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Paul Waldman reports in the Washington Post that a lawyer for Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor to president Trump, has ended communications with Mr. Trump's legal team. This marks a new turning point for the Mueller investigation. Waldman says this could mean Flynn is cooperating with the Mueller investigation, though this is not yet certain. He says president Trump may respond differently to Flynn as the investigation proceeds. 

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Did GM miscalculate when after Katrina SUV sales took a dive, in the wake of higher gas prices in the summer of 2005. Instead of gving it thought and thinking about various possible scenarios in the future GM moved up the introduction of a new SUV models program and invested $175 million in updating the the Janesville Wisconsin SUV plant that was turning out 200,000 SUV's a year. And the unions also wanted to hang onto the SUV program and included product guarantees for several of GM's SUV plants, including a new line of SUV's for Janesville to come out in 2012. Each SUV made $10,000 to $15,000 per vehicle whereas passenger cars did not make money. Why? How? Considering that Honda was making profits selling passenger cars and so was Toyota, and Honda stuck to making better cars, and the Germans and the Japanese were not putting all their eggs in one basket. Something strange was going on, kind of a cosy trap for the Detroit automakers.

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The Guardian looks back at 2023 and covers the work of scientists from US, Germany and Brazil showing the damage. NASA scientist James Hansen tells The Guardian that with the current stage of politics and inaction on climate change young people in the world need to take over. Scientists at the Japan Meteorological Agency measured temperatures at 0.53 degrees centigrade higher than the global average 1990 -2021. This was higher than the previous high reached in 2016 of 0.35 degrees centigrade. Over the long term the world is considered to be 1.2 degrees hotter than preindustrial times, by experts. Included is the report "Hothouse Earth" by the Potsdam Institute of Climate research and other experts on the speed of the global warming.

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H-P's plans to exit the personal computer business.

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With slow growth in sales of PC's which use Intel microprocessors, Intel CEO Krzanich plans to make job cuts and management changes. Intel first quarter profit was up only 3% on overall revenue unchanged from the prior quarter. Executives leaving are Ms Renee James staying till end of 2015 for transition planning, Hermann Eul and Mike Bell. Intel Capital chief Arvind Sodhani is retiring in Jan. 2015. Intel's efforts in smartphones have poor results, and sales of chips for tablets had to be subsidized leading to operating losses. Intel will reduce spending in 2015 by $300 million. Renee James was made president sharing the top position with Mr. Krzanich in May 2013 in a dual appointment. In practice it was Krzanich who took the leadership role at Intel Corp. In other changes security products, including McAfee, were integrated into Intel Operation's under general manager Chris Young. Josh Walden, general manager of new technology group now leads all product and research teams including wearable computing devices. Aicha Evans moves to the management committee....

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Longevity and the habits of persistence, prudence, hard work, close involvement with friends and communties, being somewhat obsessive and not care-free. The ability to navigate life's challenges is another aspect of longevity. Having a high level of physical activity, a habit of giving back to community, a career and work that one enjoys, a healthy marraige and good family life, all help improve longevity.

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US National Intelligence report due after the November elections confirms much of the British Ambassador's cable to the French from Afghanistan. Its a situation in a downward spiral the draft report says and the deterioration is accelerated by rampant corruption and the heroin trade which is now about half of Afghanistan's economy. The government "has lost all trust" according to the British Ambassador Cowper-Coles report.

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Japan's energy efficient industry is a role model for the western world and for India and China. For years Japan has had a national consensus on consuming less energy an industry has focused on developing energy efficent technologies and investing in it even when oil prices were low. Japan wants to now contribute to the world in this area at the G8 summit on the island of Hokkaido. According to the International Energy Agency in Paris, Japan consumes half as much energy per dollar worth of economic activity as the European Union or the United States, and one-eighth as much as India or China in 2005. According to the Japanese Economic Ministry data corporate Japan has kept its energy consumption annually at a billion barrels of oil since the early 1970's even as the country's economy doubled in size during the 1970's and 1980's. The Japanese steel industry invested $45 billion dollars between 1972 to 2006 in developing energy saving technologies, according to the Japan Iron and Steel Federation. By capturing heat and gases that go into waste JFE Steel at its Keihin mill on Tokyo Bay uses it to power generators that produce 90% of the plant's electricity. The Japanese government is now pushing an initiative that sets Japan's level of energy conservation as targets of global industries. For instance the group leader of JFE's climate change policy group says that by adopting Japanese conservation technologies the global steel industry could reduce carbon emissions by 300 million tons a year. The sector approach advocated by Japan means setting the same numerical goals for all companies in an industry, regardless of location. At next week's summit meeting Japan willl back an initiative that sets its conservation induced energy levels as the new standards for global industries. This will also promote the sale and use of Japanese energy saving technologies around the world....

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Shira Ovide interviews Twitter CEO Dick Costolo in Feb. 2013.

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The opioid crisis, covid pandemic and failures in healthcare caused the life expectancy in the US to hit new lows in 2021, the lowest since 1996. Life expectancy dropped from 77 years to 76 years, with the death rate rising 5% in 2021.Before the covid pandemic the life expectancy was at about 79 years in 2019. Black people had a life expectancy gap of 6 years in 2021 compared to white people, 70 years compared to 76 years.

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Plans the Detroit automakers are presenting to Congress for financial help.

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The transition for forming Great Britain Railways after three decades of privatization and failed results is now taking shape under Labour. 

The aim is stated in the transition team's messsage-“make the railway simpler and better for everyone”. The GBR website reads: “We are focused on supporting organisations across track and train to work better together to start creating a railway that is easier and better to use; lower cost to taxpayers; better at supporting local and national ambitions; and a simpler sector to work in and do business with.”

The privatization was a mess with failed franchises, delays, and industrial disputes.

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As Dr Harsh Vardhan, India's representative and Health Minister, takes on responsibilities as the Chairman of the Executive Board of the World Health Organization this can be said about this critical juncture.The WHO is going through soul searching and a reevaluation of how it has implemented the vision of its founders during the closing years of a world torn apart  by war in 1945, and actual founding in 1946.  At the UN conference in San Francisco in 1945, Dr. Szeming Sze of China, Dr. Geraldo da Paula Souza of Brazil and Karl Ewang of Norway, were keen to set up an international organization for cooperation on health. The Indian representative was Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar, a member of Winston Churchill's War Cabinet, who chaired the committee on economic and social problems. He was the president of the Economic and Social Council which called for an international health conference in Feb. 1946. It was at that conference on 19 June 1946 that the World Health Conference came into being. A native of Madras he then returned to Mysore as chief minister. The vision at the time for international cooperation on problems such as smallpox which killed 2 million people each year were quite different from the fast moving epidemics with international travel in 2020. Today 4.4 billion passengers traveled by air in 2018, according to International Travel Association, 100 times compared to less than 40 million in 1950, and about 10 times the 400 million when Nixon's visit opened up China in 1972. The world we live in is different and the World Health Organization needs to be redesigned for the 21st century. The entire process of how the WHO operates has to be rethought. Immediate steps include- 1. The appointment by Executive Board should be reinstated as this is more representative of the world population and the major centres of advanced public health, including the major countries. Throughout its life the WHO made appointments through the Executive Board not by election. The election in 2019 by 200 countries was actually not representative of the world population as it gave India, Brazil and other early founders at the 1945-46 conferences only 1 vote each with population of 1.2 billion and 210 million, the same as tiny countries Barbados population 385,000 and Laos 7 million. 2. Reassessment of the entire process in which nations are requested to give permission of teams from major countries in Europe, North America and Asia, major population centres, so that the 6-7 week delay between the U.S. request to China for a special team to go to Wuhan on January 6, 2020 and the permission granted Feb 16, a costly delay of 7 weeks which added millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths. In a super fast moving pandemic with international sports stadiums and 4 billion air passengers spreading it like wild fire around the world, there is little room for error, every day counts. Never should this happen again, as Dr. Sze Szeming China's representative said once in 1945 we must learn from mistakes, as mistakes were made in the years before World War II that were costly for China, India, North and South America, Other Asia, Africa, large population centres. 3. As was the effort then in 1946 and the early years, the effort to keep the staffing positions of leadership in the World Health Organization should be kept far from politics. Very experienced and capable people are needed from major countries with long records of public health experience and committed to the huge task, as was the vision of the founders.     ...

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Raj Rajaratnam was convicted on 14 counts for insider trading violations. Prosecutors successfully used wiretap evidence for the first time in an insider trading case.

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GM halts production of Hummers at a Shreveport, Louisiana plant. There is a seven month supply- 2100 Hummers- at dealers lots- at the end of December 2009. In October 2009, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd agreed to buy the brand, trademark, and rights to build Hummer vehicles. It is also taking over existing dealer agreements. The Hummer symbolizes the excesses in vehicle size and heft of a previous era.

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India produces 60% of the world's vaccines. India's contribution in vaccines is significant as it brings low cost vaccines to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. India itself has children that in total equal the children in 20 to 30 smaller countries. Prime minister Modi is working actively with GAVI the Global Vaccines Alliance for vaccination of India's children. Mission Indradhanush was one of the first programmes of his administration, intended to vaccinate all of India's children even in the remote areas. A new program was agreed to between India and GAVI for the next five years at the Global Vaccine Summit in the UK opened by prime minister Boris Johnson of the UK on June 4.

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Efforts to make it possible for Princess Akiko, 19 years old, the only child of Emperor Naruhito 60 years, to succeed her father. Japan has never had a female as Queen, in the manner of Queen Elizabeth in England.

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Fiat's third auto manufacturing hub in Eastern Europe, after Poland and Turkey, is in Serbia. Fiat is investing 700 million euros together with the Serbian government in the old automobile plant at Zastava. In Tito's Yugoslavia under the socialist system this plant manufactured the Yugo automobile. About 220,000 cars were manufactured here with 16,000 factory workers in the 1980's. The Yugo was based on the Fiat 127 model in 1980, and the relationship with Fiat goes back to 1954. After the war following the breakup of Yugoslavia the plant was partly destroyed and it recently turned out 15,000 Punto hatchbacks a year under Fiat license. Fiat Automobili Srbija, is a new joint venture formed in Dec. 2009, with 67% ownership by Fiat and 33% by the Serbian government. About 1000 employees of the 2600 at the plant were brought back and another 1433 will be hired to start production. Wages in Serbia are about 300 euros a month, and the Serbian government plans to make the country a manufacturing hub with special incentives. Plans are for 200,000 cars in 2 models to be made at the Zastava plant in 2011-2012, with 100,000 more planned in subsequent years....

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Russia's Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, says Russia's economy contracted in the first of 2014 compared with the prior quarter. Intensifed capital flows and lack of new investment could lead to the economy and GDP declining by 1.8% in 2014, according to the ministry forecast. Russia experienced capital outflows of $60 billion in the 2014 1st quarter, almost as much as for all of 2013. Russian law caps spending not covered by direct revenue at 1% of GDP. He called for tapping the rainy day fund for spending on infrastructure and investment to revive growth. Currently much of the revenue from high oil prices goes into building up the rainy day fund, used to cushion the impact of financial crises, after learning from the disaster of the 1998 financial crisis when the ruble collapsed.