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Heather O'Reilly 37 year returns to Club soccer playing for Shelbourne in Ireland. She hopes to compete in the Champions League for women and is the same age as Ronaldo who plays for Manchester United. She was three years into retirement before she decided to give it a go in Ireland.

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Reports by David Sanger and other reporters from the NYT on the situation in Ukraine as seen from the US, Russian, European, and Ukrainian sides. Russian president Putin sees Ukraine as part of the Russian cultural and economic sphere with deep ties to Ukraine in its history. The western parts of Ukraine near Poland and near the capital Kiev see their future more in relation to other Eastern European countries that have moved closer to or joined the European Union such as Poland and the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It is not clear even to advisors to the Russian government what Mr. Putin's intentions and plans are. Russia has not yet recognized the two breakaway republics in Eastern Ukraine based in Donestsk.  Some of the key points in Ukraine's recent history- one needs to know this because Ukraine has a difficult history in its relations with Poland/Lithuania and with Russia alternating over centuries, with neither relationship providing the kind of government that would have helped Ukraine's people. Formed only in 1991 the Republic of Ukraine has a long history since 1500 of being part of Poland and Lithuania, and later part of Russia, with some parts of Ukraine under the Austrian Hapsburgs till 1900. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union in the 1920's to the 1950's in one phase in which it suffered badly with collectivization of agriculture under Communist Soviet leadership and famines. In the second phase of Soviet rule after the 1950's Ukraine made a dramatic recovery as Krushchev assumed control with Leonid Brezhnev who was from Ukraine. After 1964 Brezhnev ran the the Soviet Union till 1984 and this was a good period for Ukraine. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 and Russian leader Yeltsin separated Ukraine and Belarus to go their own ways as separate countries from Russia. For 1990-2000 Ukraine did badly losing about 60% of its GDP, a situation also experienced by Russia with economic instability. Russia recovered under Putin, yet Ukraine has struggled since because of mismanagement under different governments and widespread entrenched corruption.  Governments alternated in the period 2000 to 2020 between ones friendly to Russia and friendly to Poland and European Union. This happened in 2004 and again with protests in 2014. The protests in 2014 in Kiev and Lviv led to a government that favored closer ties with EU and NATO. It is this pendulum swing that is Ukraine's and Eastern Europe's experience in the 20th century and it continues into the 21st. What Russia wants is for Ukraine to not be a place for NATO operations, even if it is not allied to Russia after Russian president Putin was disappointed with the Russian allied government's performance under Yanukovich in the 2000-2014 period with corruption and mismanagement. France in the 16th and to 18th century is described by Brendan Simms of Cambridge in his new book on Europe, as needing the external danger for unity, and unity to meet external danger. This could be true also for Russia as the danger posed by NATO helps bring unity to Russia. And this could be a way to unify Russia and provide it with the confidence that it seeks in its effort for parity with the European Union and the US, China in the 21st century.   ...

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Tesco's efforts to revive its business in the UK with increased investment in online retailing.

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"To Invest (at home), To Align (with allies), To Compete (with the world)" sums up the approach of president Biden with China. It also sums up the approach at home and overseas. Biden senior adviser, Jake Sullivan at Council of Foreign Relations sets out the framework and path for managing US-China relations into the future for many decades. Here at the Council of Foreign Relations he shows how- through careful study of the relationship's history, the changes in the relationship, and where it is today in 2024. Having participated in previous administrations Jake understood how it has evolved, where mistakes were made by both China and the US, where misperceptions took hold and need for clarification, for action. The old Strategic Dialogue followed by Paulsen under Bush 2000-2008 allowed the relationship to be guided by business interests, -without any clear strategy or idea where it was going except maximizing interests of business on both sides- was continued by Kerry under Obama 2008-2016. Sullivan, Blinken and Biden have built a Strategic Economic Cooperation Framework that has clear goals on the American side and goals on the Chinese side, and work between the two presidents and their cabinet ministers. Trump 2016-2020 rejected the earlier Strategic Dialogue but was not able to set up a sound framework that would guide future relations for decades. Sullivan helped set up a new framework around three principles- To Invest, To Align, and To Compete.   Here he describes how the plan to invest trillions in infrastructure in the US was part of this plan's principle To Invest. On Align it was to derisk not decouple by reducing the excessive concentration of supply chains in China, that was revealed as a problem in the pandemic years. Building up manufacturing at home and in India, Vietnam and Japan. Align also was to have allies Japan, South Korea and India to be aligned with the US policy. It also meant that all three countries would follow the same framework for their economies To Invest, To Align, To Compete.  By combining the strengths of the 2 largest economic centers Seoul/Tokyo with New Delhi/Sydney in Indo-Pacific the leveraging effect of US strength could be felt to support its position. And third to compete on level field so that America retained control of its technologies and implementing exports controls. And sharing this in  open communication with China that the US was protecting its technology and interests the way China has done in the past for its interests. The benefit of open communication even where there are differences had the advantage of not turning this into open rhetoric that damaged relations as had happened under previous administrations. Wang Yi on China's side having seen and approached it with careful study and reflection had similar goals to stabilize and put the relationship on a sound footing. Sullivan met extensively with Wang Yi in meetings in several locations around the world. Ministers Yellen, Raimondo, Blinken, Kerry, were sent to China for extensive discussions as part of this strategy in 2023 leading to remarkable change in the mood and confidence in US- China relations after tumult in 2016-2020 and uncertainty in previous administrations. Much credit goes to president Biden and Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken, and also to Wang Yi and Jinping in no way diminishing their own initiative, so that for the first time in decades the US China relationship is now on a stable footing. Both countries faced common challenges around counter narcotics, around climate change, and other issues. These are being addressed. Competition is managed carefully and no rhetoric is taking place so that the largest two economies and about 1.7 billion in US and China and 2 billion people who are allies in India/Indonesia/Vietnam/ Korea/Japan living on the same planet earth can have economic and other cooperation  with different cultures, economic structures and systems of government. The result of such a framework also gives the basis for cooperation with America's allies to invest in Africa and Latin America and in the people of these two continents as another level of alignment and investment for a safer better world. ...

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President Obama comments on the Trayvon Martin shooting saying- "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago." Trayvon is a black youth shot by police in a Florida gated community. Obama was critical of racial profiling and gun laws. Obama said three sets of experiences are shared by African American youth- being followed in department stores, hearing the click of car doors locking as they cross the street, or watching women clutch their purses nervously when they enter an elevator.

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Only Honda is withstanding the the sales shock as numbers tumble from June of a year earlier. Toyota auto sales down 21%, Ford 28% and Chrysler 36%. GM 18% because of special incentives and discounts. Honda a modest 1.1 % increase in sales. The US manufacturers have their plants skewed towards making trucks and SUV's so turning out Chevy Cobalts and Focus cars is a big problem as there are huge drops in truck and SUV sales and customers are shifting to cars. Sales of Ford SUV's fell 55% and its formerly top selling truck line dropped 38%. Toyota sold about two thirds fewer light trucks than in 2007 June. Market share of domestic makers in the USA market dropped to 46% from 50%. To get some idea of capacity constraints. According to Global Insight GM can build only 250,000 Chevy Cobalts, while Honda has the capacity to build 400,000 Honda Civic small cars annually.

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Failure of management at BNP Paribas to stop illicit transactions violating American laws leading to the $9 billion fine by the Justice Department.

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Israel outlined its own proposals for a nuclear agreement on April 6, 2014. Israel's Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, says any deal must include Iran cease all nuclear research and development activity, remove its enriched uranium stockpile from the country, reduce the number of centrifuges to below what was agreed to in the outline that emerged from talks with Iran in April 2015, closing of the underground facility at Fordow that was built clandestinely in the early 2000's. Steinitz said- "The deal has to be made on the assumption that Iran might violate it."

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The 8000 government jobs that are likely to be lost in Longbenton, England, at "the Ministry," work done for the revenue and customs part of the tax agency of the UK. Premier Cameron plans to eliminate 192 independent government agencies. The north-east of England has long been a part of the UK with lower per capita incomes, and the region more dependent on government jobs.

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Addressing the UN General Assembly in a virtual setting Mr. Trump tells delegates that China should be held accountable for certain actions in letting the coronavirus pandemic spread. He included the denial by China of human to human transmission very early before Feb-March, and its allowing Chinese flights to go overseas when it had completely banned flights domestically. He said flights were allowed to leave China after the virus spread from Wuhan even after Mr. Trump banned flights from China to the U.S. This spread the virus from China to Europe and to America.  Mr. Trump says the WHO is controlled by China. And this happened after foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and other foundations partly replaced the strong role played by the U.S. government at the world health agency during the post war period maintaining strong U.S. and European oversight in the earlier period. The lack of cooperation by China to let American experts into Wuhan immediately in January played a role in delaying the U.S. getting a first hand look at the coronavirus at the epicentre. Instead a 2-3 week delay left the U.S. Europe and India unprepared for the speed and havoc caused.  The only way to tackle the coronavirus was with speed and that speedy response was doubly needed because Europe and the U.S. had no recent experience with epidemics. Even India and rest of Asia, Latin America, Africa have no experience with this type of transmission and spread making time absolutely critical.  This speed was affected because China and the WHO acted as stumbling blocks in this view of what happened. The result was that in past pandemics were fought together, this pandemic was fought on a country by country basis, a bad precedent. ...

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Questions raised by Nicholas Kristof of the NYT on Russian hacking during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Kristof says the implausible or far fetched idea of foreign interference in U.S. elections is not as implausible as it may appear.