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People who worked with Romney in the Mormon church describe the experience of Romney who started as an "iron rodder" walking the straight path, and gradually learning of other people's experiences that led to learning and growth and showing a new openness. In contrast to his "47%" remark about people dependent on the government, here he is seen telling another church member Barlow, that what bothers him most and what he has thought a lot about is how to genuinely help the poor in his church. Over the years he learned to compromise with Mormon feminists who sought larger roles in the church and was able to make the progress from being less flexible to being open to other ideas and perceptions. In other situations he allowed unorthodox progressives in the Mormon church to play a part in the organization and teach. The outreach efforts Romney participated in actively included efforts in the inner city and working with immigrants from Haiti, some of whom were illegal immigrants. This is a detailed well researched account from talking to many people active in the church organization and in the church community by Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post. It is one of the rare glimpses of the life of Mitt Romney inside the church. Because of the public perception of Mormonism there is a distance kept with accounts of life in the church, and Romney has shown the same reticence to talk about the church. Seen as a church it is is like other churches, Catholic or Protestant, with the same challenges that face all churches- keeping up the size of the congregation, the poor, immigrants, church organization, raising contributions, getting people to donate hours of work to the church activity. It is one of the ironies of the 2012 presidential campaign that Romney as a member of a Mormon church in a predominantly Catholic and Protestant world has remained reticent about his experiences and how it shaped him. And also remained reticent -till the last months of the campaign with the demands for authenticity growing strident- about how the experiences as governor of the liberal state of Massachusetts had shaped him, this time as the number of Republican politicians in sharply liberal states were a distinct minority in the Republican party. To voters this meant not knowing who he was beyond Bain Capital, the perceptions of which doggedly pursued Romney till the reticence became unbearable in the final weeks of the campaign....

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Out of a world population of 8 billion, the population of the Middle East and the Gulf region is about 400 million, or just 5% of the population with 90% of the wars since the 1970's. Keeping this region denuclearized is of fundamental interest to the major population centers in north and south America, Europe including Russia as western civilization, and India and China which have embraced western civilization and it's scientific revolutions. Russians and Americans see themselves as part of western civilization. On this point there is no difference, none, it is only who is the more important and whose view of the world is right. Asian civilization including China and India see the benefits of western civilization, of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution and embrace it wholeheartedly and wish it had come sooner on of their own volition and intent. Other than the Korean and Vietnam wars fought in their origins against the Japanese and the French colonialism and Empires, the wars of the Middle East since the end of colonialism stand out. In Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen the only other major wars since the 1970's there are religious and ethnic wars that are of no interest to the people of three continents Europe, Americas, and East and South Asia, for whom the spread of nuclear weapons to the Gulf region brings nothing but dangerous developments for their peoples and for the peace of the world. ...

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On the 80th Anniversary of the Quit India Movement launched by Mohandas Gandhi on August 8, 1942, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu offers this message to Bharat. He recalls the hundreds of years of periodic invasion from the mountains in the northwest since 1200 followed by the British incursions and Empire since 1700, and the trillions of dollars drained from the country because of the division of the country and its cultural, religious, and economic deterioration that weakened it. Emotional integration of the country is essential says Naidu, who is a southerner who has learned the ways of the north and the south and other parts of the country, and studied the parliamentary traditions set by the great leaders of the 1940's and 1950's. Naidu is a rare politician in India who has a passion for the country, and desire to continuously learn how great leaders Naoroji, Tilak, Gokhale, Gandhi, Bose, Rajagopalachari, Nehru, and Prasad fought in the struggle for independence since 1880 from the British Empire. As leader of the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of parliament since 2017, and leader of the ruling party since its inception and first government under Atalbihari Vajpayee, Venkaiah has been in most of the momentous events of India's 75 years.  ...

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A look at the Palestine conflict from 1947 to 2023. The British Mandate for Palestine gave Britain a role in administering this part of the Middle East after it took control of the region from the defeated Ottoman Empire in the First World War 1914-1918. The League of Nations set up the Mandate with intention to take the people in this territory to independence. The UN in 1947 gave about 56% of Palestine to the Jewish people and 44% to the Arab people. When the Arab people rejected this UN settlement and Arab neighbors Jordan, Egypt and Syria invaded in 1947 about 70% of the territory went to the new state of Israel. There have been repeated conflicts almost every 7 years since and there are factions within Israel and inside Palestine Arabs who have protracted the dispute, including over holy sites in Jerusalem, without seeking the kind of settlement that won peace for Ireland after hundreds of years of British rule and discrimination. The world with its billions of people in China and India who seek development and billions of people in Africa and Latin America who seek a way out of poverty, has no interest in prolonging small conflicts that distract from the importance of tackling climate change, infrastructure development and education, healthcare, ...

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A practicing Baptist Kamala Harris spoke of attending 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, on this visit to a church in Philadelphia. Harris says- "I see a nation determined to turn the page on hatred and division, to chart a new way forward. I see Americans from so-called red states and blue states who are ready to bend the arc of history toward justice.” “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” Harris quoting from the Bible. “Joy cometh in the morning. And church, morning is on its way.” "It is the power to advance freedom, justice and opportunity, not just for some, but for all God’s children...as we look ahead to a moment that will define the very character of our nation.” "My earliest memories of those teachings are about in loving a God who asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for them.”     ...

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Theresa May becomes the only candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party after Ms Leadsom withdraws from the race. No leadership vote will no take place with Conservative Party members and no early general election is planned. May is expected to become prime minister of Britain by July 12, replacing David Cameron. Her theme is for "one Britain" and to do away with the rising inequality and gap between London and the rest of the country, which was part of the anxiety of voters who voted 52% for Brexit on issues of immigration burden on social and health services, national sovereignty, and a sense of ordinary people being neglected by elites in both parties. May will invoke Article 50 to leave the European Union and begin a 2 year period of negotiations only after she has developed a clear negotiating strategy. Kenneth Clarke, a Conservative Party cabinet minister called May a "bloody difficult woman," but this did not affect May, who said Mr Juncker of the EU was the one who would find this out in negotiations.  What is significant for Britain is May's moderate position coupled with a clear goal for removing some of the causes of the inequity in British society, which is needed for Britain to remain united. She called on companies like Amazon, Google and others to pay their fair share of taxes, and made clear her intent to strengthen the mechanisms for controlling executive pay. Also part of this strategy will be a more effective immigration control policy, which she did not implement vigorously as Home Secretary in the Cameron government, partly because of constraints set by EU membership. May made clear her agenda going forward by saying: "There is a growing divide between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger generation. And there is a gaping chasm between wealthy London and the rest of the country."  Changes May is supporting are to make executive pay rules to become binding not just advisory, and for employees and consumers to gain seats on company boards.  ...

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How do children who are hard hit by the pandemic process it? See these drawings by children in DW.com art competition.

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The impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives set off by a release of president Trump's conversation with the new Ukrainian president, involves vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Mr. Trump had called for the Ukrainian government to look into corruption. The Washington Post gives this story of how Hunter Biden joined the board of an obscure Ukrainian gas company set up by a former minister and that this was brought to the attention of Joe Biden by advisers. At the time Joe Biden was representing the U.S. in Ukraine during a period in Ukraine when there was little clarity or transparency on what was happening in the country with changing governments. This story describes the thinking of people in the Biden circle who thought this was a bad idea.  This includes Hunter Biden's partner in the investment firm, a stepson of John Kerry, Secretary of State in the Obama administration, and other advisers of the Bidens. It has raised questions about why steps were not taken to prevent the perceived conflict of interest.  As a result of this Ukraine, a country at war with Russia and having elected a new president outside the conventional politics, is now at the centre of the impeachment inquiry. It is also likely to reshape the 2020 presidential election with differing views on this inquiry from president Trump who sees it to be about corruption in Ukraine, and Democrats about the president's effort to pressure Ukraine for his political campaign as U.S. provided critical aid to Ukraine.    ...

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From the National Archives of America here is the letter Mohandas Gandhi wrote to president Franklin Roosevelt calling for American help on July 1, 1942, one month before the launch of the Quit India Movement. With Roosevelt's reply to Gandhi on August 1, 1942, offering his fullest support as stated in his foreign minister Cordell Hull's bold vision of a community of free nations such as India and the idea of the United Nations in Hull's speech made on July 23, 1942. Hull responds to Gandhi' call with the full support of Roosevelt.  Mohandas Gandhi writes to Roosevelt that- "I hold that the full acceptance of my proposal and that alone can put the allied case on an unassailable basis. I venture to think that the Allied declaration that the Allies are fighting to make the world safe for freedom of the individual and for democracy sounds hollow as long as India, and for that matter Africa, are exploited by Great Britain, and America has the negro problem in her own home. In order to make my proposal fool proof I have suggested that if the Allies think it necessary, they may keep their troops, at their own expense, in India, not for keeping internal order but for preventing Japanese aggression and defending China. As fas as India is concerned we must become free even as America and Great Britain are. The Allied troops will remain in India during the war under treaty with the Free India government that may be formed by the people of India without any outside interference, direct or indirect." Gandhi wrote with his proposal to Roosevelt - "It is on behalf of this proposal that I write this to enlist your active sympathy." Roosevelt wrote in his letter that-  "I am sure you will agree that the United States has consistently striven for an supported policies of fair dealing, of fair play, and of all related principles looking towards the creation of harmonious relations between nations... I am enclosing a copy of an address of July 23 by the Secretary of State, made with my complete approval, which illustrates the attitude of this government." Cordell Hull stated in his speech "What we are Fighting For, July 23, 1942, that- "In this vast struggle we, Americans, stand united with those, who like ourselves, are fighting for the preservation of their freedom, with those who are fighting to regain the freedom of which they have been brutally deprived, with those who are fighting for the opportunity to achieve freedom. We have always believed, and we believe today, that all peoples, without distinction of race, color, or religion, who are prepared and willing to accept the responsibilities of liberty, are entitled to its enjoyment. We have always sought and we seek today, to encourage and aid all who aspire to freedom to establish their right to it by preparing to assume its obligations. We have striven to meet squarely our own responsibility in this respect-in Cuba, in the Philippines, and wherever else it has devolved upon us. It has been our purpose in the past, and will remain our purpose in the future- to use the full measure of our influence to support attainment of freedom by all peoples, who by their acts, show themselves worthy of it and ready for it."   ...

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Companies in the US hiring older workers in the belief that older workers have a strong work ethic. WIth the Great Resignation and younger workers quick to quit jobs many companies are relying on older workers who are seen as more reliable.

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The US and Mexico launch a massive effort to welcome 100,000 refugees from Ukraine. FR24 gives this story on how Ukrainians already in Mexico and the US, who migrated many years earlier, are volunteering to help new refugees feel welcome.

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South Korea has tested about 300,000 people for coronavirus. About 20,000 can be tested daily for coronavirus through 40 drive thru locations. South Korea invented this method of testing. Another feature of the South Korean method is the tracking down of people who have come into contact with those testing positive for coronavirus. The South Korean government is able to do this because it can access the credit card and cell phone information of people in the country. This is possible through laws that were passed after the failures during a previous epidemic of MERs. The government then tracks down and isolates the people who came into contact with infected persons. This includes people who show no symptoms, an important aspect of the South Korean program which needs to be adopted in other countries once the production of test kits and testing is ramped up. The reason is that about 30% of people who tested positive in South Korea were not showing any symptoms but acted as silent carriers. This is similar to the figures for people in the Wuhan region of China. This testing capability is one of South Korea's key strengths, though Germany's Robert Koch Institute says it has a similar capability to test 160,000 people a week. The U.S. has tested about 30,000 people by comparison. The U.S. government is procuring 60,000 test kits under the Defense Production Act. South Korea also enforces social distancing though a $2500 fine and a 1 year prison sentence. Germany now has a 2500 euros fine in some states for curfew violations.  By comparison the fine in Britain is insignificant.  Another difference between China and South Korea with Germany and the rest of Europe, the U.S., is that in China and South Korea self-isolation is monitored, tightening the control over coronavirus spread at every turn.   ...

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Questions readers raise about Lewis Sorley's account of wins in the latter part of the war in Vietnam. The idea presented that had the country stood behind the war effort it could have been turned around. Here President Johnson's own deputy national security advisor, Francis Bator, who is Professor emeritus at the Harvard Kennedy School, refutes this notion by saying that: "in Vietnam the goal was clear but unattainable by any means not grossly disproportionate to the American stake." He goes on to say that false inferences from that failure will not help President Obama with the hard question of deciding what feasible goals and means in Afghnistan and Pakistan and other places will minimize chances of amajor terrorist attack on the United States, whaterver its origating location. And doing this in a cost-effective way. The wording is designed to first focus on what is the minimum that America wants- safety from another attack. Second, to focus on doing this in a cost-effective way. At some point resources added become disproportionate to the American stake in Afghanistan. An infantryman in the Vietnam war describes a people in villages that he was supposed to protect who would not even alert American soldiers of bombs when they knew exactly where they were placed. People in villages who were basically indifferent to the central government in South Vietnam. Are the Afghan people any different? See the links to this....

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Former U.S. Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, says the attacks on Charlie Hebdo weekly in France were the result of an intelligence failure. The 2 brothers who conducted the attacks were already on a U.S. no-fly list. The U.S. has already alerted European authorites to about 3000 European citizens, about 1000 from France, who went to Syria to fight with Islamic State. Panettta says there is much room for improvement when it comes to tracking of individuals returning from conflicts in the Middle East, and making certain that the U.S. and Europeans are at the top of their game when it comes to security. Operationally the U.S. and Europeans need to be working together and being aggressive about individuals who have a history in these places in the Middle East.