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Since taking over Italy's right wing Northern League Party in 2013, Matteo Salvini, 44 years old, has improved the party's appeal by appealing to parts of Italy's north beyond its base in Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto. The Milan native called for greater autonomy for the northern region, and even secession, supporting the northerners view that tax money from the prosperous north was being wasted on the poorer regions in the south. He also entered into an alliance with Silvio Belusconi's Forza Italia party. He took a hard line on immigration. Salvini has called for a train service for Milanese only, to draw attention to immigrants from non-EU countries. The head of the Five Star Movement  Party of Beppe Grillo, is Luigi Di Maio, who has called for ending the "taxi service" that brings to Italy migrants stranded on small boats in the Mediterranean. The shift in sentiment in Italy towards immigration has helped parties on the right as it has done in Italy and to a lesser extent in Germany with AfD's larger presence in the German parliament. ...

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As this report in WSJ shows underreporting of coronavirus cases is a serious problem for Africa, and the figures from Africa's CDC, part of the African Union, do not show the magnitude of the problem. It shows that health workers in places from Yaounde in Cameroon to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, to cities in Somalia, are reporting a situation quite different from what the CDC shows, with hotspots emerging in some places with little in the way of resources.

Only 1 million tests have been done and half are in SOuth Africa and Ghana. WIthout the testing it is hard to know how many cases there are. Capetown area in South Africa is emerging as a hotspot and hospitals are expected to be overwhelmed within weeks. Officially Tanzania a country with 56 million has 509 cases and 21 deaths, yet this contrasts with reports from health experts. Cameroon and South Sudan are also possible emerging hotspots in addition to Tanzania says this report in WSJ.

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History will see the lack of working on a bipartisan basis from the beginning of the Trump and Biden terms to stop illegal migrants and fight CMC (Canada, Mexico and China) on fentanyl flows as a blot on both parties. A remarkable change has happened in a matter of 100 days in Canada's stance on immigration and fentanyl flows. Trudeau now calling for eradication of fentanyl, his deputy prime minister saying Canada has more fentanyl deaths per capita than the US because of smaller population, and the need to wipe it out off the face of North America. The Canada Conservatives generally support DJT. The Trudeau Liberals have shifted policy to support DJT policies on immigration and fentanyl flows. In general Canada is making a pronounced shift towards support of the US position on immigration.  It is not just DJT policy as closing the border was part of the agreement agreed by Biden in 2024 with Republicans in Congress led by Lankford-Graham-McConnell which was not passed because it was too close to the election. One can only say the Covid pandemic, vaccination shortfalls, failures of supply chain distracted Biden from acting early and similar to DJT on the first phase of immigration action on illegal migrants committing offenses. The release of illegal migrants across the US is something that Democrats will years from now see as a major error in its policies. History will see the lack of working on a bipartisan basis from the beginning of the Trump and Biden terms to stop illegal migrants and fight CMC (Canada, Mexico and China) on fentanyl flows as a blot on both parties. ...

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Jaffe and Eilperin provide this exceptional account describing the huge struggle of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to come to grips with the opioid crisis in rural America. Vilsack is from rural Iowa, where he was a small town Mayor. The opioid epidemic has personal overtones for Vilsack because of his parents addiction and growing up seeing the lack of helping hands. Vilsack. a two term governor of Iowa has witnesses these struggles in Iowa, as the state rural areas faced high poverty rates, more likelihood of being obese, less likely to go to college, and more likely to be pregnant in the teen years, than the rest of America. Vilsack is frustrated not just with the Obama administration but also with Congress, the media, the private sector with high pharmaceutical prices, for not giving enough attention to rural America. He sees rural America as providing the food grown and a disproportionate share of the military. The opioid epidemic comes at a bad time for rural America. This report provides a story that is typical where a dose of painkillers for a Navy employee leads to addiction and use of opioids. The whole experience has made Vilsack sound cranky to people in the White House. ...

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Brandenburg Berlin metropolitan region of which Brandenburg and city of Berlin are separate states remains a strong economic region. This is where Germany has evolved under ruler Frederick since the end of the Thirty Years War in 1648. Dietmar Woidke of ruling Social Democrats is expected to win a fourth term in office with the SPD expecting 25% of the vote in the important state of Brandenburg next to Berlin. Even though the AfD right wing party is expected to do well approaching 25% of the vote, there are other factors at work. Sara Wagenknecht has rebranded the Die Linke Left party with immigration policy that is similar to policies now being accepted in Denmark, France, Netherlands and other EU countries that see the need to restrict immigration, drawing 15% support. A good example being Mette Frederiksen, Social Democrats in Denmark. A coalition with the Christian Democrats CDU with about 15% expected vote and Greens with less than 5% is likely for about 45% of the vote. Other factors that show a stable Brandenburg are the economy with the new regional airport hub of Berlin Brandenburg airport, a new Tesla factory, rich natural resources a third of the state of 2.6 million people being filled with forests and lakes, and a stable population after the reunification in 1990 without rural depopulation as in other parts of East Germany, only 12% people of immigrant background including Wagenknecht.   ...

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This report in NYT looks at the Barbados debt crisis. Barbados spends 55% of its budget to pay interest on debt (servicing the debt). That leaves about 5% for health and climate change. Years of borrowing that ignored basic rules of financing have created serious problems that were compounded by the pandemic and hurricanes. This report shows that the total deb of Barbados was not known to the central bank. Borrowing was approved at exorbitant interest rates. One loan with Credit Suisse for $150 million is shown here with interest rates that lead it to become a catastrophic amount owed. Many such loans without any checks and supervision of total loans taken, lack of financial prudence rules followed, lack of transparency and alerts on borrowing and spending tend to create this kind of situation in many poor countries. About two thirds of developing countries are in this situation owing one third of their budget for debt service or paying interest on the loan. The situation is unstable to begin with. Then on comes along a hurricane or natural disaster such as the pandemic and the unstable situation becomes a catastrophe. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Caribbean nations, nations in Africa, face debt crises that are getting worse. It is not inevitable or destiny for nations today, consider the examples of large nations such as Japan, China, South Korea and India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and one can see that development finance can be prudent and responsible, so that situations such as the pandemic can be handled without going into disarray. ...

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Taking a fresh look at the scenery outside on a walk outside can bring feelings of being hopeful and upbeat, especially today with the coronavirus.

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Uncertainty Germany faces as it faces a new election on February 23, 2025. 630 members of German parliament will be elected Feb 23 instead of September 28, 2025 because the FDP of Lindner decided to withdraw from the Scholz SPD Greens coalition. The chancellor is elected from the majority in parliament.

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Le Monde gives a detailed look at the origins of the RN and Marie Le Pen in her father's party the Front Nationale that had it's origins in France's War in Algeria. It's first success was in town councils in the south east Cote de Azur where former French Algerians had settled in large numbers. Jean Le Pen was the son of a fisherman in the Brittany region who lost is life hitting a mine during the war in Occupied France. He was a teenager at the time and is shown here as a ward of the state. He tried to enlist in the War in Vietnam but got there just after Dien Bien Phu and worked in Saigon for a newspaper Caravelle. He returned to France and joined a paratrooper unit in the French Air Force during the Algerian War and became an opponent of De Gaulle's policy in Algeria to decolonize the region. He inherited the fortune of a French cement manufacturer who supported his party FN. Chirac and Sarkozy become his opponents. For 20 years after this he is shown to win anywhere between 2% and 10% in European and French presidential elections. His daughter Marie Le Pen and her supporters decided to rebrand the party as Reassemblement Nationale RN and win as much as 15-20% and more recently 30% of the vote in presidential and EU elections. The fatigue with Macron leads to a surge in RN support in small towns and rural France. Marie changes her stance on the EU willing to support the EU. ...

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Vaccine passports are seen as discriminatory in Britain and by Boris Johnson. The goal is to get the entire population vaccinated. To have vaccine passports when only some segments of society are vaccinated creates a two tier society, it is felt.

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WSJ reports that Russian forces face insurgency style tactics and attacks on supply lines and weak points that limit their advance in the north. In the south and southeast Russia is better able to supply its army than in the north.

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It is important to remember that FDR and Harry Truman won in North Carolina by huge majorities, so did Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy, LBJ. In fact going back to Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916. Democrat Josh Stein, Attorney General elected in 2020 and Republican Mark Robinson, the Lt. Governor are very different candidates for governor in North Carolina. Rory Cooper, a Democrat, who won by 4 percentage points is not running after two terms as popular governor because of term limits.  Cooper's focus has been on education, ease of living, infrastructure and clean energy. North Carolina has one of the largest rural populations in the country with one in three being rural with new out of state residents settling in the suburbs. In recent years it has generally voted for a Democrat as governor and Republican for the legislature. Only in  elections since 1980 except in 2008 it has voted Republican for president. In 2024 it is expected to be a swing state. If elected Robinson would be the first black governor of North Carolina, Stein the first Jewish governor.   ...