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Germany is once again seeing new cases of coronavirus at levels seen in May, with 1226 new cases August 11. Health minister Jens Spahn says it is because of family gatherings and partying, and also travelers from summer holidays overseas. Germany now has 218,000 cases and over 9200 deaths. Russia has 900,000 cases and is testing a new vaccine.

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The huge surge in demand for coronavirus testing equipment that has results provided in a short time. The nasopharyngeal swab test is the most in demand. The inability of the manufacturing system to deliver these tests in large enough numbers is still a major problem in fighting coronavirus.

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China is moving to shift its economy in a new direction of self-reliance on domestic consumers and local investors. Mr. Xi calls it "domestic circulation." This also means less dependence on imported technologies and inward looking policies. As the pandemic has reduced demand in other countries and as the U.S. and West tighten controls on imports and introduce new restrictions, there is the sense that the entire policy has to shift quickly to dependence on domestic consumers and investors.

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The job of harvesting 24 billion cherries in the short harvesting season.

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As a daughter of immigrants from Madras, India and Jamaica in the West Indies, and raised as the eldest daughter of a single parent her mother Shyamala Harris in Berkeley area near San Francisco, she was constantly around activists, and fighters for civil rights. This has shaped her during the period as prosecutor in Oakland, California, and in the political struggles to emerge as Attorney General and then Senator from California.  She chose to study at Howard University, a leading school for Black students and UC San Francisco School of Law. Much of her career is seen as struggling against racism as a black woman with Asian background trying to come out into a leadership position. As a result not much can be said about what she stands for in a political platform, according to this report and from her experience running as a presidential candidate against Biden and Bernie Sanders. By contrast Biden and Sanders being in the Senate for decades are better defined in terms of policies and positions.  ...

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Biden picks as his running mate a former prosecutor, Attorney General and Senator from California, Kamala Harris. Her parents one a Jamaican father and the mother from Madras, now called Chennai in India, met as graduate students at Berkeley campus. In the period before his illness, as Attorney General Mr. Biden's oldest son Beau Biden and Kamala Harris had worked closely together and formed a bond that continued during the period Beau Biden suffered from brain cancer.

 

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Look more carefully at the numbers that the official ONS statistics ignores or does not show, and jobless are at about 2.5 million in Britain, including 1.1 million of "disguised jobless" including people on zero contract hours. The jobless rate in reality is much higher at about 7percent and climbing at midyear 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of England sees the figure going up to 11%.

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This report in the Times looks at president Macron in a holiday setting at the presidential place Bregancon near the military port of Toulon in the south of France. Macron worked hard on the European Recovery Fund and getting a $390 billion non repayable aid fund for southern Europe with chancellor Merkel of Germany through tough long negotiations with the Dutch and the Danes. His work with two provincial mayors as prime ministers, the last current prime minister Castex, in fighting the coronavirus is giving him much needed boost in popularity. Throughout his willingness to learn and to try new approaches without worrying about the risks, and his frank manner with perseverance has helped Macron as he navigated unknown waters. After a drop in the polls to about 30% he is now up to 50%, 18 months before the presidential election. This is good for France as strong leadership is needed after the pandemic both for France, French speaking regions, and in solidarity with former French Africa. ...

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Mexico's former president Enrique Pena Nieto, 54 years, is being investigated for corruption. The former head of the oil company Pemex  Emilio Lozoya, 45 years, was arrested in February in Spain and is said to be cooperating fully with the authorites. A wide ranging inquiry was ordered by president Lopez Obrador.  Mexico's Attorney General says that Mr. Lozoya testified that he was asked to give two bribes of over 3 million dollars each to Pena's election campaign and to bribe politicians to pass legislation to open up the state sector to private investment. The money was sourced from Odebrecht a Brazilian construction company that paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to build ports, bridges and stadiums all over Latin America. This shows how quickly the reputations of leaders in Latin America have changed from Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Peru. In every case it is corruption or mismanagement of the economy or both. The failure to consider the needs of people in Latin America, the hype and the pretense, show how much good sense, wisdom, hard work and honest leadership is needed.   ...

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15 to 24 year olds make up only 10% of the German population of 83 million, just 8.5 million people. It is down form about 12% and about 10 million people in 2005. Germany's population has grown because of immigration yet there are fewer young people. Across Europe this group is 10.6% in 2019, higher in Denmark and Ireland. 

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Coronavirus positive cases over 20 million, with the hardest hit countries U.S., Brazil, India, South Africa.

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The carefully prepared rules and strict implementation are good news for UEFA soccer after the closing of Stade Francais in rugby with 25 players testing positive and the playing squads and coaching staff put into isolation. Some of the rules as eight teams leave for the quarter finals in Lisbon. All 8 teams in the elite of European soccer are required to read and follow the 31 page document on the rules for health safety during the coronavirus. Players cannot leave the hotel without prior agreement and cannot meet people outside their group. The all get tested before they leave and the day before each game. In the hotels a private access route and a private dining area, food prepared by the team's own staff. Laundry, clothes and equipment only to be handled by team's own staff. VIP arrival areas are only one's used at airports. Everything has to be disinfected in advance. Very little is left to chance. It is similar to hospitals that have setup a rigorous defense. So far its working and hundreds of millions of fans have watched teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City and Liverpool on television. Only two tested positive when teams left for Lisbon showing that soccer teams are taking it seriously for the fans which is a good thing, a very good thing to give fans something to watch from home in these days of the pandemic. ...

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The fall of the government in Lebanon after the explosion at the port.

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Mr. Trump signs executive orders to prevent eviction of tenants from their homes during the pandemic, provide relief for businesses from the payroll tax, and other actions. He continues to negotiate with Democrats for the direct aid to continue for each household.

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Fears that the coronavirus will restrict supplies are pushing up prices of commodities such as sugar from Brazil and India, coffee from Brazil and parts of Africa, Vietnam, and Latin America, and cocoa from Ghana, cotton from India. Coffee and cocoa are up by 14-17% and cotton and sugar by 10-19%.

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When you consider Anderson and Broad as a duo they have pushed England to the top of Test cricket earlier with the West Indies and now with Pakistan. Broad did better in some games and Anderson in others. It is the same with Woakes. As soon as some doubts appeared about Broad he was good with both the ball and the bat. The same with Woakes against Pakistan in the first Test. Anderson has to just shrug off the media reports, which swing one way then the other, and concentrate on playing and enjoying the game.

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Stade Francais cancels all training and puts coaching staff and playing squads into isolation after 25 persons are found to test positive for coronavirus. It is not clear how this happened for French rugby sports after premier league in Britain and the French soccer league games are being played in empty stadiums for a television audience without any reports of difficulties.

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This article gives some simple answers to questions about how the NHS test and Trace system setup by Baroness Harding could go so wrong. It was setup as a separate agency and ignored some of the vital information of how contact tracing should be done close to local area coming out of Germany. This information was available early and was also on the Lyrarc site, as Germany had effective contact tracing as early as March-April. First Britain wasted time waiting for some brilliant App to do the work. The when this was going nowhere the NHS Test and Trace was setup but ignored the need for this to be done locally and followed up with personal visits to the homes of those needing to be visited to isolate. Most important- the local knowledge and the persons doing the calling having human skills to get people to cooperate and feel reassured. Less important or not at all- sophisticated equipment, a simple desktop, national database to which data is connected and sourced and a desk, a skilled motivated local person the key. Germany resorted to using the underutilized state or local employees who were diverted to these tasks but extraordinarily effective.  ...

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WHy did NHS Test and Trace fail to contact no more than 50% of the persons who tested positive. Why was it not able to followup with the people who needed to be visited in their homes to ensure isolation. Why was NHS associated in the name when the NHS had not been consulted and involved in the design of this service. In fact it ignored lessons from Germany where the contact tracing was entirely from local, started very quickly with the key being local or state employees who were diverted to this task and were skilled and motivated to do it. Why was this critical task simply handed out to outsource it to private companies.  Germany's example was there very early in March-April and it was working. Why reinvent the wheel. Setup quickly and entirely local it required only a desk, a desktop PC, and a national database to which PC was connected, the skilled caller being the key to getting people to talk to and cooperate. About 80% of those testing positive needed to be contacted. NHS Test and Trace was reaching about 50% and many that needed to be visited at home could not be followed up quickly. The shift is only now being made to go local. It worked in Leicester and other places but the learning came the hard way, as with many things during this pandemic. ...