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Jimmy Carter visited North Korea during a tense moment in US North Korea relations after US concerns about fuel rods being taken out of Yongbon nuclear development plant in 1994. Through his contacts in China and the US  Carter was encouraged to visit Pyongyang, North Korea to negotiate directly with North Korean leader Kim Il Sung. He did this during the Clinton Administration and negotiated with Kim who this report in the BBC says was keen on settling the dispute with the US that could lead to war in the Korean peninsula. 

Jimmy Carter is seen as a one term president. Yet he accomplished  a lot using his experience as a former president in improving relations with China, and in relations with other countries around the world. This is almost as effective as a second term even more so, and covered a span of 40 years from 1980 to 2020.

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Harris Primary Academy in southeast London is a primary school that shows how reopening can be done safely. The primary school's head teacher Mr. French says nothing was left to chance and the logistics detail were handled carefully. The children practice social distancing with games and "helicopter arms."  

Parents and teachers feel comfortable in the carefully set environment. Children have all they need at their tables which are set a distance apart and stay in "bubbles" of ten children. Not all children are back but for the parents who felt it was right to start their children at school it has been a good experience, and one that can be emulated in other places.

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WSJ reporters Chow, Schechner and Kostov provide this exceptional report from the 11th Arondissement in France, scene of the terrorist attacks in Nov. 2015, describing the conflicting visions of French society- one secular and the other in other parts of the country anti-immigrant. The National Front of Marie Le Pen sees immigration as "a mortal threat to France" and won about 25% of the vote in France in the 2014 European parliament elections, a first for a anti-immigrant party in Europe. It did very well in rural areas and small towns of northwest France and southern France. The debate on immigration is now dominating headlines in Europe, including Denmark, Norway, Germany, France, Rumania, Hungary, and other countries. The Syrian refugee crisis has exacerbated the situation.

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Saeed Jan Qureshi, with only a high school education and a passion for books, started an extraordinary bookstore in Islamabad, Pakistan. Th store is now one of the largest in the world, with 42,000 square feet over 3 stories, displaying 200,000 titles, and an inventory of 4 million books in 5 warehouses, books mostly in English. Rod Norland of the NYT provides an exceptional and heartwarming story of the man, his son, and a passion for books that gives a different picture of Pakistan, the country and its people. Saeed's son Qureshi provides advice to readers, referring them to a book "Fallen Leaves," by American historian Will Durant. The story shows the passion for reading and books in South Asia.

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Francois Bayrou the new PM of France speaks a dialect of the Pyrenees mountains, is mayor of Pau, and was a school teacher before entering politics. He has a disdain for extreme positions on both sides left and right, including polarizing politics of Sarkozy. He gave key support to Macron at the right time when he needed it to run for president. He gets along well with Le Pen and has helped Marie Le Pen run for president in the past when she needed support because he felt this was essential for the democratic process. He was not the first choice of Macron and insisted on taking the job over other choices.

Pau is located 31 miles from the Spanish border with a clear view of the Pyrenees mountains. It is an ancient city with a University at Bearns, and a medieval heritage.

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Shinzo Abe had a vision of a broader Asia. In Abe's own words- " A broader Asia that broke away from geographical boundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form. Our two countries have the ability - and the responsibility - to ensure that it broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas to become seas of clearest transparence." He added "By coming together in this way, this 'broader Asia' will evolve into an immense network that will span the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the United States of America and Australia. Open and transparent, this network will allow people and goods, capital and knowledge to flow freely." It is this vision that is taking shape today in 2022. And India's unique role in Asia was grasped by Abe. Abe reminded Japanese and Indians of the unique contribution of Vivekananda, calling him a great spiritual leader India gave to the world, and stretching back to many others way back in time to Bodhidharma, and then way back from that to one whose name all know.  During one of these visits to India Abe said- "Vivekananda came to be acquainted with Tenshin Okakura, a man ahead of his time in early modern Japan and a Renaissance man, Okakura was then guided by Vivekananda and also enjoyed a friendship with Sister Nivedita, Vivekananda's loyal disciple and a distinguished female social reformer. Many people are aware of all that." Praising India's spirit of tolerance Abe said- "From the reign of Ashoka the Great to Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement of non violent resistance the Japanese people are well aware of the unbroken spirit of tolerance in Indian spiritual history." Vedanta and Buddhism went from India through Bodhidharma to China and then from China to Japan with Dogen and other spiritual leaders from Japan bringing it from China then called the Pure Land in the 13th century. Vedanta and Buddhism now finds it way centuries later from India to Japan- from where it moves onwards to China and East Asia. ...

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Spiegel Online's interview with Emmanuel Macron, on the TGV 8434 train from Bordeaux to Paris. He is joined by Mrs. Macron. Macron says he is aware that he does not have a bloc of core support like Ms. Le Pen, yet he says this means he will try that much harder for voters on the right and the left. He says their is no political renewal in the political class in France and that it remains closed. He says particular attention must be paid to rural France outside big cities like Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Paris, where people have had a different encounter with globalization. On the European Union he sees the need to revitalize it by having a closer union focussed on countries that are interested in this. He sees the need for a joint finance minister and permanent head of Euro Group. This might be a smaller EU without countries such as Britain, and others who are not interested in a closer union. He does not agree with the idea that any member state of the EU can stop other member states from proceeding. Macron does not believe in moving to the right as in the Dutch election because he says people are "not idiots" and in France this has not worked for Nicholas Sarkozy, which has some truth to it as authenticity (and humility) matters to French voters. A personal approach worked for Fillon early on till the scandal over payments he received. Macron brings to this personal approach and relative youthfulness, his sense that he must appeal to all segments, rural and urban, educated and less educated, and at the same time be true to core values such as preserving the European Union, and authenticity in terms of views on Algeria. He also says he is aware he faces risks but that this is something he believes in deeply.   Macron has not hesitated to express his views on topics such as Algeria, calling it a crime against humanity, and later elaborating on what he meant. Macron says his movement En Marche is different in style and manner from the closed nature of French politics. He believes in transparency, term limits, and removing conflicts of interest in French politics, as a way to make a fresh start. The first round of voting is on April 23, 2017, followed by a second round of voting between two candidates.  ...

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Since mid-2014 the dollar has strengthened by 19% against the euro and 17% against the Japanese yen. This is putting new pressure on American manufacturers to come up with efficiency improvements to cut costs and move into markets with better pricing power. This will increase in importance in 2015-2016 as the euro moves towards parity with the U.S. dollar increasing the competitiveness of German and other European manufacturers. The Japanese yen at 116 to the dollar in Jan 2015 gives Japanese manufacturers an edge in pricing competitiveness.

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100 billon euros. That is 100,000 millions and rising, thats the total banking debt of Ireland, says John Banville. And this for a small country of 4.6 million people. Debt for our children, and our children's children, and our children's children's children, he says. And the enemy cannot even be identified. He says one Irish building firm, owned by a decent man and well-meaning man is said to have debts of 1.5 billion euros. One thing the Irish have learned, he says, is the value of public and private honesty.

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Mark Landler of the NYT intervews Ben Bernanke at his office overlooking the Washington Mall, and Secretary Paulson in his Treasury office. Both men look back at events that led to Chinese savings financing excessive American consumption, and currency and other policies on both sides perpetuating the dependence of America on lowpriced Chinese products, and of China on the American export market. Now that this export market is collapsing it presents China with serious problems with unemployment in the export sector, and pesents America with the hangover from a consumption binge that now must be paid for with years of low or negative growth. Could this have been foreseen and if foreseen could things either have been mitigated or prevented. In March 2005, Prof. Bernanke at Princeton was not at the Fed (his Fed job started in 2006), and cautioned about the imbalances presented by Chinese savings finacing American consumption. But Bernanke saw this as a market phenomenon that would take years, even a decade to work itself out in a global economy. He said "for now, we have little choice except to be patient." The prevailing opinion among Greenspan, Bernanke and others was that the global economy worked in ways that were ultimately benign and regulation was not a good thing. After all the situation benefitted American consumers and kept inflation low while also providing China as an additional engine for global economic growth. The American economy it was believed was large and resilient, and it would not be adversely affected in the long run by such a large dependence on foreign savings. Only the positive effects were visible and the adverse effects were simply talked away as not serious for now. Zoellick, who was deputy secretary of state says that successful models are very hard to change, and Paulson says that without some kind of crisis its hard to get changes made once asituation gets entrenched. For China efforts to strengthen the currency that would slow exports and improve internal consumption were stymied by a reluctance to disturb the status quo, and Americans were lulled into complacency as years of low priced imports provided the best of both worlds, high growth and low inflation. ...

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The race to get the votes of 240,000 Latinos in Latino areas of Philadelphia for Harris-Walz, particularly Latino men.

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The pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, unemployment in the US separated workers from their jobs just long enough to give them a chance to rethink how bad their jobs, incomes, and working conditions were before 2020, says this expert in the NYT. The aid to unemployed workers through long term unemployment benefits, moratorium of rent payments, direct money to households, gave workers enough financial room to make the choice not to go back to poor paying jobs with huge contact risks from coronavirus in the restaurant, fast food franchise, travel and entertainment industries, related industries.  With the Biden administration investing in child care, maternity leave, care for elderly leave, new opportunities for relocating and looking for work were opening for women, and for men who had stuck to old jobs and put up with lousy conditions because of a lack of alternatives. Biden administration's Families and Workers Plans, the effects of the pandemic, helped to shape a new culture of what was possible for workers- a sense that dignity in the workplace was part of culture in America. Restored by FDR/Truman and now again by Biden after two tech booms in the 1920's and the 1990's. A similar situation of a change in culture respecting the dignity of workers and of work is taking place in European Union as stated by SPD leader Olaf Scholz in his election campaign in Germany. Scholz is now incoming Chancellor replacing Merkel. European Union countries have better laws and rules in place for worker retention, and also better worker protections so that the great resignation that happened in America took place in a milder version. ...

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Melissa Eddy of the NYT provides this exceptional account of the debate in Germany on national priorities, as the child care educators represented by the Verdi service workers union go on strike for a 10% increase in wages. Workers at entry level jobs in manufacturing represented by strong unions earn the same pay as teachers in child care centers and early childhood education who have many years of experience. The child care education workers are supported by the federal family minister, SDP minister Manuela Schwesig, who says that the additional experience and education upto university level of the child care educators in early childhood education should be recognized. Schwesig said: "We need a debate in Germany on how much we value the work of those who take care of the early education of our children and with young adults." One aspect of the 240,000 child care educators strike has drawn less attention. This is the gender pay gap as a large percentage of educators in childcare centers are women. Equal Pay Day in Berlin was organized for June 5, to call for equal pay for women who have fallen behind in pay. Data from the European Commission in 2014 shows Germany ranks third to last in gender pay equality, with only Estonia and Austria trailing behind, as cited by Deutsche Welle. Schwesig who attended the rally pointed out: "When women, despite equal work and education, earn less than their male colleagues, it is not only unfair. It is wrong." While Germany has moved ahead in quotas for female employees, women in boardrooms, parental leave, this does not help women in critical areas such as early childhood education and elderly care, which suffer from a large pay gap with men working in manufacturing jobs. ...

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The suicide of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain who had a popular television program, brings new attention to the increase in middle age suicides ages 45 to 64 in the U.S.  The CDC figures show a 60% increase for women and 37% for men between 2000 and 2016. A clinical instructor in psychiatry and medicine at Cornell, Ms. Boardman says life satisfaction is low at this age,a dip in satisfaction called the U curve. A 2016 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine  shows stress factors as problems with intimate partners job/finances, health, family, and criminal/legal problems.  The demographic group driving suicide rates up is mainly white people without a 4 year college degree, who have done poorly compared to that group in a previous generation, say experts at Columbia University. 

Generally isolation and loneliness is also a factor, and social connections a big antidote to depression type stress.

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The return of sound money is good for the US economy and US savers among the common people. The end of tech excess valuations and profits is also good for the US economy. Joe Davis of Vanguard talks about ways in which the policies of the Biden administration and the US federal Reserve's Jay Powell are benefiting the US and the American people including millions of savers after the excesses of Tech and the financial sector since 2009. The return to a more stable long run economy is now facing the US, says Davis.

The rest of us other than them, other than the Tech sector and others who benefitted from negative rates, we will benefit from this change. By Vanguard calculations ten year return forecasts will increase by 2% percentage points annualized for equities and for fixed income since last year. This is a good thing for America.

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English parents struggling to feed their children even this preschool teacher in London, as Emma Bubola reports for the NYT from London, UK. It is atrocious says a church minister running a food bank in Derby, in central England, that working families are having to come to food banks. Prince Charles talked first about people at food banks in his Christmas message this year. One estimate is that a fifth of familes are from families with jobs but unable to keep up with the cost of living. Warm spaces are being set up in Methodist and other churches. One food bank worker says you see ambulance crew, teachers, and asks what does this say about the community, about the country? Ten years of Tory austerity policies have made things worse. On a recent night a nurse walks into a food bank in the east London neighborhood of Hackney. This isn't a normal Britain.

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China's military drills around Taiwan have an unintended effect of creating a shift in American and European sentiment on the overconcentration of US and EU investment in China. Business in Germany and in the US has operated for a long time in the Merkel and Bush-Obama-Trump administrations a if this overconcentration which hurt workers and communities in both the EU and the US did not matter as long as the interests of the individual companies was met. Mr. Biden's policy takes an entirely different approach to protect American workers, rebuild American manufacturing, rebuild infrastructure, and to build America's leadership in the world. The military drills only increase the awareness in America of the risks and dangers of the positions taken by previous administrations. Shifting sentiment to back president Biden's strong steps to rebuild America and American leadership.

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Prime minister Boris Johnson outlines his plans for 2021 in the Queens Speech in May 2021. Johnson pledges to seize the opportunity coming from the "extraordinary spirit" with which the British people had faced the corona virus pandemic. He called it "an historic opportunity to change things for the better, level up opportunities across the whole of the UK and address the whole of the problems that have constrained us far too often before." By this he said  he referred to the deep wells of kindness, ingenuity and resourcefulness that exist in each village, town and city in the UK. The government's task will be to unleash that potential.

Jeremy Hunt, a Tory MP and former Health Secretary said that the government needed to address the problem of social care and the catastrophically high care costs that are hitting one family in ten in the United Kingdom.

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Asbit faces months of protests in Hong Kong with no end in sight China decides to take the long view. Carrie Lam has said that China is playing the long game in Hong Kong as it has too much stake in world affairs and its trading relations. This is particularly true today with trade tensions with the U.S. and a wary Europe. 

The story is one of two cultures, with Hong Kong very different from the culture president Jinping and Mainlanders know. There is little space in between so being patient appears to be the best way. Jinping met Carrie Lam recently in China and says he trusts Carrie Lam, a civil servant in the British tradition, who is caught between the two conflicting cultures and wants to take a break from the chaotic situation in which she can rarely go out without meeting protesters.

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Indian security officials say Chinese troops have moved back several miles at 3 disputed border patrol points in one of the Himalayan areas. Reduction is not substantial but it shows intent of the two armies said the official cited in the WSJ report. China also removed two dozen armored vehicles. India has also withdrawn some of its vehicles and troops from the front lines. This is after the two sides met for de-escalating tensions. In 2017 for 2 months there was a standoff in  a stretch of land near Bhutan. This one is near Ladakh region in the high Himalayan mountains. The border is 2000 miles long in the mountains of Tibet, Ladakh, Bhutan. This one was near the Pangong Tso lake which is pictured in the WSJ report at a high altitude. India has tried to match Chinese road building and infrastructure efforts in the area in recent years.

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Farmers protests asking for minimum support price to be extended to other products beyond rice and wheat. About 260 million people are employed in agriculture in India with many farmers on small plots, and large farms depleting water supplies. Efforts to introduce market pricing that would increase farm incomes and to shift more agricultural labor to the industrial sectors that build modern infrastructure and to factories are designed to improve standards of living. The pandemic and the years of slow growth before 2014 and lack of infrastructure building in earlier decades means the kind of shift of agricultural workers to factories that happened in China will be the task of the next ten years. The next budget for 2024-2025 shown in adjoining powerpoint shows the increase of capital expenditures of 11.1% in the coming year for infrastructure that is meant to catch up to the advanced industrial economies of the world with sustained investment at scale over the next decade. ...

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In the past no confidence motions against president Macron's government put forward by a group of left parties failed by 50 votes. Today's no confidence motion by the left parties led by Mr. Melenchon failed by just 7 votes. The vote for a separate no confidence motion of right parties led by Marine Le Pen failed by a wide margin. 19 members of the centrist Les Republicains with 61 members in the National Assembly voted against Macron's government. This means the government will find it harder to govern. A survey by French polling firm Elabe shows 65% of French people polled support the strikes against the pension overhaul. For Mr. Melenchon's coalition of parties this means it is drawing support from centrists in an effort to form the next government that addresses the issues of workers and families in the way president Biden is doing in the US.

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The Guardian looks at Lachlan Murdoch's career and how he differs from his sisters and from his brother James. He is seen as closer to his father in his thinking than James which is why after leaving Fox News following differences with Roger Ailes his father tried to get him back. This happened with an absence of ten years. The family trust set up for Murdoch's four children shows all jointly share in the family stake. This means the others will also have an influence in the future and the direction prospects of this media business left by Rupert Murdoch. As the world moves to the internet and new ways of learning news this marks the end of an era in which a few people were able to move public opinion- Beaverbrook and Murdoch belong to a different century, the twentieth not the twentyfirst.