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Some young people in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the U.S. who are ignoring the rules about social distancing and restricted social gatherings are seen as endangering the fight against coronavirus. Health authorites are highly concerned about carefree youths and young people not following the new rules.

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Nicola Clark and Hubert Lebrun meet in a small town in Lorraine, France, where Clark's grandfather was a soldier in the invading German army and Lebrun's grandparents were residents of the small town of Mercy-le-Haut. This brings back stories of the execution of 17 year old Leon Mandy by the Germans, and the "monuments aux morts" in the town, one of 40,000 such memorials in France to war victims. An opportunity for both Germans and Frenchmen to reflect on the memories of that war.

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Anton Troianovski reports for NYT from Geneva on the talks between Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on the Russian proposals for redrawing of the boundaries between Russia and Eastern Europe. Russia has insisted talks take place without the Europeans. The Russian view is that the current borders with strong US presence in Eastern Europe- in Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine, and other parts of Eastern Europe were a result of the new borders being thrust on a weakened Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  The US insists it will not do anything without working with its European allies, but is willing to look for some areas of common ground. European Union and Germany see the new Eastern Europe formed as a result of the self determination of countries in the region, and their right to choose their future. Ukraine was historically close to Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Ukraine had developed two identities with eastern parts of the country closer to Russia reflecting earlier close ties and the western parts of Ukraine closer to Poland such as cities Lviv and Kiev reflecting the mood in Poland and Baltics for an independent Ukraine. Lviv is only 70 kilometres from the Polish border and shows traces of the Austro-Hugarian central European heritage. Kiev is about 300 miles from the Polish border in north central Europe. Elections led to governments alternating between close ties to Russia and distant ties to Russia with the two recent governments opposed to Russian interference in its affairs. President Putin responded with invasion of Crimea and forming an autonomous region in eastern Ukraine. In the latest move Putin seeks to reset the borders in a way that is favorable to Russia.   ...

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The decision to replace Gen. McKiernan with Gen. McChrystal and to have Lt. Gen David Rodriguez as his deputy, was made by Defense Secretary Gates and Jt Chiefs chairman Mullen, after thinking about this during the transition to the new Obama administration. The failing war effort in Afghanistan with the Karzai government controlling only pockets of Afghanistan and Kabul and leaving the countryside to the Taliban has alot to do with this. Gates feeling is "we can and must do better." That it took so long, with the Taliban only 50 miles from Islamabad, Pakistan, and the question of Paksitan's nuclear weapons falling into thier hands vexing the adminstration, shows that things slowed down with the transition and the economic crisis. The decision was not adifficult one considering that McKiernan had little to show for his efforts, and the rapidly deteriorating situation by all accounts. McKiernan was a senior officer who spent his entire military career commanding conventional forces, serving in the Balkans and the Iraq war in 2003, and has the wrong midset and background for counterinsurgency warfare. McChrystal has experiences suited to counterinsurgency warfare, having commanded commando teams that took out leading insurgents. He is also director of the Joint chiefs of staff, so known to Mullen for his abilities. Rodriguez commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in eastern Afghanistan, is seen as aleading expert in counterinsurgency warfare. He is also Gates's senior military advisor so known to Gates for his abilities. The new strategy is to go with counterinsurgency warfare to turn this thing around. This puts 2 commanders with this kind of experience in Kabul, and close communication with Gates and Mullen because they worked together before. With additional troops, and shift in resource acquisition at the Pentagon that Gates is trying to secure for this kind of warfare, this creates the kind of combination that could help the US in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and achieve more modest goals. See the links to Gates's and Petraeus's more modest goals....

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This report in The Times shows 2 charts. One with how much of the population has been vaccinated with Israel and the UAE at about 33%, UK at 12% US at 7%, and EU countries far behind. The second chart shows how much of the western world's vaccine supplies have been purchased by US, UK, and EU. 

European Union appears to be lagging behind in arranging purchases of vaccine supplies, with UK and US ahead. The shortages in Europe of vaccine, and limited supplies of the Astra Zeneca vaccine to the EU, is resulting in a nasty argument with the UK. At one point the EU planned to limit vaccine exports from the Pfizer Belgian plant to the UK, including closing off the Northern Ireland border.  That move came under criticism from EU's Michael Barnier.

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The failure of Merkel's and Macron's policies in Europe. The policies contained a contradiction says this WSJ report- doing little to address concerns of Russia over NATO expansion and yet opting to build better economic relations with Russia. Merkel and Macron failed to tackle the main issue of NATO expansion. Did NATO need to expand continuously and what could be done so that Eastern European countries could join the EU but not NATO as a defense alliance. Without some new framework on this issue that was determined between US, Russia and Germany, France, for post 1990 peaceful relations the relationship with Russia based purely on trade has collapsed.  

This WSJ report also brings up the issue of the US and Europe not having it both ways - continually expanding NATO in the interests of the smaller nations in Eastern Europe and yet hoping to build a better relationship with Russia.

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Both the EU and US see another wake up call from China's position of on again off again diplomacy using rare earth as a bargaining chip. US and China separately and in coordination work to develop policy and actions to secure access to rare earth and technologies that is independent of China. China sees it's action on rare earth diplomacy as robust diplomacy in response to DJT tariffs, yet this is getting the US to move quickly to develop its own rare earth access including working with Australia, and taking action to support US industry. The European Union is not far behind in doing the same. This and the action taken by the US to restructure world trade for a level playing field, and getting Asian partners to acknowledge their abuse of the international trading system for two decades and accept some level of temporary tariffs is changing world trade. The US can regain the position it has held for the better part of the period 1900-2000, overcoming periods that included the rise of Russia and Japan after 1945. ...

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Greg Ip's 2026 warning about Stablecoins citing 1837-1863 privately issued bank notes fragmented fraud prone and outside the official banking system regulation will be remembered years from now when this crypto (anything but stable in the true sense of the word)  leads to a fianncial crisis. Stablecoins crypto currency that is similar to private banknotes issued between 1837 and 1863 with banks issuing their own currency- fraud widespread even with state laws like todays Genius Act. There were many bank failures and financial crises in that period. The state laws in the 1840's required the banknotes to be collateralized but fraud inevitably creeps in as it might with stablecoins.  Leading to financial crises as private capital shrinks and affects public capital that are US Federal Reserve bank notes we use as dollar bills. Today 84% of illicit activity is conducted using these crypto currencies and only 1% used for transactions. Proponents ( who stand to benefit in some way) call it a new efficient way of transactions. But the facts dont lie. Not only are stable coins used for only 1% of transactions, and illicit activity conducted through crypto coins, but also most of this currency is held overseas not in the US where it is less regulated. Federal Reserve has always questioned the value of crypto currency. Here is what Bank of International Settlements (international institution similar to Federal Reserve) has to say-“Stablecoins attempt to import credibility from public money while operating outside the established settlement system.” -Pablo Hernández de Cos, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements Holding Treasury bills as collateral does not remove the basic problem in is design. Issuers are for profit. The Federal Reserve is not for profit. And the Federal Reserve is part of a whole regulatory structure, Stable . laws have loopholes, and coins lack that kind of regulatory structure , making stablecoins prone to failure, an accident waiting to happen. Tether has $190 billion and Circle has 76 billion for about $300 billion in private capital tied up in this undertaking and posing risks to the Us and world financial system. ...

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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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Ukraine leader Zelensky is expected to be in Washington to meet president Biden and to address the US Congress on December 21, 2022. A bill in Congress includes $44 billion for aid to Ukraine.

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Home energy prices in the European Union eased to 25% over the prior year in December 2022 from 35% the prior month. Consumer prices eased from 10% to 9% in December.

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Commodity prices are surging worldwide. Shortages of potash with cutoff of supplies from Russia and Belarus is affecting fertilizer supplies and agriculture  worldwide. New mines for commodities in much demand will take years to begin production. A mine in the Canadian prairies is expected to be the largest potash mine in the world, yet production will not begin till 2027. The situation is the same for coal  copper, nickel, and other commodities.

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US president Biden calls president Xi of China on April 2, the first call after the two met at the April Summit for extensive discussions and agreements reached. In it Biden continued discussion on topics related to Taiwan, the South China Sea and also raised the issue of China indirectly helping Russia build its defense capability in Ukraine.