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Russian proposals for settlement in Ukraine including giving up the whole eastern Donbass region, recognizing Crimea as part of Russia, and limiting its army and long range weapons. These are the same conditions set in 2022. There is a new situation developing in Europe as Germany, France, Britain and most of Eastern Europe looks to be firm in support of Ukraine. Germany is stepping up its military preparedness under chancellor Merz of the CDU led coalition government. The US under DJT is working under two pathways seeking engagement with Russia and at the same time seeking a way to settle the Ukraine conflict. With German, British and EU support it appears unlikely that Ukraine would agree to all the Russian terms as Russia is using some gains on the war front to gain a clear win in 2025. By 2026 with European support Ukraine may look for a settlement that offers better terms than currently offered by Russia. For the US DJT faces pressures from within the Republican party that would oppose giving Russia a win after its role as the aggressor in the Ukraine conflict, and after the bombing destruction of Ukraine's cities.   ...

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Highlights from Euro 2021 round of 16 soccer from DW.com. 

Germany barely made it with a late goal from Leon Goretzka to make it 2-2 after Hungary led 2-1 till the final minutes of the game. Hungary gave France and Portugal a tough time in their matches. Italy showed excellent defensive skills and was one of the most improved teams says DW.com. Jorginho of Italy competes with Cristiano Ronaldo for most valuable player in Euro 2021. Ronaldo scored the most goals in Euro 2021.

The best goal scored was from Patrik Schick of Czech Republic with his goal from over the halfway line against Scotland using excellent technique.

The best performance for "hanging in there and self-belief" goes to Robin Gosens of Germany who scored one goal and two assists in the all important 4-2 win against Portugal.

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Kamala Harris laid out her economic plan for Cost of Living Action at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. This includes action to restrict price gouging, excessive prices of supermarkets for groceries. It includes restricting rent increases to 5%, a first time home buyer help with down payment of $25,000, and a child tax credit of $6000 per child.

Kamala Harris said:

"Your salary should be enough to provide you and your family with a good quality of life … such as, no child should have to grow up in poverty. Such as, after years of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity, and you should be able to join a union if you choose.”

“Our supply chains have now improved, and prices are still too high,” Harris said. “Many of the big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades. And while many grocery chains pass along these savings, others still aren’t."

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The NYT looks inside the fight against a million acre fire in California. Fires were fought in previous years against hundred thousand acre fires. A million acre fire is something else. It cost $610 million over 3 months to fight the Massive Dixie fire in California, according to the head of CalFire. It took thousands of personnel, hundreds of bulldozers, aircraft and other equipment to fight the fire. Can the cost of fighting so many large fires be met in the future? Australia and California, Greece and other part of the world experienced unprecedented level of fires in 2021.

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The rulings in Britain for "duty of care" protect a customer or worker from harm. The rule "to love your neighbor becomes in law "you must not injure your neighbor." This is the new idea that the British government is moving forward so that the internet as public space is protected for all who use it. It does not state how many fire extinguishers are to be installed in a public building. Britain's Health and Safety Act simply requires the owners to do all that is needed to protect the users and occupants from harm. Since 1945 this is the foundation for heath and safety laws in the U.S. and in the UK.  This is the principle that 2 researchers Mr. Perrin and Ms. Woods have come up to tackle the protection of the internet as public a space. Perrin is a civil servant and founder of Ofcom, the UK's version of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission regulator. Woods is a professor of internet law at Essex University. It is now part of the legislation proposed by Boris Johnson's government in The Queen's Speech outlining government priorities. A new regulator would have the power to require companies to protect users of public spaces (the internet) from online harms such as pornography, extreme content, cyber bullying. The 2017 suicide death of Molly Russell a British teenager made this a priority for the government. The French government is also proposing rules based on this principle. ...

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The most remarkable gain for Harris is among the group that the Opportunity Economy does the most, the group that has the most to gain from The New Way Forward proposed by Harris. It is the 25-34 years age group where Harris as gained 12 percentage points. By effectively getting the message of Opportunity and looking to the future this gain has potential to be expanded.   Harris has gained among groups the Democrats needed to do most from lower income workers who were supporting Trump and Rural voters. Among Rural Voters 3 percentage points. Among people making less than $25K 20 percentage points, and for people making $50-$100K 3 percentage points. Among Trump 2020 voters 2 percentage points. The biggest gains is in group called Somewhat unfavorable view of Trump where Harris has gained 46 percentage points. These are also Republicans like the ones that voted for Nikki Haley and Republicans who fear the chaos of a personality focused presidency.   ...

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Ecology party and Green party do very well in municipal elections in France, taking Bordeaux, Lyon and Strasbourg. Macron's party fails to win in any major cities, creating questions about its future,

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Greg Ip says in WSJ that Biden's $2 trillion Families and Workers Plan (Build Back Better) should be moved forward or restrained, not on the basis of its trivial or secondary effect on inflation, but on its main goal of expanding a torn social safety net.That one vote in the Senate in 50-50 US Senate, that of Mr. Manchin is holding it back, should be set out in the clearest terms- that Mr. Manchin is not comfortable with repairing a torn social safety net to the level Mr. Biden is.  Greg Ip points out that Moody's and other experts see the same effects on inflation with or without the plan which is over ten years. He says besides the supply chain bottlenecks that would ease at some point, inflation would be kept close to 2% target by Powell at the US central bank, the Fed. It is all about how the US plans renewal of its economy from this pandemic and from the crises past, knowing that it has learned the lessons along the way, so that the economy works for all the people and builds America's strength in the world- pointing to a brighter future for all and a strong America. ...

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Growing pressure from within the government from the Green party and the FDP, and from the CDU in the Opposition party, for Chancellor Scholz of the Social Democrats to allow Poland to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine to stall Russian advances. That could lead to a return to peace talks and a settlement is also the idea behind additional military support to Ukraine. Western powers also seek to prevent any further losses on the Ukrainian side and show support after attacks on its electricity infrastructure left most of Ukraine in the dark.

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Electric scooters that are popular in Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel.

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Why the lessons of Wuhan have not been understood correctly says this WSJ report. Merely putting lockdowns is not enough, systematic testing and quarantining of the affected persons is needed for controlling the outbreak. The outbreak in Wuhan was controlled by sending affected persons to makeshift hospitals and temporary quarantine centers. Two hospitals were quickly setup in Wuhan in 2-3 days to isolate affected people from the rest.

It is slow but this is being done as New York sets up a makeshift mobile hospital with 1000 beds at the Jacob Javits Convention Centre. And London sets up 4000 beds at a conference centre in the city.

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Ajla Tomljanovic takes on the challenge of beating Serena Williams in 3 sets at the US Open tennis championships.  Her father is a handball champion who plays for Croatia and wanted his daughter to take up handball. Ajla stuck to tennis and seemed oblivious to the crowds applauding her opponent's every point as she won 6-1 in the last set after a tie breaker in the second set. Ajla plays for Australia at the US Open.

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Mr. Boris Johnson resigns as member of parliament on June 8, 2023, with criticism of the Rishi Sunak Tory government. The Guardian shows the years in office 2019- 2022 of the man who took Britain out of the European Union, and his years in office during the pandemic. From 2016 to 2018 he was Foreign Secretary.  He was preceded by David Cameron of the Conservatives who setup a coalition government in 2010 with austerity policies till 2016, much of whose latter years as prime minister were overshadowed by Mr. Johnson leading the Brexit faction in the party and as Mayor of London. In 2023 with Britain under a cost of living crisis and in financial stress after the austerity years, this period looks like a lost decade for Britain- with the failure of its leaders under the Tories.

 

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Germany has 60.4 million people who can vote in the upcoming September 26 parliamentary elections. Of this more than half are over age 50 years. This is part of a demographic change in Germany with falling population, more deaths than births in the country. As a result German voting population is getting older and smaller, 1.3 million smaller this time than in the last election. In 1987 23% of voters were under age 30 years, in 2021 this is down to 15%. For older voters in 1987 26% of voters were over age 60 years, in 2021 this is up to 38%. Older voters also have higher turnout of about 81% compared to voters age 21 to 24 years at 67% turnout. Older voters had a strong party affiliation early in their life says one polling expert for Infratest. Older voters tend to vote mostly for SPD or CDU the two main parties. The far right and far left parties have support in East Germany's 12.5 million population out of 82.5 million in Germany. CDU gets its vote from workers with higher than median income, and SPD from voters at the median income. Greens are supported by higher income groups.   ...

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What happened to all those bicycles in China, the reintroduction of bicycles after the boom in automobiles, and to bike share schemes worldwide, is the subject of this report in BBC's Future Planet.

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Britain's Labour party sees a big opportunity in Scotland with the divided SNP. Mr. Humza narrowly edged out Forbes for leader of the SNP party in the election to replace Nicola Sturgeon. Labour could win 20 seats north of the border putting Mr. Starmer in No.10, say some Labour party leaders. Labour sees that it has been left out of Scotland's parliament and government for far too long with a cost of living crisis and need for public services.