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The U.S. aid package to tackle the coronavirus includes $425 million for mental health and substance use disorders and $50 million for suicide prevention to ramp up mental health services. A telemedicine program for mental health providers is being expanded and a suicide prevention program at Veteran Affairs Department is being expanded to other Americans. Second lady Mrs Pence is supporting the suicide prevention program. 

Widespread anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder is expected by experts as a profound aftershock from the coronavirus.

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At a time when family physicians in Britain are experiencing burnout a plan for patients to use text messages to rate family physicians by the new Health Secretary Sajid Javid arouses intense criticism. A former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the British AMA say the Boris Johnson government's effort to increase in person appointnments by offering incentives of 250 million pounds was a bad idea. They say efforts should be made to attract 6000 more general practitioners rather than demoralize family physicians who are already burned out.

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Without a final Brexit agreement Britain has the advantage of being able to use Northern Ireland, which would remain in the EU, as a way to send British goods into the European market including goods from companies subsidized by Britain. This and related reasons on Britain being able to set its own rules on the borders between the two Irelands, and on its trade and movement of goods, is why Boris Johnson says Britain does not absolutely need an agreement on Brexit with the EU.

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The rebuilding of old neighborhoods continues in Beijing. This story in The Guardian is about the historic Gulou neighborhood in Beijing, which is one of the only places now left with the city's ancient alleyways called hutongs. Yu-er has the remnants of working class families who moved in during the mid-20th century, many of the houses lack proper plumbing and people use communal bathrooms. It is part of the Four Hutongs project,  municipal campaign to renovate four historic alleyways near Nanlugou Xiang pedestrian street.

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China's Defense Minister Gen. Wei and Mr. Austin, US Defense Secretary are to meet on the sidelines of a conference in Singapore in 2022. Mr. Wei last met Defense Secretary Mark Esper in 2019 in Bagkok. No meetings have taken place since then. Gen. Wei is seen as an outspoken leader who told a conference in 2019 that the use of the military to stop the Tiananmen protests in Beijing in 1989 was the right step as this gave Chine three decades of peaceful development.

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The Scottish coastline as a good location for rockets into space and space exploration. It is at the right altitude to shoot rockets up into space and into orbit quickly and accessible from Glasgow. Consider that Sweden uses facilities deep in the Arctic circle and Germany uses barges in the North Sea. Glasgow now produces more satellites than any other place in Europe. Newer technologies in use make the impact on the Scottish coastline minimal bringing life to communities in decline and at a dead end.

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President Trump wins two victories in his efforts to build a border wall on the southern border with Mexico and control the flow of migrants which he has called a national security crisis. The Supreme Court votes 5 to 4 to allow president Trump to use $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds to proceed building the wall. Mr. Trump also made an agreement with Guatemala where that nation will act a a gate keeper for people seeking to get asylum in the U.S. from economic problems in Central America.

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The German lower and upper houses of parliament, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, passed legislation to end the use of coal by 2038. The phase out has two parts one is the legal avenue for reduction in emissions, the other is the regional economies of affected states. The government will provide 40 billion euros for restructuring economies, including reskilling workers and providing new infrastructure, for the effort. coal operators will also receive compensation if they announce plans for closure of coal plants by 2026.

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Spain and Italy, the New York region, delayed their response, just as Japan and Sweden are doing today, resulting in the severity of the pandemic in these countries and regions. This pandemic is showing the earlier you act to lockdown, quarantine, use contact tracing and isolation of clusters method, the better it is with fewer people infected and fewer deaths. This is the single most important lesson of this crisis, which health experts worldwide, including Dr Birx, head of the White House Response, and Dr. Fauci, never get tired of repeating.

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With UAW contracts expected to expire Sept 15, it is not clear whether the UAW will agree to a large trust that will adminster health benefits for workers. This trust would handle all automakers health liabilities and would get funding from the automakers.

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About 14.5% of U.S. households went through some form of food insecurity in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The problem is acute on some campuses. In the 10 campus system of the University of California about 40% of the student undergraduates now come from households with yearly income of less than $50,000. Many students with full tution aid come from a low income household, and have to reduce meals or use a food pantry. About 183 schools are now part of the College and University Food Bank Alliance.

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Senator Manchin of West Virginia secured a transitional use of coal, oil and natural gas in the Biden legislation including Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden team eventually accepted the need for use of oil and natural gas in the transition to clean energy. During the first Trump term the support for fossil fuels was tempered by the fact that industries looked at the situation in the long term as administrations can change every 4 years, and continued the transition to clean energy. The combination of these factors means that the transition to clean energy continues in some form.

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PFASs class of chemicals used in pizza boxes, carpet treatments and other consumer products. Experts describe the increased risk of cancer, asthma and other diseases from products that are everywhere in today's world. The NYT's Lipton and Abrams provide useful insights into the use of harmful chemicals in everyday life in 2015. Ms. Birnbaum, the head of the national toxicology program of the Department of Health and Human Services in the U.S. questions this widespread use in consumer products of PFASs and the need for alternatives in commentary in Environmental Health Perspectives, a NIH publication. 200 international scientists signed a statement urging countries to restrict use of PFASs. More public awareness is needed for the extensive use of chemicals in consumer products, so that consumers ask questions about which chemicals are in products and look for safer choices.

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Watching a YouTube clip for 15 minutes can use up about a third of the $20 monthly 1 gigabyte Verizon wireless data plan for the iPad. Verizon is asking users to use thier WiFi networks as much as possible, and the iPad defaults to those networks.

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DW.com shows the Straits of Hormuz where the Persian Gulf meets the Gulf of Oman before it meets the Arabian Sea facing India. Ships cross a narrow space of 2 miles in the narrowest point that is 21 miles wide in the Straits of Hormuz. The UAE, Oman face Iran in that area. 20 million barrels of oil by tanker traffic cross the Straits of Hormuz every day. India, China, Japan and EU depend on the Straits of Hormuz for oil supplies making it critical for sea navigation. Iranian parliament  has threatened closing of the Straits as aresponse to the US strike on nuclear weapons development sites. China and India lose cheaper oil supplies from Iran as a result of the Israel-Iran war. Russia, Saudis, UAE, Qatar, gain because it increases the price of oil supplies from Russia. Iran loses a source of oil revenue with damage to its oil facilities. The Israeli economy is resilient and its stock markets are showing rapid growth as the war changes the Gulf region and  Southwest Asia, South Asia moving it in the direction of economic and business deals and agreements that enhance improvement in the lives of the people away from decades of conflict from the colonial era in which the British and the French gained control of the Gulf region and Iraq, Syria after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the anti colonial regimes that failed to provide development, the CIA's intervention under Dulles and Eisenhower to remove the democratically elected government of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 and its repercussions in the Reagan period with Rumsfeld/Reagan compounding that error by supporting Iraq's Hussein leading to 3 decades of loss of American lives in the region's wars and also endangering Israel. ...

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European Union plans are for cutting by two thirds current imports of oil and gas from Russia in 2022. The EU's plan is to take down the imports of Russian natural gas from 155 billion cubic meters which represent 40% dependence on natural gas from Russia, the import figure for 2021, down to 100 billion cubic meters. James Henderson, chairman of the gas program and the energy transition research initiative at Oxford Insititute for Energy Studies, looks at how the EU will get this done.  The European Commission's plan is to get 50 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. New projects for LNG and return to market for supplies that were disrupted earlier would generate 40 billion cubic meters of LNG. Of this 30 billion cubic meters could go to Europe. Another 10 billion cubic meters is expected from Norway, Algeria and Azerbaijan. Some of this by delaying maintenance. Conservation and reduced consumption could deliver savings of 38 billion cubic meters of gas. Of this 20 billion cubic meters would come from new solar and wind energy. Roof top solar and installing new wind energy can save about 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas. This does not include energy saving from industry, particularly Germany, which makes up a significant part of the use of oil and gas. Increased temporary use of coal may be considered and nuclear energy is an option in some countries. These are first step, additional action will be needed to reduce dependence on Russia from the current EU plan of one third reduction in 2022 to two third reduction by the end of the year to demonstrate the EU's resolve in the war in Ukraine. ...

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Just about half of Africa's population is within 25 kilometres of a fiber network for mobile telephone connections. In Nigeria this is much lower at 14%. Instead of having to lay costly fiber optic networks for high speed broadband connections Africa can benefit from new 5G network technologies that enable Africa to leapfrog to better high speed internet connections. The telecom company MTN has started testing 5G mobile internet in Nigeria with live demonstrations in Abuja and Calabar, and in other Nigerian cities during a 3 month trial period. Nigeria is one of the few African countries that is pushing 5G with rollout in 2020. 5G uses radio waves to transmit and receive data between an antenna and one's mobile phone. It operates at high radio wave frequencies which cannot travel as far as other frequencies, so a denser network of base stations or masts is needed. This makes it highly suitable for large urban areas. A report by GMSA shows that South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya and four other African countries will have 5G by 2025 and this will be about 3% of mobile data compared to 16% worldwide. Problems with use of 4G in Nigeria show the issues facing Africa. Cost of using 4G is high for the average user, so that only 4% of users of mobile internet in Nigeria are 4G even though Nigeria has an extensive 4G network. Instead 40% of Nigerian users use 3G networks. 5G faster internet could help Africa in areas such as health with telemedicine, and in remote education, say experts. They also say 5G rollout in Africa will benefit from drop in costs as the technology becomes widely used in Europe, China and America. ...

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This report in the New Yorker provides a good glimpse at the problems of global warming and limiting climate change goal of 1.5 degrees centigrade. Sally Ann Ranney co-founder of the American Renewable Energy Institute answers questions from the New Yorker magazine. Limiting climate change warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2100 is a goal enshrined in the Paris Agreement. In the absence of this the global warming would be 2.7 degrees centigrade by 2100. For this 1.5 degrees centigrade goal to be reached fossil fuel use and carbon emissions have to be cut by 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. 

The ice pack in the Arctic is part of a planetary cooling system and its accelerated melting is a good sign of the danger the planet faces. Ranney answers a number of these questions.

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Astra Zeneca vaccine effectiveness gets a new boost from the late stage trial results for US, Chile and Peru that has 32,000 volunteers. The study shows Astra Zeneca vaccine 100% effective to prevent hospitalization and deaths, and 79% effective to prevent symptomatic illness. The vaccine is also known as the Oxford vaccine because it was developed at labs in Oxford University, England.

The vaccine is now preparing for US FDA regulatory approval. Its worldwide use will give new hope to the world's population because it is being given at cost and can be stored in ordinary refrigerators for long periods. Conditions that give it wide access in poor countries. It is also manufactured in India by The Serum Institute, one of the largest vaccine manufacturing labs in the world, which would make it possible to make the billions of doses needed.

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After the failed Unocal Corp. bid in 2005, China's policy has shifted to taking minority stakes, not taking an active role, and keeping Chinese managers at a distance from U.S. advanced technology. The result is a surge in investment in the U.S. and Canadian energy industry with $17 billion invested since 2010, according to Dealogic. By buying a small stake in a company Chinese government advisors see the opportunity to to get an entry into new markets and gain the exerience and knowledge needed to keep up with new drilling techniques. This comes at a time when China expects to become the world's largest oil consuming country because of the surging use of automobiles in the country, according to the International Energy Agency. Natural gas consumption doubled in China between 2006 and 2010 according to the BP Statistical Review.

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The Naval Innovation and Indeginization Organization of the Indian Navy, NIIO, sets. a new pace and direction for the Indian Navy and its mission in the Indian Ocean. The goal is to use the idea of the Gati Shakti plan to bring together industry, academia, research organizations, government in partnership for adopting 75 indeginized innovations in a few years. In the last year 54% of the Indian defense budget was given to companies within India for product and services, and in the coming year the plan is for it to go up to 70%, according to defense minister Rajnath Singh. This means even aircraft carriers will be be developed and built in India at Indian shipyards using Indian technology.

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The Biden administration has set new rules for restricting leading edge chip manufacturing in China. The policy is intended to prevent military use of advanced chip technologies by China, a policy adopted by Xi Jinping in China. US and China have differences on Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region. Companies making chips will have to decide if they will invest in the US or China. Any leading edge manufacturing in China of chips over $100,000 or increasing manufacturing capacity by 5% will lead to restrictions being placed on these manufacturers for working with the US. This sends a clear message about US policy for leading edge chip technologies that the US seeks to protect from misuse by other countries.

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Astonishing distortion of a concept that is basically about better designing cities to reflect lessons learned from the pandemic and the importance of quality of life, worklife balance, healthy lifestyles. It involves bicycling to work popular in countries such as Netherlands and other parts of Europe. Utrecht in the Netherlands is a model city for this concept of working closer to where one lives and being able access sports, exercize activities, and community social meeting places within short distances. Because this is in line with climate change action where it is important to reduce huge carbon footprint of transportation and use of fossil fuels to get to and from work, and also promotes healthy lifestyles, community living, it is an idea that makes sense.

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"Wars have been lost because of logistics," says the director of logistics and engineering in US Central Command. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges says the Russian logistics system is exhausted- that it was never setup in a way that it could support a long conflict outside of Russia. It has smaller fleets of trucks and is dependent on rail lines in the south near Kherson and Crimea that have been hit. These trucks now have to travel longer distances to supply the troops. Damaged bridges also lead to difficult supply conditions. Ukraine seeks to use this has a way to push Russia out of Kherson and other region in and near Crimea along the Black Sea.

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India is a founding member and lead chair of Global Partnership on AI. At the GPAI Summit at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, December 11, 2023, prime minister Narendra Modi talks about India's potential  for cutting edge research and also about the risks and dangers of AI. "AI is transformative. Yet its transparency is essential, data and algorithms have to be transparent, and free from bias, for its right beginning, to be useful to humanity." Modi describes the useful aspects of AI for India's health sector and for other sectors, and India's UN Sustainability Goals. The safe and ethical use of AI and its democratization with AI for All a focus in India.