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The Preamble to the US constitution makes clear the intent of the framers including Washington and Jefferson make establishing Justice and the maintaining the Rule of Law the first of five goals that include the general Welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty for all the People. It starts with the words- "We the People." It is something that is often lost sight of during periods of great technological change yet it has been revived by leaders from the time of Washington, through Lincoln and FDR right down to the present day.

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Pemex's new CEO, Emilio Lozoya, and his plans for improving the oil company's operations. He sees the opportunity to create efficiency and savings for Pemex as large because of the way the company has been run upto now. In this interview by Jose De Cordoba and Laurence Iliff, the new CEO cites as one example that only one airport in Mexico receives jet fuel by pipeline, the airport of Mexico City, the rest receive it by trucks. Lozoya is the son of a former energy minister. He is 38, has a Masters degree in economic development from Harvard and worked as an investment banker in New York. Lozoya says he will draw from the experience of other countries, including Brazil and Colombia which have sharply increased oil production after making their oil companies more competitive and transparent. In this interview he announced plans to setup a separate company to explore and produce shale gas and deep water oil in the U.S.

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In efforts to get Iran to end its uranium enrichment program a package of incentives includes full involvement in Iran's oil and gas industry, and full integration into organizations like the WTO. It includes offering state of the art light water reactor technologies for electricity generation, and a substantive package of nuclear R&D cooperation. This is a set of terms offered by the US and European partners as a combination and presented to Iran by the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani stated in response that Iran was ready to enter a another round of talks to reach a balanced conclusion and Bush called it a positive response. Robert Einhorn, a proliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argues that the main issues for Iran are prestige and security. And the only way the U.S. can address this he said is for the Bush administration to restore normalized relations with Iran.

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Agreement was reached for the civilian nuclear deal between India and the U.S. in all night talks, just as President Bush landed in New Delhi. Bush is changing the whole dynamic of India/Pakistan and U.S. relations in a manner comparable to Nixon's visit to China and handshake with Mao. It will never be the same. Divide and rule policies inherited from the British colonization period which pitted India and Pakistan in relation to western interests is put into the dustbin of history. A new period in the relations of the western nations with Asia is beginning, Japan in the Meiji period, China with its opening after the Nixon visit, and India now after the Bush visit. See the speech to the Asia Society by Bush. In this sense Bush and Rice are making huge farreaching changes coinciding with the changes they see in Asia, in a way not even fully understood by themselves and much less by the American press and even less by the American public.

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The results of a Wall Street Journal analysis of 11 countries shows the risk of a stretched out period of stagnation in the economies of the USA, the UK and Japan. Jobs is a critical area in which this is apparent. In Japan employment is down 3.3% from December 2007, in the UK 2% lower, and in the USA 4.8% lower from December 2007. U.S. household debt is down from 131% in early 2008 to 122%, and poses a big burden. In the UK the household debt is larger than in the USA. And Japan's deficits are over 200% of GDP, creating an overhang that depresses jobs and growth. S. Korea, Taiwan and Australia have benefitted from the recovery since 2008 in China, India and the rest of Asia.

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The loss of support of tribes in Anbar province, as Islamic State targets tribal leaders and officials who supported U.S. sponsored Awakening Councils during the presidency of George Bush. Many of the gains of that period are diminished with the lack of trust of Sunni tribal leaders in the Shiite led Iraqi government. For the tribes that are fighting Islamic State the Iraqi government is hesitant to provide support believing the arms will later be used against it. The U.S. government is also hesitant to increase its involvement. The Islamic state has alienated Sunni tribes supporting it because of its violent methods. These tribes support Islamic State because of a lack of alternatives and because of money paid to them by Islamic State.

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Pope Francis and Cardinal Parolin have an intimate knowledge of the situation in Latin America and Cuba. This made it possible for the Vatican to host the meeting of the U.S. and Cuban sides in October, to set the stage for the restoration of diplomatic relations in Dec. 2014.

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American companies, Google, Alcoa, Amazon and others are supporting the European Union's push towards reductions of carbon emissions for combating climate change. They are doing this by buying renewable energy through long term contracts that help reduce costs by about 10%. Google is doing this to support its data centers. Amazon is doing this with investments in wind farms in Ireland, and renewable projects in Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

The European Union plans to increase the proportion of renewable energy to 32% by 2030 at a cost of 260 billion euros.

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Britain's parliament voted Jan. 15, 2019 to reject the Brexit deal crafted by Theresa May with the European Union by a huge margin of 230 votes. The vote was 432 to 202, with 118 Conservative MP's voting against along with the entire Labour Party members. 

If a no-confidence vote by the opposition Labour Party is defeated as expected with 118 Conservative MP's backing the government in that vote, the uncertainty and rancour and bitterness will continue. May will look for ways to tweak the deal to get it through parliament. If this fails Britain could march out of the EU with no deal on March 29, 2019, or the date is extended. She opposes extending the date or having a second referendum.

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The U.S. plans to join the EU's WTO complaint over Russia's recycling fee for automobile imports which does not apply to domestically manufactured cars. EU officials say the levy has cut the imports of European automobiles into Russia by 7%. The levy was imposed for five years following Russia's admission into the WTO and is seen as unfairly discriminating against imported cars. Russian automobile sales reached 2,935,000 in 2012, increasing by 11% over 2011. Sales are estimated at 2.8 millon by the AEB trade group for 2013. All ten of the leading models by sales for 2012 were Russian domestically manufactured automobiles. The case goes before the WTO in July 2013.

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Bennhold and Erlanger of the NYT point out that prime minister Theresa May has remained vague about the nature of the negotiations for Brexit. The snap election increases the confusion with a hung parliament and no party getting a majority. The result can be seen as sending mixed signals. The British public by supporting parties such as Labor, SNP and Liberal Democrats with over 50% of the vote, is saying that it is not sure about Brexit being a priority for Britain, given the uncertainty for the British economy and other pressing problems. All this had been lost in the debate about hard and soft Brexit, in the political rhetoric taken up by Ms May when the basic questions about Brexit have not gone away. Here Erlanger and Bennhold take leaders back to these questions posed by former finance minister George Osborne. Osborne as Editor of The Evening Standard asked readers 10 questions- How is withdrawal going to increase trade when you leave the biggest free trading bloc in the world? How can withdrawal help London as the financial capital of the world? How is migraton going to be tackled when its not clear which business will have its labor supply restricted or curtailed. For these reasons- apart from many others about the whole process of withdrawal and the cost to Britain- the whole idea of Brexit appears to have not been thoroughly thought through. As a result the referendum vote may be seen in Europe as a temporary reflection of British opinion at that point of time, and subject to change over time.   ...

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A fight in the U.S. Congress with an unusual alliance between the Obama administration, the Judiciary Committee, and Speaker Boehner up against Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell ends with the passage of the USA Freedom Act, which requires court approval for government to look at collected bulk data in phone calls. Republican Rand Paul fought hard against both factions to end the bulk surveillance altogether. The Act was passed in the House earlier. It cleared the Senate June 2nd 2015 with 67 in favor and 32 opposed.

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Britain and other parts of Europe from France to Netherlands take another look at the racism during the period of British, Dutch and French rule in India, Indonesia and Indochina, as well as in British East Africa, French West Africa, South Africa where Gandhi began his Satyagraha before coming back to India.

Gandhi's Story of My Experiments With Truth is an autobiography that provides glimpses of life in South Africa and his life from childhood to 1921. It was published in Gandhi's journal Navjivan from 1925 to 1929. It also gives one a real feel of how he experienced the impact of the British Empire and ideas he derived from John Ruskin during the period he spent in London, and the gradual evolution of his philosophy of preserving the dignity of the individual in the context of the ideals of Vedanta and the Indian Upanishads.

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NYT coronavirus maps showing cases by county, April 21, 2020.