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Poor countries are disproportionately hit by climate change. Take Kenya for instance. Drought hit Kenya in 2011 causing $11 billion in damage, then again in 2014-2018 leading to food insecurity for 3.4 million people and leaving 1 million with scarcity of water. This story is repeated in many parts of Africa.

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After the US and China, three other nations are in the top 6 in the Tokyo Olympics- Britain, Australia and Japan. In Britain one household has 11 gold medals in recent Olympics- the Kenny household, husband and wife. Laura Kenny is a British track and road cyclist who has won 5 gold medals.

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Some of the stories about Prince Philip that will be covered in a new BBC documentary that airs in a few days. This one is about mustard being squished into the air during barbecues done by Prince Philip and Princess Anne that ruffled Queen Elizabeth. Shown is a picture of the two.

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The U.S. Federal Reserve plans a quarter percentage point rate cut to tackle weaker global growth, trade uncertainty from tariffs wars, with muted inflation, according to indications from New York Fed President John Williams. Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, cut rates to the range of 2% and 2.25% current range in July 2019.

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Healthcare and pharmaceutical costs are a major factor in expenses of American retirees. The Cost of Living adjustment of 8.7% in Social Security payments for 2022 will help retirees meet the cost of living crisis with high inflation in food and energy costs in 2022, and the continued rise in medical costs.

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Heather O'Reilly 37 year returns to Club soccer playing for Shelbourne in Ireland. She hopes to compete in the Champions League for women and is the same age as Ronaldo who plays for Manchester United. She was three years into retirement before she decided to give it a go in Ireland.

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"Egregiously unsanitary conditions" at Abbott's Sturgis Michigan plant, with leaking roofs and cracks in production equipment that let in bacteria, are described before a House panel, by the head of the Food and Drug Administration in the US. The closing of the plant led to baby food shortages.

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Even with an economy that is considered advanced Germany lags behind in social and education mobility. From one generation to the next disadvantages are passed on for less educated lower income people, and a person from lower income or less educational background is more likely to see children not getting a university education.

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Kingsley of the NYT provides an indepth series of reports on Turkey. Here he describes the tensions and dissension in Turkish society for teachers, refugees, government officials, students and others, and the difficult choices as Turkey faces a referendum in April 2017 on whether to grant more powers to the presidency under Erdogan.

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France produced 3.1 million tons of plastic waste, with 2.1 million tons being in packaging. A new environment protection law by president Macron requires supermarkets and other stores to use refill stations for packaging so that unpackaged goods can be sold. This is a legal obligation under the law to cut plastic waste.

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New affordability and choice in EV's in US under $40000 in 2025. Even without incentives from the government EV's remain an attractive option now that new gasoline cars cost an average of $49,000 and affordable EV's come at price range uder $40,000. In Germany VW has EV models for about $30,000 and this pricing and choice of models can be expected in the US in 2026. Mims looks at how EV's are now a realistic option for car buyers in 2025. Americans drive an average of 33 miles a day- the 300 mile range of new EV's means charging once a week is good enough. New EV batteries are better and can outlast a vehice's life. Savings from low maintenance costs can make up for any shortfalls for EV's.

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The Affordable Care Act subsidies are basically a band aid approach to a fundamentally broken health care system in the US, says Washington Post Editorial Board on Nov. 1, 2025. The 22 million ACA subsidies will cost $350 billion over 10 years. Democrats have the government shutdown over this issue of extending Obama ACA subsidies where enrolment increased in the covid and Biden years with generous subsidies. The Washington Post looks at how we got here since 1945, decisions made about employer insurance plans that created a patchwork of plans from private sector and other plans outside it with perverse incentives and inefficient subsidies. It calls the system stupid, and politicians looking to the next 2 year midterm elections wary of addressing the whole problem in the proper way for a system that will benefit all the people of the US.

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This report in the NYT says South Korea is putting itself at a disadvantage by investing in the US and with its commitments for buying LNG from the US. It like other articles in the NYT sells America short. The goodwill earned by Japan and South Korea by the approach to trade agreements that acknowledges the unfair treatment the US put up with from both partners for decades is something that will be remembered by the American people. Any agreement South Korea and Japan make with the US will be to the lasting benefit of the two Asian nations as it is built on shared goodwill of the American people and the people of Japan and Korea. Agreements with China are largely temporary adjustments in a larger situation of competition between the US and Europe with China and are transient arrangements.

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US Senator Lisa Murkowski gets $25 billion for rural hospitals and assistance for Alaska in One Big Beautiful Act 2025. She was the 50th vote for the Tax Cuts Bill in the US Senate, without her vote the bill would not pass. Senator John Thune worked hard to get her on board. At about 1.30 am in the wee hours she agreed to support it only after getting $25 billion for rural hospitals and special allocations for Alaska healthcare needs, and other benefits for Alaskans including $25 billion for the Coast Guard. Places are spread far out in Alaska and patients have to be flown in to Anchorage for care. Alaska is a different place for health care including needs of native tribes. Lisa Murkowski is a rare senator with a passion to serve Alaska, and her concerns for disadvantaged people.

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BBC Director General who started out with Pepsi Cola and later joined BBC Tim Davie resigns. Also resigning is BBC CEO Deborah Turness for their role in BBC's editing of a Trump speech at the Capitol Jan. 6. The Guardian shows the speeches side by side, edited and original in today's Guardian Nov. 10. Editing led to a settlement with CBS News. BBC is being sued for $1 billion by DJT for damage to reputation resulting from such misreporting. The trust in the media is affected by such reporting errors and alternative media sources such as Lyrarc.com are now playing a useful role in the US and Europe, Asia to give a fair and open, transparent presentation of what is happening in the world to build educated and informed mindsets that affects and shapes people's lives.

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Financial expert Guy LeBas- questions bond investors need to think about are whether $3 trillion in AI investments are societally productive, economically and financially productive. This WSJ podcast is a discussion on the effects in the bond market of financing by AI. LeBas says the corporate bond market is dominated by banks in 2025. AI financing makes up 7% of the corporate bond market in 2025 and is likely to double to 15% with the 5 Tech companies issuing corporate bonds. He says the question is what effect this will have on the economy, on society, and the larger question is what effect it will have on the Nation's priorities- for tackling crumbling infrastructure, investing in American manufacturing shriveled after 3 decades of neglect and unfair trading practices of trading partners, tackling climate change, needed investment in pharmaceutical manufacturing in the US, in education and childcare.

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Michael Dell donation of $6.25 billion for Trump $1000 child investment accounts. The Trump accounts were passed by Congress for giving tax deferred investment accounts to children born from Jan.1 2025 to Dec 31 2028, as a way to give 25 million lower income children a good start in education and opportunities in life. The Dell money $250 per account will go to 25 million children, go to 10 years old born before Jan. 1 2025 as away to address the gap for children not in the age group Congress targeted. Dell's money goes to US zip codes with average incomes below $150,000. This is a recognition by the Republican DJT administration that many lower income children are being left out in the economic growth US has experienced in the last decade, approaching the problem from a different angle than the Democrats.

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Instead of a jinx much to the contrary the US economy outlook for 2030 in Feb 2026- a surge in investment spending in 2026-2030, new manufacturing investments and lower energy costs, moderating inflation, are likely to propel the US economy ahead to 2030.The effect of tariffs as a policy making tool has been muted because of exemptions, reversal of tariff rates once key objectives were secure for tariffs as a way to get action on foreign policy as with Indian purchases of Russian oil, deals with Japan, South Korea and China, India, UK and the EU. Some sources such as the Philadelphia Fed see price rises reaching 3% in some inflation guages more than the moderate 2.5% in the consumer price index for January 2026. These sources see the hiring slowing down just as layoffs begin to happen in the latter part of the year which is a possibility but less likely. At this point in Feb 2026 there is a tendency not to layoff and to hang onto employees, and hiring has been slow in 2025. January's report of 130,000 jobs added is the first sign of strengthening of the jobs market. Overall a cautious view would be to call it a soft landing after the inflation surge of the covid period. Another way of looking at is is more in line with the strategic direction of the US economy- freeing up the economy with investments in energy,  reducing the key costs of production, tax policy of Bessent's complete one shot depreciation of equipment increasing business investment, tariff policy making the world trading system fairer and now more attuned to US interests, all creating an investment and jobs surge in 2026-2027. There is an added benefit from US efforts to free up the world trading system from the stranglehold placed on it by China with its control over world manufacturing. A dominance and unwise concentration gained from the serious mistakes of the Bush-Clinton period of not putting in safeguards for US factories and jobs (that form the backbone for families in neighborhoods towns and regions across the US), and US business interests growing indifference to the very communities they were based in by outshoring to China destroying whole regions in America. Even where it is criticized or seen as negative there are huge benefits when the US acted. Tariff increase on India is a clear example- it built Indian resilient attitude in June-Feb 2026, and during this period it cut funding Russia's war in Ukraine by sourcing energy from other sources, the US policy led to India and EU+ Germany signing trade agreements to double their effort and double trade and scientific cooperation ( a goal secured for the US as it reduces concentration in China), was followed by US signing its own trade agreement with India within days, and increases world trade of US and EU and Germany in ways that will bring 2.5 billion people into a strong partnership that overshadows anything that happened in China in the Clinton-Bush-Obama years of failure. ...

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Iran Ceasefire shaky May 11 2026 with no willingness on the part of IRGC Iran (Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps) to send all nuclear materials out of the country. Past experience has shaken American confidence in IRGC Iran's willingness to give up nuclear weapons development. Under president Obama some nuclear materials were sent to Russia, some left inside Iran which were after an agreement used by IRGC Iran to develop weapons grade enriched uranium, putting the situation back to where America started before the agreement. This is behind the DJT Republican administration's effort to get all nuclear materials out of Iran. This has wasted another decade for Iran, diverting resources needed for improving standards of living and cost of living to the weapons programs. The result is internal protests that were widespread in Iran including the middle class, not just students. So that today Iranian people are divided on the issue whether Iran should against all prevailing Middle Eastern and World opinion go for a nuclear weapon. The situation of clandestine development in North Korea and Pakistan of nuclear weapons is not existent today as the US is monitoring it constantly. Israel sees these weapons programs in Iran as a threat to its existence close to its borders in Lebanon and Iraq, which makes it unlikely that clandestine development is possible for nuclear weapons development anywhere in the Middle East. The UAE has also shifted its stance in favor of the US, Saudis want assurances, and India, Pakistan Egypt are in different ways seeking a denuclearized Middle East. This means the American DJT administration is NOT ALONE on this issue as the media in the US and Europe are presenting. Germany's Wadephul and Merz are closer to US thinking on this issue than the media says. Macron and Starmer are at popularity of less than 20% in France and the UK and do not reflect the opinion in France and Britain, and in Europe on this issue. In this sense the US is doing this for a safer world, for China, India, Brazil and EU, all the nations in the poorest parts of the world in Africa, Asia. These poorest nations which are bearing the brunt of this obsession with nuclear weapons development by IRGC Iran in a Middle East torn by 5 decades of wars from Kabul to Damascus, Baghdad to Tehran, by IRGC Iran (Revolutionary Guard Corps), as these poor nations confront lack of oil and fertilizer supplies. It does not come at a good time for even the largest nations about 3 billion people in China, India and Indonesia, Egypt which are suffering from the effects of oil shortages and fertilizer shortages when possibly at most about 40 of 90 million people in Iran support weapons programs, all others in Iran seeking a way out for better standards of living and living at peace with neighbors and the world. In that peacetime Middle East the Palestinian people could find solutions like the Irish people with the goodwill of all neighbors. ...

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WSJ on how America's political establishment lied about Covid's real origins in a Lab in Wuhan, China, after some in the American scientific community ignored prudent warnings about possible accidental release, and sent the virus from the US lab to a lab in Wuhan that was not fully prepared to handle it. In reality the Biden administration erred when it did not conduct an open assessment of what had happened, because this would have earned and kept the people's trust instead of dividing the country into vaccine believers and vaccine unbelievers.  Sections of the virologist community in the US and in China that promoted such research against the advice of others in the scientific community could have accepted their error with humility. The people of Asia have made great advances in this century- some call it the Asian century- great advances in manufacturing and in science. Yet they are not so fragile, the people in the Buddha lands and the land of Gandhi are not not so fragile that they could not accept that what they had achieved was on the shoulders of what hundreds of European scientists and inventors had done over three centuries since 1700. And that there was much to learn. The Chinese people and government can look with great self-respect for what they had achieved in the last 100 years not to need the condescension of the virologist community.  In a sense this divided the US people's perceptions of China, with half of the country skeptical about the virologist community's explanations accepted by the Biden administration. This was not in any way good for China and the Chinese people. In fact one can say that by handling this with an open mind would have clearly built more trust in China-US relations, and that China- US relations reached the lowest during the end of the Biden administration point with the Balloons incident. And recovered afterwards to this point of mutual respect under a frank president with candor and respect. This vaccine blunder also created further culture wars conflicts around the US, to ones based on race, LGBTQ, and other less consequential matters than the deindustrialization and loss of America's manufacturing base and its best jobs in huge numbers under the watch of Bush and Obama administrations, and their followers in the Republican and Democratic parties. What happened is that the country was split on race, gender, immigration, and belief in Christian values. Issues such as nuclear non proliferation (Iran) presented in ways that adversely affect the US. by calling it something else. In all such issues honesty is the best policy, dealing in a straight forward manner wiht the public is the best course, for reasons that are timeless and well recognized. Failure to do so on the part of the Elites only creates distrust of official explanations by the people of America. ...

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Violation of international law or tacit approval of drug states and suppression of the election results in Venezuela- position taken by Oxford's Dill and Germany's Steinmeier is itself controversial. Merz's is realistic. For those concerned about international law is it restricted to any particular period? Then the British policy in China supported by the other powers Japan, Russia, Germany and France to suppress the Boxer rebellion in 1901 and expand Treaty ports that forced opium on China in the period 1850 to the 1930's was not just a egregious violation, horrendous violation of basic human rights on a scale unimaginable in modern times. Much of the prosperity of the Netherlands and Britain, France was achieved through such policy in Asia. Yet Oxford's Dill and Steinmeier have chosen not to look at European history and the Empires of Europe in Asia and Africa for 300 years since 1700. By comparison Venezuelan action comes after the great patience of well meaning people, and the silence of elites in the US and Europe about massive migration encouraged by the regime in Venezuela of one third of its population about 9 million people to neighboring countries including the US, and suppression of free elections, complete mismanagement leading to 150% inflation destroying its economy.  It was not only these elites in the US and Europe that were responsible through their silence, but also the Bush and Obama wars in the Middle East which sapped the resources of the United States. Why is this happening when the Venezuelan people are the main benificiaries of the action taken by the US president to send in its military. All oil sales revenue will no longer go to a corrupt "drugs" state but be used to directly help the Venezuelan people achieve a better standard of living, bring down inflation  and invest in modernization, in these unusual circumstance a program run by Bessent at US Treasury. Those who dislike the unconventional but well meaning style of the US president and his occasional poor choice of words, find every opportunity for criticism even ignoring facts and common sense. Under Chavez and Maduro the Venezuelan economy was simply mismanaged to the point of being destroyed and an affluent country reduced to poverty and inflation so bad that one third or 9 milllion people left for neighboring countries. On this Dill at Oxford and Steinmeier have only this to say- it is somebody's else's problem. we will remain silent. Similarly on introducing nuclear weapons in the Middle East -where most nation states have intermittent wars and economic mismanagement for the last 50 years the artificial states from the Ottoman Empire of Syria and Iraq, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan every state impoverished by war and economic mismanagement - Dill at Oxford and Steinmeier in Germany also have only this to say- it is somebody else's problem not ours, we will remain silent. ...

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Macron is keen on making this trip to Britain his first overseas after the pandemic. Earlier during the pandemic Macron on May 17 visited a battlefield in northern France for a battle in which De Gaulle took part. On this trip he will go to Clarence House, home of Prince Charles, to commemorate the June 18, 1940 speech given by De Gaulle, a moment which gave birth to the French resistance.

Macron is eager to associate his presidency with memories of De Gaulle, the resistance and France during wartime, as it recovers from the pandemic. This also coincides with his meeting with Merkel, the German chancellor, after Germany announced the 500 billion euros grants to small and medium sized businesses in Europe as a show of solidarity and faith in the vision for Europe.

 

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The 32 billion pound bid by the Hong Kong Exchange for the London Stock Exchange is not likely to be viewed favorably by regulators. There is already a bid for the London Stock Exchange that is being reviewed. As The Times puts it "it provides a stern test of the British government's appetite for foreign acquisition of strategic assets."

The London Stock Exchange is making an all share offer for Refinitiv, with the strategy to build a financial data business. That would make Blackstone and Thomson Reuters major shareholders.  The Hong Kong government owns 6% of the Hong Kong Exchange. 

The London Stock Exchange has a long history and is a strategic asset for Britain so that the Hong Kong bid is seen as a bit strange considering that the strategy is different for Refinitiv.

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India moves ahead with the the purchase of $5 billion S-400 long range surface-to-air missile system from Russia durinf president Putin's visit to New Delhi. Delivery of 5 of the systems will take place over 2 years. India hopes to have a transaction specific waiver for the purchases as the U.S. is placing sanctions on defense purchases by countries from Russia. U.S. sanctioned China in September 2018 for its purchases of 25 Sukhoi jet fighters and S-400 missile systems from Russia.

India has set a goal of diversifying its arms purchases. From 79% of arms purchases sourced from Russia, the figure dropped to 62% in 2013-2017 compared to the preceding 5 year period.

India and Russia have set the goal of expanding bilateral trade from current $10 billion in 2017 to $25 billion  by 2025. 

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Key aspects of the new tax plan of the Trump administration are a 35% top tax rate for individuals, instead of the current 39.6% top rate, and lower brackets at 10% and 25%. Standard deductions are to be doubled, other deductions except for mortgage interest and charitable giving, are to be eliminated. The deduction for state and local taxes will be eliminated, with this hurting residents of high local tax states such as New Jersey, New York, and California. Gary Cohn, head of the National Economic Council and Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin,  have helped formulate the plan. Cohn sees a big opportunity here for a huge tax cut and simplifying the tax system. The corporate tax rate would drop from 35% to 15%, and future foreign profits would owe little or no taxes. Corporate tax rates are lower in the UK, Germany and Japan- closer to 20%, and France has a similar 35% corporate tax rate. The hope of the Trump administration is that this will generate 3% GDP growth rate and spur creation of jobs. Still to be decided at what level tax brackets for individuals will be set, and what level earlier foreign profits will be taxed, and the child care break. ...