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The French government negotiates an end to farmer protests and blockade of highways near Paris by easing some regulations on pesticides and by offering aid to farmers.

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The Trump administration says waivers for China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey to import Iranian oil that expire in May will not be renewed. The decision is to have zero exemptions. Earlier Taiwan, Greece and Italy, also on the list, decided to find other sources of imported oil. Iranian oil exports are estimate to be below 1 million barrels a day compared to 2.5 million barrels a day before president Trump abandoned the Obama administration negotiated Iranian nuclear deal and reimposed oil sanctions. 

Saudis and UAE say they will keep the oil market in balance, and president Trump is also relying on U.S. shale oil supplies. The move faces resistance from China which says the U.S. has no jurisdiction to interfere. India haces issues with the U.S. for importing from not only Iran, but also Venezuela, Turkey and Iran are neighbors, India and Iran are neighbors, both with cultural ties to Iran, making the situation difficult for both countries.

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Asset reports of Fed governors and candidates for Fed chairman show Ben Bernanke and Daniel Tarullo at the low end of $1-$3 million, Stein, Duke and Yellen at $5-$12 million in the middle, and at the high end are Summers $8-$31 million, and Powell between $17-$40 million.

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IDC forecasts a decline in sale of high-end interchangeable lens cameras by 9.1% in 2013 from 19.1 million units to 17.4 million units. Part of the decline is from the frequent use of smartphones with photo-editing apps, and from customers shifting their purchases to smartphones and apps instead of high-end cameras.

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Kings Way which remained right up to 2022 as Rajpath in Hindi as the British named the central part of Delhi for the Empire is now a thing of the past, says prime minister Modi. He opened the newly laid out Kartavya Marg with Netaji Subhas Bose replacing the symbol of the Empire in King George at the end of the Kartavya Marg. With the completion of the National War Memorial at the other end Delhi now has a new look and it will remind people of India that it is the work of the people not of kings and nobles in the new India that counts.

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The bidding for 3PAR, a high-end storage company, is expected to reach $2.2 billion. There are questions as to whether the two rival bidders Hewlett-Packard and Dell are wasting cash. Hewlett-Packard may be doing this to protect its busines in the storage field. The bidding is reaching a frantic pace, even though 3PAR is not profitable.

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US frustration with Russian intransigence on ending the war. By October 2025 DJT administration pushes for an end to the war with hopes for a Budapest summit. This is delayed and the US announces sanctions on Russian oil companies on October 22, 2025, when Russia shows no interest in ending the war except on its own terms.

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The European Commission says that 70% of adults in the European Union have now been vaccinated with 2 doses, about 256 million people in 27 countries. In the US this figure is 63% for persons 18 and over, in UK 77% are fully vaccinated for 16 and over. There is a wide variation between countries in Europe- with Portugal at the high end and Bulgaria at the low end for vaccination.

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Pope Francis calls for an end to "the vicious war."

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Th Kashagan oil field one of the largest oil finds expected by Eni to produce 1.5 million barrels a day is about 5 years behind schedule and expected to startup in 2010 with cost overruns that have tripled the original cost. Kazakhstan's governmet is trying to get a bigger share of the project and claims environmental damage.

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Efforts to explore ways to end the Ukraine war with Ukraine's participation will take place next week at the Munich Security Conference to be attended by JD Vance from the US.

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Germany and the European Union are improving their defenses as the conflict drags on. The US position DJT has articulated is to bring an end to the war to end the daily loss of lives on both sides. Looking back was it worth loss of hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides and the damage to the economy, to housing from bombing, and the millions of refugees many older people, just for the Association Agreement with the European Union in 2013-2014. This has been completely mismanaged by all sides, the EU officials responsible, the governments in Europe including Russia and Germany, and Ukraine's political parties and their appeal to the people, and by the administration of Obama in the US. DJT and administration officials have long made it clear that they don't want this war, the war in Ukraine. A conflict that has been going on in some form or other between parts of Ukraine in the west and Russian influenced regions in the east as governments changed before and after protests in Kviv in 2013 over an agreement on association with the European Union long before the current war; some favorable to Putin and some not like the current government. So it is surprising that Medvedev would make remarks about DJT and the US to draw a confrontation between the two powers US and Russia in this way in X, remarks DJT calls "inflammatory."  Especially when the US is trying its best to negotiate and end to the war by pressuring both sides. It's defending of Ukraine only to stop the missile attacks on it's cities to give peaceful resolution a chance, not to aggravate the conflict.   ...

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Values of St Augustine are to be celebrated with Vance, and of Mohandas Gandhi with Harris. Then why the discord? End wars (Biden ending the war in Afghanistan). End migrant incursions Harris pledge to sign the Lankford-Biden legislation into law that fixes asylum entry and Closes the Border with Mexico. Cost of living that hurts the needy and middle class the most. As Applebaum writes about Housing costs Trump has no plan, Harris is willing to put government resources into it. Republicans have their hands tied by a hands off government that is supposed to do nothing and hope everything will work out. That is without corporate housing company greed in a system that doesn/t work -they set the prices too high. As Kristof writes about in the NYT the Republicans will not support paid marital leave, will not support child care assistance, will not support cuts to high pharmaceutical costs, making healthcare unaffordable even to the middle class not to speak of the lower income working class. And will not support investment in the infrastructure that is crumbling around us even as the infrastructure is crumbling around us, like the bridge in Baltimore that went down in minutes. Trump used infrastructure issue in 2016 and rightly so, and talked about it being Infrastructure Week every week, yet did nothing for infrastructure, nothing serious until Biden in 2016-2020. This a continuing project for Harris. Part of this is to end the wars (Biden's efforts in Afghanistan ending it). And end the migrants incursions, Harris 's pledge to sign the Lankford-Biden immigration bill that fixes asylum entry and closes the US Border with Mexico. ...

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Italy which imported 40% of its gas supplies from Russia has shifted rapidly to Algeria as a source of its gas replacing its own supplies from Russia and even sending supplies north to Austria. Algeria, Africa and other gas producing countries Azerbaijan and Turkey are winners in the closing of the Nordstream pipelines to the EU from Russia. Algeria is making the largest contribution to EU gas supplies. Low Russian gas prices for a decade kept Algerian gas in the ground. Algeria is expected to send 100 billion cubic meters of gas to the European Union making up 65% of the 160 billion cubic meters the EU imported from Russia. Much of this gas is produced by the Italian gas company Eni and Sonatrach, Algeria's oil and gas company. Pipelines from Azerbaijan and Turkey deliver gas from that region to the EU. Azerbaijan plans to double its gas production.

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The number of coronavirus cases in South Africa passes 400,000 by the end of July 2020.

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The English Bible in the Texas K-12th grade schools curriculum for children in 2025. Critical for young children is an understanding of how the Christian faith was critical in the struggle against the evil of slavery, and how it was Abraham Lincoln's faith in Christianity that sustained him through the long and difficult struggle to end slavery in the Union, and to preserve the Union. How millions gave up their lives to end the evil of slavery in the Civil War. One passage from the new curriculum for Texas children says- "Even as the use of slave labor grew, opposition to slavery also grew, driven by colonists morally opposed to the practice, often based on their beliefs as Christians." Lyrarc.com has Lincoln's devotional- with parts of the New Testament from a British publisher in the 1840's that show how Lincoln's faith preserved the Union, and created the society in which all men are created equal envisioned by Washington and Jefferson in the 1770's and 1780's, right upto the French Revolution's rallying cry of Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite that was heard in America in 1800. It is strange that it is forgotten that for most of the period from 1600 to the 1950's there was never any doubt for 350 years that the US derived it's unique identity and ideals from it's Christian faith, just as China and India have derived their unique identity and ideals from the Buddhist scriptures and the Bhagavad Gita. The novel idea that the Bhagavad Gita and the Buddha should have the same level of understanding for America's children as Christian faith of countless generations since the settlement of North America from 1600 is hard to grasp. ...

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P&G's experience in China shows that mothers are willing to spend more on diapers for their children. After aiming at the lower end for a frugal middle class diaper, the company is trying to catchup with more popular and better quality Japanese diapers at the higher end of the price range. With fewer children Chinese mothers are known to spend more on children in their family budgets.

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The platform sector of workforce is now an accepted part of the Chinese economy. Le Monde looks at actual cases of workers and their families and why they end up choosing platform work with Didi as drivers, or as home delivery workers for other companies. 84 million platform workers 1 in 5 workers in China in 2025, and 420000 civil cases filed in Courts in China over period 2020-2024 for excessive hours, safety, injury and lack of social insurance. Workers send money home to rural areas and work upto 90 hours a week to make about $1 per delivery in China and strive to make about $1220 a month with excessive hours and little in benefits. This sector acts as a backup to absorb labour when companies close such as the bankruptcy of big property construction companies such as Evergrande. In 2024 the government set rules to regulate abuses in this sector. As China shifts from dependence on construction, and as exports to the US face resistance and tariffs, laid off sorkers end up in this sector with few benefits. The government regulates it to reduce social tensions. ...