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48% of British voters see immigration as the most important issue, says Ipsos. And 31% say their local area is housing more than its fair share of asylum seekers growing to 61% of Reform UK voters. Reform UK is now leading party with 34% of the vote to Labour's 25% and Liberals 11%. The report in the WSJ on Augu 28 shows how the Labour government did not live up to it's talk on immigration. It also shows how the Conservatives and Boris Johnson failed by opening up non EU immigration from Asia on the grounds that it would bring in the brightest and yet dropped the basic college degree requirement paradoxically or carelessly. Lobbying from health care home care hugely increased migration for this field under Conservatives and is only now being reversed by Labour. Labour has been too slow and the culture of Britain and Labour has not changed enough to grasp the problem. Their are vested interests in Britain such as universities and home care health care that have influenced the conduct of policy so that migration on non-eu has replaced eu migration after Brexit, but not attracted the most qualified immigrants. The 4% of the British population that entered Britain after Brexit as immigrants, millions arrived and now when Labour is trying to bring this down faces a large number of dependent applications. University students are now bringing in their dependents at rates that have skyrocketed. ...

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Don Bradman's 270 runs in the Ashes 1937 as the greatest batting of all time

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Christmas market running car into a crowd on Dec 21 in Magdeburg pushes security as the main issue with migration not attracting workers for labor shortages. All parties are against migraton today in Germany. Professor Hohne of the Technical University in Chemnitz says

"With that, other facets of migration are pushed to the background — such as, for example, how to address Germany's labor shortage or attract skilled workers. I fear that the attack in Magdeburg will further strengthen this bias."

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NATO members except Spain agree to spend 5% on defense, 3.5% on military and 1.5% on defense industry. Germany makes purchase of 35 F-35 fighter aircraft from the US for $8.2 billion in 2025 to be fitted with cruise missiles from Norway. Defense minister Pistorius says Germany has moved with "supersonic speed" on defense capabilities. This a big change from Scholz. New CDU chancellor in coalition with the SPD is Friedrich Merz who with a popular former defense minister Pistorius from the Scholz coalition and the new SPD finance minister in the Merz coalition Lars Kingbeil, is changing the way Germany looks at investing for the future. It has embraced defense of Europe and modernization of German infrastructure. German federal elections gives the coalition of Merz the 28.6 votes percentage of CDU/CSU in addition the SPD's 16.4% for governing with 45% of the vote, and additional 11.6% of SPD's ally the Green Party which supports it outside the coalition for total 57%. For this reason it is a coalition government with real clout to get things done for Germany's modernization. Much of the media focus is on AfD's far right 20.8% but this has been offset by the Left Parties gaining 14% of the vote in the formerly communist East (GDR) where the AfD is based. Thus about 60% of German voters support Merz/Lingbeil/Pistorius for some far reaching action by Merz well into 2030, for the first time since reunification in 1990. To add to this most of Europe including Germany under Merz has embraced a tough line on illegal migration similar to DJT in US so that far right AfD gains from discontent have reached their high point at 20.8%.   ...

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Ukrainian view on surrendering the 25% of Donbass it does not control for peace deal are shown here in interviews by DW.com in that region near the frontlines. The Kviv Institute of Sociology survey shown here is that 71% of Ukrainians are against giving up the 25% of Donbass. Survey in the Donbass region show 47% opposed, 29% undecided and 24% support giving up tereritory for a peace deal. About 200,000 people mostly pensioners and people who do not want to see their home being looted still live in the Kviv controlled Donbass areas near the frontlines. What about elections? If elections are held and an Ukrainian party including that of Zelensky were to agree to surrendering the Donbass how would the Ukrainian 71% opposed or undecided react. Other attitudes to giving up the rest of Donbass is that there is afeeling even among people who might favor this for a peace deal that Russian forces might continue the war at a later time. Germany's Merz is investing heavily to build up the Bundeswehr and recharge the German economy- the German response is to coordinate with UK, France and Italy and the EU to set up a bloc independent of the US to respond to the peace overtures of the US president with one's of it's own that do not include giving up the Donbass, and to create guarantees that the war ends here, no sporadic starts as in the last 2 decades. ...

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About half of the people in a FES/ Bonn University report say they are fairly or very satisfied with German democracy. Skepticism about democracy is highest among people with less education and income. This is why the author of the study Handrych is concerned about social cohesion. As in the US with Biden the Greens Habeck and SPD's Scholz have to meet the challenge of social cohesion, a challenge put up by our times and the economic changes of the last few decades with the inequality of wealth. And the need for governance to serve the interests of all the people, not just a few that do well.

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Perceptions of Turkey in Germany are shown here in DW.com. Turkey has 1.5 million people in Germany who vote in this election. About 70% of people in Germany see the opposition providing an alternative as good for the future of Turkey. The general perception is that Turkey is facing a severe crisis after the cost of living crisis and the earthquake, the Ukraine war cutting off food imports, that it needs foreign investment in the economy as a part of the US and European nations. The Republican party in the Opposition led now by a modest civil servant named Kilicdaroglu, was founded in 1921 by Kemal Ataturk when the colonial powers decided to breakup the Ottoman Empire and the Anatolian heartland. It was in Ankara that Ataturk formed the resistance to that plan and setup the modern state of Turkey by doing what Japan did- taking on western institutions, dress, education, and changing from Arabic to an alphabet that would increase literacy. A transformation that was a sort of miracle that was accomplished between 1921 and 1938 under Ataturk's leadership. Ataturk's vision at that time was that Turkey would be close partner to America and Europe. John F. Kennedy taped an audio broadcast on the 25th anniversary of Ataturk's death in 1963 at the White House pointing out Ataturk's achievement and vision. It is to this vision that the Republican party now moves after an effort over 2 decades to move the country back to its Ottoman period. That period happened around 1500. The Ottoman period lasted for only 150 years before it was pushed back in the 18th and 19th century by European powers. Before that Turkey and Constantinople was an integral part of European civilization. In fact modern Turkey under Ataturk and Greece maintained close relations and worked together in a shared responsibility to maintain peace in the Balkans, something almost forgotten today. Greece joined the western nations when US president Truman responded with American assistance during the 1950's, so did Turkey.  ...

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The pandemic, the economic management, and the surge in the US dollar is worsening the debt situation of countries in Africa. This DW.com report looks at Ghana and Zambia. The Ghana currency Cedi has lost 50% of its value in 2022. With every increase in the value of the US dollar in countries in Africa imports become costlier and business activity suffers. The result as shown in this report is the closing of many shops and parts of the market in Ghana's capital city Accra. Ghana and Zambia have raced to get IMF support as their debt condition deteriorates. Ghana began negotiations with the IMF at the end of September for a $3 billion bailout. The IMF approved $1.3 billion of the $8.4 billion that Zambia needs to restore its economy.

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Germany's Foreign Ministry warned in a cabinet note that investment by China's COSCO in Hamburg port terminal "disproportionately expands China's influence on German and European transport infrastructure as well as Germany's dependence on China." Germany handed over a 25% stake in the Hamburg port terminal to China's COSCO shipping with the decision approved by chancellor Scholz. Several government ministries in Germany including the Economy ministry headed by Habeck and the Foreign Ministry have opposed the bid which is seen as having geopolitical aspects as Germany has no stakes in Chinese ports. "On behalf of the Foreign Ministry, I point out the considerable risks that arise when elements of Germany's transport infrastructure are influenced and controlled by China- while China itself does not allow Germany to participate in Chinese ports," said the note from the Foreign Ministry brought forward by Anna Luhrmann, Minister of State for Europe.  China is seen by Germany and NATO as posing security challenges. "In this respect the acquisition of the container terminal does not only have an economic aspect, but also a geopolitical aspect."  ...

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Germany's chancellor visits Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, in an effort to renew German ties with the South American nations. A German business delegation will accompany Scholz on this trip to renew business ties. This happens as US and the EU build closer ties to traditional partners in all parts of the world.

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King Charles has German ancestry and has visited Germany no less than 40 times on mostly private visits. Here DW.com shows pictures from these visits. During these visits Charles has developed a connection with Germany. He will visit Berlin and Hamburg, including a visit to Nikolai Church in Hamburg preserved in memory of Allied bombings that left 1 million people homeless. As Europe faces another war and its history of conflicts which involved much of Asia by the nineteenth and twentieth century it provides a period of reflection on what can be done to shape the future in ways that benefit humanity. In another first he will address the German parliament the Bundestag. He did this once before during Covid, this time it will be seen throughout Europe and comes as the European Union is struggling to establish its own identity.

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Yellen tells the governor of Guangdong that China's huge subsidies for solar, EV and other industries disrupts "the level playing field" America needs. In all previous administrations  of both parties American economic ministry heads stayed silent or said it in a way that they were ignored. A culture of government staying out spread like wild fire under Reagan and "free to choose" advocates such as Friedman who did not realize the grave dangers to American manufacturing and its workers inside America, and to the world's other manufacturing capable nations such as India with overconcentration in one location. It was America's misfortune that economists and business leaders in the US were not listening enabling China to ignore this. By offering huge government subisidized incentives China and Taiwan shifted manufacturing away from the US in semiconductors, solar, EV's. It started with Apple and is still going on with Tesla. Today economists such as Yellen say economic resilience and supply chains are at risk before they said it lowered cost for consumers and failed to wake up when advanced technologies were at stake, as economists never trained in manufacturing had no knowledge of how it works with learning curves and knowhow that is built over decades, once lost hard to regain. The message fellow Americans is that trust your instincts and common sense, and trust observation which is what the Renaissance in the 15th century was all about and which put Europe ahead of Asia, to the great misfortune of Asia. Japan, China, have learned these lessons well, America as an immigrant nation is different from Europe, and must use its good sense to keep open the opportunities for its people and workers, and the people and workers of all nations that are manufacturing capable. Yellen said- "Direct and indirect government support is currently leading to production capacity that significantly exceeds China's domestic demand, as well as what the global market can bear...Overcapacity can lead to large volumes of exports at depressed prices, and it can lead to overconcentration of supply chains, posing a risk to global economic resilience,"    ...