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This report in the WSJ points out inflammatory content posted in India by Facebook that creates divisiveness in India between communtiies and ethnic groups, revealed in a WSJ Investigation. This comes at a time when the Indian government is focusing all its efforts and energies on building infrastructure and development projects under "sab ka vikas, sab ke saath, sab ka prayas, sab ka viswas," which means development for all, by all, with everyone's efforts, and with everyone's confidence." Polaraized content has no place in the country and its mission for development for all.  This report says the Indian government has threatened to jail employees of Facebook, its WhatsApp messaging service, and Twitter Inc. if they did'nt comply with data or take down requests, as reported in WSJ in February. The Indian government is determined to take action to prevent such content or content harmful to children being put out. In 2020 India banned TikTok and other social media platforms. Twitter was asked to block hundreds of accounts in India for posting what was seen as inflammatory material by the Indian government, according to this report. ...

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The Queen of England at age of 95 politely and firmly turned down the Oldie of the Year Award, saying "you are only as old as you feel." Actually Queen Elizabeth is doing all her duties making speeches, hosting leaders as normally as possible. The Queen will host international business investment leaders for a Global Investment Summit. She also told leaders that she was proud of Britain's efforts for climate change, and the moves to a sustainable future.

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To limit global warming to increase in temperatures by 1.5 degree centigrade by 2030 requires 2019 global emissions of 52 billion metric tons to come down to 25 billion by 2030. If China continues to use coal the way it now does till 2030 as is expected today it will continue to have the 2019 carbon emissions of 14 million metric tons or more than half of global carbon emissions from about 27% today. Vice premier Han Zheng China's top climate and energy official has reversed course from his earlier admonition in September to "curb resolutely the blind development" of high emissions coal projects. After wide blackouts in Chinese cities and power cuts to factories in the past couple of weeks the new priority Zheng says is "increase coal supplies by any means necessary." Coal provides power to 56% of China's heavy industry. Chinese localities have 104 gigawatts of top priority coal power capacity planned more than what is installed in Japan and Russia. ...

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On April 20, 1996 the story of the merger of Ciba Geigy with Sandoz was the first story in notes made that day for Lyrarc from the WSJ Europe. This was during a trip to Europe. Ciba Geigy and Sandoz had become part of the home medical kits in Asia and Latin America by the 1960's, and their story had to be told to millions of people in these countries bringing Basel, Switzerland, to the world. Sandoz was founded in Basel in 1886 as a chemical company in Basel, Switzerland, and entered pharmaceuticals business in 1900. Ciba Geigy was formed in the 1850's as a chemical company for dyeing silk fabrics and entered the pharmaceuticals business in 1930's. The two companies were merged in December 1996 to form Novartis. Today Sandoz is the generics manufacturing part of Novartis. As prices of generics have declined Novartis CEO Narasimhan is planning to sell or spinoff Sandoz. With this move Novartis will focus solely on innovative drugs, says this report in WSJ. CEO's have also shifted fin the 25 years since the merger of Ciba Geigy and Sandoz from one with family connections to one with a professional background from India.   ...

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The largest and most diverse parliament in German history will now convene. The 736 members of German parliament are much younger, with one 23 year old. 47 members are younger than 30 years. Michael is the most common name. 80 years is the oldest member from AfD. 83 members are from migrant families. 11% are from immigrant families. 

There are children of guest workers from Turkey. There are few doctors or healthcare workers, and not enough small business owners, and still too many lawyers. 34% are women. The Bundestag president is a woman from Social Democrats, Barbel Bas, a health policy specialist, she won 576 votes to 90.

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Jenny Medina looks at America's Biden 10 months into his presidency. Biden compared his presidency to that of FDR in his first years in office in 1933 with America in the depths of the Great Depression.  This report says FDR was better able to communicate how the New Deal would help families and workers in the face of distrust. Biden needs this today. During the ten months of the presidency Biden has already taken the tough decisions that are needed. For the vaccination drive, for the vaccine mandate on the coronavirus pandemic. On Afghanistan Biden took a similar tough decision to step away after learning the lessons of that conflict. He has quietly moved forward to build the alliance with Europe. On the infrastructure plan he has made the tough decision to make certain the essential components of spending on healthcare, education, childcare, support for mothers and older Americans are put in place, so that one bill for infrastructure is not passed without the bill for healthcare, childcare, mothers, elderly and education. Only this can provide the needed credibility for Republicans in states such as Tennessee who support community college open to all to come behind the overall Biden families and workers plan, and for working families throughout the whole country to support further spending for renewal of America.  ...

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US president Biden's effort to appeal to all American families and workers in the $2 trillion plan for investment in child care, paid leave, healthcare and education, and the importance of staying away from the divisive and polarizing effect of the Clinton years on Republicans, is part of the new approach of the Biden administration as it tackles America's most important problems with hopes for bipartisan support.

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The doubts among the unvaccinated and America's pandemic of the unvaccinated in the south and west of the country, difficulty reaching a consensus on things as basic as spending $45 billion or 2% of the $2 trillion Biden plan for workers and families on 2 years of community college, or finding a way to stem what is an alarming decline in enrollment in college of young men in America, all go back to a standoff between Republicans and Democrats. Tennessee in the South is Republican yet passed a bill supporting state paid community college with a supermajority, yet at the national level it is lacks support of Republicans and centrist Democrats. To see how this happens this NYT report presents the picture from the Democrats side of how Montana residents blocked a National Heritage area in the state. Other stories relate to distortions from the other side from the Republican point of view. One man, one vote is not entirely the way Democracy was designed by Jefferson, Madison and other founders. The Senate of the US is based on one state one vote, giving Montana an equal vote as California or New York. At one time Mike Mansfield, Democrat of Montana was the Senate majority leader. The intent was to design a system that looks not just for democracy but checks on majorities of the moment.  This means unity is the way to renewal of America, for building its infrastructure, education and health care. If Tennessee feels that way about community college it should express it, so should other states in supporting president Biden's plan to Build Back Better. ...

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Eddie Rosario from Puerto Rico is MVP after scoring a three run homer to help the Atlanta Braves beat the LA Dodgers. He is Atlanta Braves surprise hitter that even the LA Dodgers could not figure out, as they face the Houston Astros in the American baseball World Series.

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Hamburg is the key city in Germany's trade with China. About half of $200 billion in trade between Germany and China passes through the port of Hamburg. The South China Morning Post looks at the dilemma in Hamburg over relations with China in the post Merkel era. Merkel maintained strong and close ties with China signing an agreement with China her last year in office. This was when Mr. Trump was US president. Since then president Biden has changed US policy towards Europe. The South China Morning Post points out that The Greens and the FDP key partners of Scholz in a new coalition government, are critical of Merkel's policy towards China in its overall relationship with the US and the rest of the world. Scholz was mayor of Hamburg, and a partner in Merkel's coalition government in which he was vice chancellor. Scholz has talked very little on what the new German policy would be. China seeks to maintain its economic ties in the next few years with Germany while reducing its dependence on other countries under Xi Jinping's new vision for China that seeks to depend less on trade and real estate for its economy and growth. Yet the pace of change has accelerated during the pandemic with a new global supply chain emerging from the chaotic years of 2020-2021. US policy under president Biden is similar to policies under Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930's during the economic and political crises, and look to be setting a new path to the future for the rest of the world. ...

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The countries of Central and Eastern Europe are building closer relations with Taiwan. Central European and Eastern European countries trade less with China and see close relations with the US as essential for their security. This includes Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Czech Republic. Taiwan is increasing investments in Eastern Europe after investments by China failed to materialize in the last decade. Taiwan foreign minister is now on a visit to Slovakia and the Czech republic. For many Eastern Europeans the dominance of China brings back memories of the dominance of Soviet Union and the Cold War.  Taiwan says it is looking to deepen ties in the industrial, scientific and green energy fields with the region. Eastern Europe's perception of China has changed in the last three years as shared values of rule of law, democracy, and human rights with the rest of the world and the US are seen as important for the region.  Western Europe with France and Germany is also gradually moving away from its close dependence on trade with China. The French Senate is leading an effort to build closer ties with India by hosting Ambition India 2021 starting on October 29. Germany under Scholz of SPD and Baerbock of the Greens is moving away from the Merkel CDU era of close dependence on China in trade. ...

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New York La Guardia Airport is totally rebuilt with $8 billion renovation. The airport is half way through renovation, Terminal B is halfway finished. It should be completed by Spring 2022. One concourse looks out over Flushing Bay. 

New York La Guardia was for a long time probably the most hated airport in America. Now passengers getting off the plane at la Guardia even think they are at the wrong airport. The pandemic actually made construction easier with more space to work in. 

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This editorial in the Times of India says China's new border law that goes into effect on Jan 1, 2022, aims to tighten control over border areas, with strengthening of border defenses and integration of border populations. It says this means border relations will not be affected by improvements in bilateral relations. China is rejecting the Indian position for border standoffs to be settled through improvements in bilateral relations in other areas. The Times Editorial says that an "aggressive, inflexible, belligerent China" is what India now faces. 

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The Ayushman Bharat Mission (Swasth Bharat) launched by the Indian prime minister this week aims to fix the healthcare infrastructure that was neglected for decades since independence. It aims to increase investment to provide much of the rural population access to healthcare services. Investment in healthcare will increase over a six year period from 1.15% to 2.25% of GDP. The investment is of 64,000 crore rupees, about $10 billion over 6 years. By comparison the UK invested 5% of GDP in 1980 for healthcare spending which increased to 9% by 2017. This suggests that this is just the first step towards increased investment in healthcare spending to build medical colleges, hospitals facilities, and rural healthcare clinics from the smallest unit level in districts across the country.  The pandemic showed weakness in India's healthcare facilities particularly at the rural level. The Ayushman mission was launched in Uttar Pradesh India's largest state with a population of 250 million where healthcare facilities suffered most from neglect since independence. ...

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Bringing together all ministries and parts of government into an integrated planning and execution sought under the Indian prime minister's Gati Shakti Master plan for infrastructure is likely to bring a change in the culture of ministries and government at every level in India. Before for the years since independence in 1947 no attention was given to this idea of one team of many teams all working under one master plan at every level of government, much of the activity was conducted for development in separate silos. This massive culture change will accelerate development and ensure every rupee or dollar is spent to get the most out of infrastructure building efforts that benefit the public in India.

 

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The OECD countries in Europe including Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, spend on average $14,000 on childcare. The US spends astonishingly only $500 per toddler, about 4% of what advanced countries in Europe spend.The Biden plan is to change that. On the floor of the US Congress Senate minority leader McConnell protests against what he calls extravagant spending by the US in the Biden plan for families and workers.

In our selection of reports in world media we show the effect on women during the pandemic taking on childcare responsibilities with schools closed because of coronavirus. The impact has been a catastrophe for women leading to increase in mental health problems as culture and other reasons lead to women taking on 60-70% of child care and household chores. Women with careers are not able to join the workforce because of childcare shortages, losing income and feeling overburdened.