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Indian hockey returns with the first Olympic medal after 41 years. India was dominant in hockey at the Olympics for many years before losing this place to Australia, Britain, Argentina and Germany.

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On some of the major issues today, competition with China, vaccination drive, infrastructure, both parties in Congress are working together in 2020 with president Trump and in 2021 with president Biden. During 2020 Congress passed laws on competition promoting US, in 2021 Congress passed first aid to the people for the pandemic, and recently a $1 trillion in spending on infrastructure. The was achieved with help from Senators from both parties who worked hard together to find solutions. Brooks says in the NYT that Congress worked better than the CDC during the pandemic. Though the politics made the headlines Congressmen worked quietly in the halls of Congress to craft reasonable solutions to the nation's challenges to help the country recover from the pandemic and point the way to a bright future ahead.

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On September 26 Germany holds a general election to decide who will lead Germany after Merkel. Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats is seen as personally popular for his work in government with 48% support in recent polls, with Armin Laschet of the Christian Democrats at 24% and Annalena Baerbock at 27%. The Social Democrats poll 24% and are expected to form a government with the Greens at 16% and the FDP party. Baerbock of the Greens and Armin Laschet of the Christian Democrats have lost support in recent weeks with the floods and other events. The figures are from Deutschlandtrend poll by Infratest dimap Institute.  The CDU of Merkel looks less likely to form a government under leadership of Armin Laschet today compared to a few months before. Merkel is still popular with most Germans but this support does not carry over to Armin Laschet. There may also be some sense among Germans that it is time for a change in government after the Merkel years even though she is personally popular. The difficulties imposed by the pandemic on the German people, and the added problems of the floods could lead voters to look for change in government under new leadership more sensitive to the problems of today- infrastructure, employment participation of people held back by the pandemic, and rebuilding healthcare, education, childcare systems, tackling climate change issues. ...

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Italy and France have implemented vaccine passes. The health pass in France has helped to reverse the trend of waning vaccinations. In the two weeks after the vaccine health pass was made mandatory in France for cafes, transport and restaurants, the vaccinations for second dose increased by 6 million and the vaccination for first dose increased by 5 million. In Italy vaccinations increased by 200%.

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Indian hockey team coach for the Tokyo Olympics says the 16 players on the team show remarkable mental resilience. This report in the Times of India shows his approach to training the team as it reaches the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics. In the period before 1980 India was dominant in field hockey.

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China's response to the delta variant of coronavirus and the difficulties it is facing.

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Indian lady doctors who were pioneers in their field between 1860 and 1930 are shown here in this podcast in The Hindu. They had to balance work and family lives, and face many obstacles as they pioneered in their field. 

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India takes on the presidency of the UN Security Council in August. India will be a supporter of international law, says External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Maritime security and UN peacekeeping will receive India's attention. India is elected non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

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The US has a history of vaccination mandates, going back to the Revolutionary War under George Washington when all soldiers in 1777 were required to be vaccinated and Boston required the population to be vaccinated in 1809 for smallpox. Vaccine mandates were adopted during the measles, and diphtheria vaccination campaigns, and for other diseases. It is only through the mandates that these diseases were controlled. The coronavirus is no different as states and cities across the US take up mandated vaccination to avoid taking any risks with the fast spreading Delta variant.

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To make a dent in carbon emissions governments in Europe and North America need to support the use of low carbon solar panels in solar facilities installed there. This would enhance solar energy panel production in the US and Europe, India, other countries. Experts say the use of solar panels made using electricity from coal use in China creates more emissions in China while reducing emissions in the West. The result is that global emissions remain the same as if no solar panels were installed.  The global solar panel production is mostly concentrated in China because of the lower cost of electricity from coal used in production of panels- a critical factor in the lower prices of Chinese made solar panels. This allowed China to gain a monopoly in production of  world's polysilicon, an essential component in solar panel production, that consumes large amounts of electricity in the manufacturing process.  This use of coal generates twice the amount of carbon emissions in China than the solar panels made in Europe, say experts. As a result the governments and companies in Europe, US and India are shifting to local manufacturing of solar panels. ...

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"Exhaustion both physical and mental got to me," says Novak Djokovic, as he loses semifinals in the men's singles and mixed doubles. He also lost a men's singles match to No.11 Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain in the Bronze medal match. During the game with Busta of Spain Djokovic winged a racket into empty stands,  smashed one into net post, and all this right under the umpire, for which  he only received a warning. This report in WSJ describes it as a complete meltdown. It also goes to show that one needs an inner serenity and a life away from the media publicity to compete effectively in life and in sports.

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With vaccine hesitancy in the US the goal of vaccinating a large part of the US population is still elusive. Less than half of the US population is fully vaccinated as of July 30. The vaccination rates in the US are now much slower than India even taking into account the population difference. The vaccination in India is at the rate of 4 to 5 million a day for the past week in India. In the US this report in The Guardian shows 4.7 million vaccinated in the past 2 weeks. On July 30 856,000 people were vaccinated in the US compared to over 5 million in India.  Newspaper reporting that encourages vaccine hesitancy people to delay getting vaccinated because of poorly reported headlines is adding to vaccine hesitancy in the US. This has led to much frustration at the White House. The threat of the Delta variant is making more people to take vaccination. Southern states are seeing a jump in vaccinations. Many prominent Republicans are now endorsing vaccination.  One of the problems in tackling the Delta variant is the confusing nature of the CDC guidance on masks. On May 13 CDC issued guidance saying masks were not necessary indoors and outdoors. Now 3 months later in July the CDC says the threat of Delta variant means mask wearing is essential particularly indoors because of the higher transmissibility of the delta variant.  ...