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Marketing innovation at Ford. Marketing campaign called "Bold Moves," to help Ford reconnect with younger buyers, bring the younger demographics into Ford's customer base again. Could cost upto $100 million. It would have a documentary style internet program starring Mark Fields, head of North and South American operations, and features a new Kelly Clarkson song. Ford plans to produce this show itself, to tell its own story in its own words.

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NYT's 52 Places shows pictures and text about 52 unique or scenic places all over the world for scrolling and browsing through.

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Thucydides, Greek historian on the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens 431 BC, cited by Xi Jinping of China during DJT visit to China, May 2026. “Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?” "Thucydides Trap," is about one established power being threatened by another rising power, as Sparta felt threatened by a rising Athens in the Greek world around 431 BC, leading to a long over 30 years war.  “The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” Xi said, of Taiwan, an island near China's coast where ChiangKaishek set up his government after the fall of his government in Beijing in 1949 to Communist People's Army of Mao Zedong. “If mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into a highly perilous situation."  What China sees is a future of strong economic growth based on China having built its industrial strength and world trade to exceed 1.2 trillion dollars of trade surplus in 2026. Yet this is only the beginning. US and European Union, and India+Japan are three economic regions compared to the situation in Greek history. The combined three economic regions potential for scientific and industrial advances in the future till 2045 in a synergistic fashion one building on top of the other's advances, far exceed the potential of the Chinese economy and industry by itself. This is why any such conflict may over time fizzle away as three economic regions of EU, US and India advance, particularly the 1.4 billion people of India, which will see growth rates of 20% annually for 10 years to 2035 in Eastern Indian region of the size of the EU. That region extends from Lucknow and Patna to Vizag and Chennai. Another aspect of this concerns China itself which sees slowing growth of 5% in 2026. Growth could slow further as US, European Union and India/Japan push back on Chinese exports during a period of reindustrialization in US, EU, Japan and rapid industrial development in India to 2040. China's development is only midway in terms of per capita GNP which lags most of Europe and the US, Japan. Thus the main concern in China is that China will not be able top go beyond middle income country as its demographics and aging population look more like Japan's over the period 2026-2040. China needs the US EU trade and markets for it to meet the needs and aspirations of its 1.4 billon people as the other engines of development such as housing construction, infrastructure building, have lost momentum. ...

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Ford profit for 2025 expected at $7- 8.5 billion. Ford estimate for Tariffs cost in 2025 on profit before interest and taxes is about $1.5 billion. As Ford makes most of its cars and trucks in the US it is less impacted by the Tariffs on foreign cars entering the US. GM estimate of cost of Tariffs is at $4 -5 billion.

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A vocal advocate for women in tennis, Andy Murray of Britain, plans to retire in 2019 after chronic hip pain. Murray was a strong supporter of women in the game and an ally for the WTA Tour where women feel underappreciated compared to men in tennis.

Naomi Osaka, the U.S. Open champion found a new hitting partner in Andy Murray in Bribane, Australia recently. Murrray was taught tennis by his mother Judy. He was the first to hire a women's coach Amelie Mauresmo to his team in 2014. Among those who admire Murray is Billie Jean King, who helped establish women's tennis in the seventies. A first round loss at the Australian Open to Bautista Agut has led to Murray considering retirement.

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A 'Use Up' day to tackle food that gets wasted after going bad in the fridge, adding to the compost and greenhouse methane gas emissions from burning waste. Picking one day a week to create a meal from food that is already in the kitchen or fridge, that reduces waste.

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WSJ report on Robert Kennedy Jr's efforts to remove artificial dyes in cereals used by Kellogg, General Mills, that are harmful to health and wellbeing of children and adults. RFK Jr is the nominee for Secretary Health and Human Services. Cereal made in Canada for Fruit Loops uses natural ingredients juice from carrots, water melon and blueberries to get the same colors. In the US artificial dyes are still used. When General Mills stopped using artificial dyes in Trix it changed the color and tasted bland according to food scientists in the company, leading to consumers not supporting the change. Large cereal companies are not taking the action needed when it comes to educating the public about the need for the change and making changes for healthy cereals.

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Ford CEO, Alan Mulally, says the electric battery in the newly designed Ford Focus EV electric car costs about $12,000 to $15,000. The car price is $39,200. The similiar gasoline powered car price is about $22,000. This car has a 23 hour kilowatt hour battery pack. Based on this information the cost is $522- $650 per kilwatt hour. The U.S. Department of Energy has set a goal reaching $300 per kilowatt hour by 2013, as it funds new electric car development in the U.S. The Ford Focus EV is directly competing against the Nissan Leaf. The Leaf starts at $35,200, with a range of 73 miles on a full charge compared to 76 for the Focus EV. The Focus can be recharged in three and half hours using a 240 volt charger, compared to 7 hours for the Leaf. What the battery cost tells us is that the electric car development has to bring costs down rapidly for electric cars to become price competitive.

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Apple faces large hurdles in China with models made locally by Huawei and other Chinese companies that offer similar features at a price about one third less. Chinese buyers are also looking for products that are made locally by Chinese companies. As a result Apple's market share in China has declined from 9% in 2015 to 7% in 2016. The future for Apple does not look bright apart from a core group of Apple fans that look for new product launches every year. Social media comments cited here show the comments about the iPhone 7 that say buyers should not pay $159 for Air Pods, the cordless earbuds. With the economic situation changing buyers are careful to pay so much for the iPhone 7, when it looks so much like the iPhone 6. In India Apple iPhone price are much higher and remain a significant hurdle for price conscious buyers.

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Kamala Harris has good connections and is popular in the State of South Carolina with the black community and has helped president Biden gain support in the primary in that state in 2020. The Democratic primary in South Carolina begins today.

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Walmart with 2000 H1-B visa offers for the first half odf 2025 halts the process in October 2025. Amazon had 10,000 H1-B offers highest number of H1-B visas offers by June 2025, Microsoft, Apple and Google had 4000 such job offers. India makes up 70% of the H1-B visa program and CHina 12%. It hurts the US workforce by bringing in lower paid IT workers to replace higher paid American workers. Bloomberg has adocumentary on the H1-B visa program that highlights abuse of the program that hurts American workers by the Tech companies. It also hurts India by diverting talented engineers needed for India's rapid modernization and creating a culture in which talented engineers in India look outside the country for jobs.

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US deploys F-22 fighter jets to Israeli airbases as it conducts tough talks with Iran to end its nuclear weapons programs.

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Jaffe and Eilperin provide this exceptional account describing the huge struggle of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to come to grips with the opioid crisis in rural America. Vilsack is from rural Iowa, where he was a small town Mayor. The opioid epidemic has personal overtones for Vilsack because of his parents addiction and growing up seeing the lack of helping hands. Vilsack. a two term governor of Iowa has witnesses these struggles in Iowa, as the state rural areas faced high poverty rates, more likelihood of being obese, less likely to go to college, and more likely to be pregnant in the teen years, than the rest of America. Vilsack is frustrated not just with the Obama administration but also with Congress, the media, the private sector with high pharmaceutical prices, for not giving enough attention to rural America. He sees rural America as providing the food grown and a disproportionate share of the military. The opioid epidemic comes at a bad time for rural America. This report provides a story that is typical where a dose of painkillers for a Navy employee leads to addiction and use of opioids. The whole experience has made Vilsack sound cranky to people in the White House. ...

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Ford announced on April 19, 2012, that it will build a $760 million plant in Hangzhou, China. This follows an announcement for $600 million expansion of a plant in Chongqing. Ford forecasts the Chinese market will grow at 5% annual rate for the next 10 years. It is planning to take sales away from other manufacturers by offering an expanded product lineup. Ford was slow to enter the Chinese market and has only 2% market share in China. The expansions will give Ford an annual capacity of 1.2 million cars in 2015, up from 450,000 in 2011. Ford's Chongqing operations are located far inland and a long distance from the west coast of China, which will make it more difficult to export if it turns out that there is too much car capacity in China.