. The new F-150 pickup truck is designed to be introduced in 2014 and capable of meeting new fuel efficiency standards through 2020. This would enable a 25% increase in fuel efficiency and help meet the Obama administration fuel efficiency standards of 2011, which require the U.S. vehicle fleet to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

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The rugged and tenacious spirit of Ukraine's farmers is shown in this DW.com report as they plant grain in wartime and under constant threat of Russian bombs and artillery in the 2022-2023 growing season.

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Kamala Harris returns to Zambia after a visit to that country to meet her grandfather Gopalan almost 50 years earlier. At that time Gopalan, from the Indian Civil Service, was given as as an advisor to Zambian president Kenneth Kuanda, helping organize the settling refugees from Southern Rhodesia. This was the period of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Kamala as a young girl learned about democracy and political participation from these visits to both Zambia and India. During this visit Kamala Harris visits Zambia, Tanzania, and Ghana, parts of British West and East Africa. Not only is this visit a way to revive relations with these countries, it also marks the end of a period after the Cold War ended in 1990, when the US did not engage with Africa and South East Asia in the way it had done during the Cold War when democratic institutions modeled on the British parliamentary system competed with Soviet Bloc Marxist systems.

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The economy slows and China's central banks cuts two interest rates. No major stimulus is planned as in Europe and the US after record debt levels that have accumulated over the last decade of hyper growth. Youth unemployment reaches 19%. The drop in demand for oil from China with the slowdown leads to a drop in the price of oil to about $93 for Brent Crude in August 2022, providing some relief for oil price to the EU and US. China is the largest importer of oil and it takes in 15% of the world's oil supply.

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Italy is planning to place a quarantine in the north covering the region around Milan and 11 provinces nearby, in a draft decree from the prime minister's office, says this report in the WSJ. When a final decision is made the quarantine would go into effect March 8 and go on till April 3, 2020. This move is similar to the quarantine steps taken in China which helped limit the health crisis in China from coronavirus. The new decree also includes tight restrictions on travel in the affected areas. 

The new action is being taken as earlier measures have not limited the spread of coronavirus. They were requested by the government in Lombardy, which combined with Emilia Romagna and Veneto are the worst hit of the regions in northern Italy with about 85% of cases. It also means the industrial economy with 40% of GDP is affected.

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Forget Macron who is simply following French policy in the manner of De Gaulle, says Greg Ip in WSJ. The European Union has already set its policy to decouple its relationships in the supply chain from China, it just calls it something else -"de-risking." The EU he says is even tougher about this than the US. The EU's Leyen has stated: "The Chinese Communist Party's clear goal is a systemic change of the international order with China at its center... We need to ensure that our companies capital, expertise and knowledge are not used to enhance the military and intelligence capabilities of those who are also systemic rivals."  Mikko Huotari, the head of the Berlin based think tank Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies says that the US and the EU arrived at this through a process that went on in parallel. In fact the Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Denmark, and the Baltic countries came across this much earlier before Biden became president because of acrimonious relations with China. This is also true of countries in Eastern Europe such as Czech Republic.  Germany's position is based on finding a transitional period for decoupling to reduce the impact on its economy. And even China is aware of this situation and looking for a transitional period for decoupling. More significant is the attitude of companies says Greg Ip- companies such as Tesla, Apple and even Airbus that have continued investments in China with little change. And it is this that president Biden is seeking to change with US policy positions. Another less observed aspect of this is the realization of both the US and EU, that the clear and obvious mistake of overconcentration of the supply chain in China was made under Merkel and the Bush-Obama adminstrations. China too realizes that it would have been better off - less recrimination from workers in the US,  and less costly damaging growth that led to climate change- if there was not this much overconcentration of the supply chain in China. In short it benefitted no one, and happened simply because companies sought to take advantage of attractive offers of building in China offered by local governments in China with subsidies from the Chinese government, and the manufacturing capabilities that kept expanding in a virtuous circle as better infrastructure and logistics were built over time. It goes to show that unless governments are vigilant and aware of these risks the unintended can happen with different consequences including destabilizing the social fabric and the political structure of western democracies.  ...

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Biden is going back to the coalition of support both north and south and younger and older white voters of  the Democratic party and Republicans under Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower that prevailed for most of the last 100 years except for the period after Reagan which included Clinton and Obama in the Republican style policies just as TR and Eisenhower followed Democrat type policy. It is the broad centre of the Nation. Nate Cohn shows that this is what is happening and Biden holds firm in the support he is getting from white and older white voters. It also will give the Nation opportunity to take a breather from all the culture wars whipped up for no purpose as it is about US leadership in the world and a better life for its people with new infrastructure and science/manufacturing leadership. This also means Biden has strong support in his near home state Pennsylvania, in Michigan and in Wisconsin in addition to growing support in a broad section. of southern states which was the situation for Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy/LBJ. Many forget LBJ was from Texas and Sam Houston was one of the heroes in Kennedy's Profiles of Courage with his support for the Nation. ...

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Spain's Mariano Rajoy loses a no confidence motion in parliament and resigns as prime minister in May 2018. He is replaced by Pedro Sanchez of the opposition Socialist Party. It has only 84 seats in the 350 member parliament making his government short lived and paving the way for new elections. Rajoy came in after the 2009 financial crisis assuming the prime minister position in 2011. He has governed throughout the period of the economic crisis and high unemployment in Spain during the eurozone debt crisis, the collapse of the housing boom, the banking bailout and austerity programs in Spain. Economic growth resumed gradually since 2013.

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Okere city, Uganda is revived with a school, solar energy, health clinic, and economy built on shea tree products. All done by someone who left the area as a child during the war decades ago and lost his father, a civil servant in Uganda. The graduate of London School of Economics, Mr. Ojok Okello, says he wanted it to generate its own income and grow from the ground up with local people building a better future. He did not want it to depend on the goodwill of some white person without the locals involved. To do this he put in his own money- $39,000. This is a heart warming story of what is possible in parts of British East Africa that are being revived with the good sense, hard work and, and positive spirit that was part of its history. It shows that with the will, self confidence and implementation a lot can be done that was thought to be impossible. A story that is seen in Indian villages and other parts of the world after decades of stagnation- clean water, electricity, schools, health care.   ...

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The Sergei Magnitsky bill in the U.S. Congress which would impose visa and other restrictions on Russian officials involved in the imprisonment and death of Sergei Magnitsky.

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Germany is tackling the dependence on cars in rural areas to shift to other sustainable transportation. Not much attention was paid to have trains and buses run frequently and to set up bicycle paths till now.

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California's economy is going through tough times during the coronavirus. Unemployment is up to over 20% which compares to 14.7% for the U.S., closer to that of New York. The state depends on the tourism industry, agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, and entertainment industry around Los Angeles for jobs. Tech in the San Jose area does not account for as many jobs. The state also has a public university system and foreign students mostly from China bringing in $7 billion.   Its port system around Long Beach and Los Angeles connects with the Asian economies and China, for goods mainly transported to the rest of the U.S.  All these sectors are the ones most badly hit during the coronavirus.  California now has a deficit of $54 billion and was the first state to borrow from the federal government to pay $13 billion in unemployment claims. Undocumented Californians are not able to collect unemployment because of their immigration status, creating an American version of the informal economy that is found in India and Italy or Spain. California has 83 million people taking plane trips to the state for a tourism industry that normally brings in $145 billion. 600,000 travel industry jobs were lost in the state. Taxes related to travel are a significant source of revenue for cities in California bringing in $12 billion. The only sector that is less affected is the tech industry, yet this makes up only about 10% of the jobs or 1.7 million higher paid but fewer jobs. This tech sector at about just 15% of the California economy GDP, is of a precarious nature with a boom bust pattern, the last boom one that happened since the 2009 financial crisis. It in no way forms a significant support for employment or income for people in California or the U.S., and may even be responsible for distortions in the allocation of capital away from infrastructure and public services, through its disproportionate influence on how the nation's capital is allocated. The broader changes underway during coronavirus are likely to affect the state over many years, as supply chains shift away from China, and as infrastructure and public services investment assume their rightful role again in the nation rebuilding effort, agriculture and rural America become a part of the American renewal story.   ...

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Yascha Mounk says Germany is not as committed to the West as it was in the days of chancellor Adenauer. Policies pursued by Gerhard Schroeder distancing Germany from the U.S. were also carried on under chancellor Merkel.