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Zampano and Emsden describe the difficulties new premier Matteo Renzi will have with a divided parliament and opposition in parliament from the parties of Berlusconi and Grillo. A poll by IXE shows 53% of Italians support Mr. Renzi compared to 37% for former premier Letta. He is expected to focus on economic measures and institutional reforms are likely to slow down because of the political situation with no party having a clear mandate. European elections in May 2014 will be a first test for Renzi and the Democratic party.

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This WSJ editorial in September 2014 says many of president Obama's statements and decisions on Obama healthcare legislation and implementation, Syria, NSA and privacy, the Middle East, Russia, showed poor judgement. It refers to a piece by Peter Baker in NYT where it is said that Obama mocked how people see him as too professorial, diffident, in a sarcastic statement. The problem says WSJ is that president Obama has poor judgement. Being academically credentialed and quick grasp of subject matter is not the same as having the ability to discern things, instinct and grasp of the essence of the matter. George Bush senior had a long resume and was academically credentialed. By comparison Truman had a short resume and was not academically credentialed or quick with data and analysis. He had something more essential and important- a discerning mind and grasp of the larger picture, as well as listening abilities for exceptional advisors such as General Marshall and Acheson he gathered around him....

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Corey Brettschneider of the NYT provides a detailed look at Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch's possible views on abortion and Roe v. Wade, though he has said little directly on the subject. It looks at the views of his mentor and dissertation advisor at Oxford, Prof. Finnis, and on whether abortion is a matter for states to decide.

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During Euro Cup soccer 2024 Germany's faltering rail system Deutsche Bahn presents challenges with frequent cancellations and delays. So frequent are the delays that they are announced matter of factly as if it was standard way of operating the trains. One can see this in Frankfurt, which has a vast rail network operating connecting most of Europe from its main rail station. It is a result of failure to invest in upgrading rail systems and signalling, tracks, rolling stock. 

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The story behind the Mattel recall of a million toys for high concentrations of lead in the paint contamination gradually emerges. Fake lead free paint shipped by a supplier, the supplier owned by a friend of the owner of Le Deer, the Matttel supplier of toys in China. All this while Mattel seems unconcerned about the damage that one woud expect to see done to its own image among parents who buy these toys.

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NYT shows 17 year old Summer McKintosh of Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada, swimming with the greats such as her idol Ledecky in the 400 metres at Paris Olympics with use of breast, freestyle, back and butterfly strokes. The swimmers routine starts at 4.15 am and no matter how she feels she gets up goes to swim and tries the hardest for two hours 6.30 to 8.30 am then exercise training on land followed by 3-5 pm another two hours in the afternoon. She keeps at it steadily day after day. 

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Gone are the days when Gandhi's India was stuck for 50 years in a sort of wavering in its standing up with America. Gone are the days of John Foster Dulles and the Eisenhower administration and the Kennedy administration following British policies of not seeing India's potential. Gone are the days when Nehru's own lack of comprehension and grasp of India's potential and the potential of 1.4 billion people made him put India in a non-aligned movement that was going nowhere with the likes of Yugoslavia (that no longer exists) and Egypt ( which is struggling). This is what Jaishankar referred to as "overcoming the hesitations of history", and Rubio as "perfectly positioned." Deep introspection on both sides with the live events in West Asia of 2025 and 2026, America's willingness to confront the issues in a straightforward manner under DJT, and Modi's patience, willingness to wait and still build for the US the strong relationships that it was loosening up with the European Union to regain the initiative in the western hemisphere with the Monroe Doctrine (Merz visit to India and Modi visit to the Nordic Summit/EU Summit in Oslo), proving the maturity of the relationship. America did not need to cover its own relationships across the Atlantic while attending to the damage done by drug cartels and foreign interventions in its backyard leading to more loss of lives in drug deaths than the Korean, Vietnam and WWI combined. India had already done so and would hold the relationships together in the interests of the Modern World created by Britain, the US, and the countries of Europe through the Renaissance, the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. In a way Asia had matured- both China and India keen to join the Modern World of science and technology, of modernization, are on the same path, and seek relationships that matter, India on the American side and China in a arrangement of cooperation with competition, at the very time the European nations led by Britain and Germany were faced with struggles from European history from 1700 of how to deal with differences they have with their large Northern neighbor Russia and its concerns about NATO. ...

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In new developments German chancellor Scholz visits London and European Union president Von der Leyen visits Bucha and Kviv in Ukraine. Von Der Leyen is accompanied by Joseph Borell, the EU commissioner for foreign and security affairs. For the first time the European Union offers membership in the EU to Ukraine. In handing a document with a questionnairre to Ukraine president Zelensky she says- "This is where your path towards the European Union begins." Adding "It will not be, as usual, a matter of years, but rather a matter of weeks" to complete this step. The questionairre forms the basis of an opionion she said that gets passed on to the European Council this summer. Ukraine now becomes the first country in Europe to have fought a war and suffered from millions of refugees just to join the European Union. It also shows how much has changed since Angela Merkel left office with her policies that offered Ukraine no such prospect even as it integrated the German economy with the Russian economy and China's economy during 4 terms in office. Leyen said "Ukraine is marching towards a European future." Chancellor Scholz addressed the German parliament after the invasion and hundreds of thousands of people turned out in Berlin that day.  Europe is voting with its emotions having been completely shaken by this experience. Leyen writes " It was important to start my visit in Bucha. Because in Bucha our humanity was shattered." ...

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Air quality index for PM2.5- particulate matter 2.5 extremely hazardous- reached 285 on November 9, 2023. The thick smoke was visible on NASA satellite imagery. Much of it come from burning of paddy rice straw after the rice harvest in states of Haryana and Punjab near New Delhi. Governments at the federal level and state levels have failed to stop the burning of stubble. The fire smoke adds to pollutants from industrial activities, and pollution from cars and buses. The first week of November and last week of October was when fire activity happened this year, delayed after monsoon rains.

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This  article by the WSJ Editorial Board says Mr. Trump acted in a way that was reckless and arrogant in responding to the subpoena by the government. It calls it narcissism and poor judgement not to cooperate in a matter related to documents of national security implications. It says the manner of treatment of these highly sensitive documents showed complete disregard of expected behaviour in such situations. It calls "owning the libs" discourse pursued by some in the Republican party, of waging culture wars, a dead end that serves no purpose and does little to build a better stronger America.

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This report in The Hindu says farm loan waiver promises at Congress party rallies contributed largely to its performance in the Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh. BJP offered only a limited waiver in UP and Rajasthan and has followed this as a matter of policy increasing the rural-urban divide that did not favor the BJP.

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Harry Kane Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford put England ahead in a 4-2 win over Croatia -openers in World Cup Soccer 2026, Harry Kane had 2 goals and was close to getting the third for a hat trick. It was an exceptional performance by Kane matching that of the French Bleu's Mbappe and Messi the day earlier. In the first half England and Croatia were 2-2. Coach Tuchel gave the English team a pep talk they took to heart to be the best they could be, "to be brave, courageous and tenacious on the front foot, and just go for it." This is what Tuchel told them in the words of Harry Kane- “He told us to take the shackles off, calm down and let’s go. He said what’s the worst that can happen? Show the world who we can be.” “We came out in the second half full gas and they couldn’t live with it, and that’s the level we have to set in every game. The way we controlled the game once we went ahead, we never really looked like we were in danger and then scored on the counterattack. We had a spell where we could have scored three or four. Credit to everyone: the first game of the tournament and a great result against a tough side.” This is how coach Tuchel described his pep talk to the team at half time- “I told them to calm down. We just conceded the goal. To calm down, calm their nerves. And encourage them to do it our way. I told them that my perception of them in the last 17 days will not change no matter what the result is. I want them to do it their way. Our way. I want them to be brave, courageous and tenacious on the front foot. And just go for it.”   ...

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President Richard Nixon was named by a grand jury in 1974 but was never charged with a crime says WSJ. By the time he left office Nixon's reputation had suffered severe damage. NYT reports that this is different with Mr. Trump who seeks the nomination of the Republican party in 2024, raising a whole new set of issues of what is and is not appropriate behaviour for the office of the president of the US or for that matter any high office in the United States of America. Ultimately new standards will be set and the past few years make be looked back on as an anomaly in the history of the US.

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The European Union has adapted well to a cutoff of supplies of Russian gas. Alternative sources were quickly pulled together in a matter of months after the invasion and cutoff to tackle the winter of 2022-2023. Conservation was moved into high gear, renewable energy investment expanded, and alternative sources for gas established. Germany sought supplies of LNG from the US and Qatar and built gas terminal at Wilhelmshaven in record time of less than 6 months. Norway increased gas supplies to Europe and now provides one third of Europe's gas needs. German industry changed the way they used gas supplies to reduce usage and make it efficient.

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Preet Chandi, does a solo trek across Antartica, skiing 700 miles for 40 days, doing about 17 miles a day. She had a 90 kilogram sled she pulled across sastrugi ridges in the hard snow and ice. Chandi says "I want people to push their boundaries and believe in themselves. No matter where your start line is, everybody starts somewhere." She trained on the icecap in Greenland and in ultramarathons in the Sahara to be able to do this. Preet Chandi is the first Asian woman- only a Swedish woman and another British woman have achieved this. Preet Chandi is a British army physiotherapist from Derby, England.

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This BBC report looks into the culture of overwork that becomes a fast track to burnout. Christina Maslach, professor of psychology at the University of Berkeley, says about this culture- if you take a plant put it in a pot, don't water it, give it lousy soil, and not enough sun, its going to wither away no matter how good it was to begin with. That is how much the workplace environment matters and today most people realize that it has gone in the wrong direction, with subtle messages and wrong signals pushing people into overwork. That is pushed forward by the nature of 24-7 being available with the internet. Only a conscious effort and a knowledge of the false signals in an out of place culture can help one make the right choices, and help life bloom the way it was supposed to be.

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After being immersed in the world of science the host of many BBC scientific documentaries is now confronted with emotions. Her experience with the pandemic and her own encounter with cancer has changed her conceptions of science. With advanced degrees and work in physics she calls herself intellectually promiscuous. Yet she says when asked about a simple concept of probability she says if something is with 95% probability going to happen, don't be surprised if it doesn't. Emotions matter and she does see the other side of fears when doing a BBC documentary on vaccination, and the emotional response to all the statistics shown to support vaccination efforts by people who are skeptical and have their own emotional responses and fears.

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Biden as president for 2024 and the matter of age is the subject of this report in WSJ. For too long the press has looked at president Biden's age as drawback ignoring his vast experience, and not Trump's only 3 years younger with poor food and exercise habits and overweight, as pointed out by Duke University Prof. Frank Bruni in the NYT. Here the WSJ at last shows that half of Americans born in 1942 are alive, with many of them about 650,000 working, 18% more than a decade earlier, according to Census Bureau. The saying is that 80 years is the new 60, because of advances in medicine, given healthy habits and exercise. 

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The monopoly over news publishing in the UK began in 1981 with the purchase of loss making The Times through negotiations with the trade unions.  As shown in The Guardian Rupert Murdoch met with Margaret Thatcher on Jan 3 1981 weeks before the matter was brought up by Thatcher at a cabinet meeting so that it would not be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. This is revealed in the Thatcher papers held at the Churchill archives in Cambridge 30 years after the event in 2012. This was the year Ronald Reagan's administration replaced Jimmy Carter's administration in 1981. In 2022 Tories Secretary Nadine Torries removed controls that protected the editorial independence of The Times. 

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President Trump reverses himself and says he supports intelligence agencies assessment showing Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election of 2016. Earlier Trump told reporters on an Asian trip he did not think Russia meddled in the U.S. election. He cited Russian president Putin's remarks on the matter about not meddling after a brief meeting. and said he agreed with Putin on this point.

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As a BBC reporter O'Connell interviewed Adam Neumann during the its highflying days when its share value today at $1.22 was $400. The company was about to do in office space rental what Amazon had done to retail and Neumann talked the talk, yet only a few years later the company is filing for bankruptcy.  Money went into valuation at $47 billion it is now $64 million. Billions of dollars wasted. Another example of how capital allocation in the American economy is failing and billions of dollars that are wasted could have been used to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure and public needs in health and education, fighting climate change.

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The US Supreme Court will soon make a decision on the power of president Biden to take action on student loan forgiveness for millions of borrowers when Congress has failed to take action. 43 million people in the US holding $1.6 trillion in student debt would get some form of forgiveness under president Biden's $400 billion plan. Arguments will be made at the Supreme Court with a 6-3 Trump appointed majority of Conservative justices and a decision expected in June. Congress has failed to resolve this matter of debt affecting a large part of the US population leaving it to president Biden to offer some form of relief before a larger resolution is backed by Congress. A ruling will be made by June.