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A dangerous escalation in the rhetoric between president Trump and North Korea creates tension and concern in Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing.

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Used car prices went up by 40% in 2021, according to the Labor Department, contributing to the increase in inflation in the US by 7.5%.

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Saudi Investment Fund, the 10% owner of Electronic Arts (Madden NFL Battlefield video games), along  with Affinity partners (Kushner) and Silverlake Partners, takes Electronic Arts private with $20 billion loan from JP Morgan Chase. The deal is worth $55 billion and involves paying 25% premium on the going price of shares.

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The northeastern region of Brazil, the poorest region of Brazil, has benefitted from the economic expansion in Brazil. The region's GDP went up by 4.2% a year for the last ten years compared to 3.6% for Brazil. Bolsa Familia, President Lula's anti-poverty programme has benefitted the northeast, but the Getulio Vargas research institute shows three quarters of growth coming from earnings and expansion of export based agriculture in soyabeans and other products and from mining export industries. Projects in the northeast include development of the port and industrial area around Suape. A petrochemical plant, a shipyard and a Petrobras refinery, are under construction. A new railway will link Suape to the interior. Much of the development is for export industries in soyabeans and iron ore, and for the rail and port infrastructure that supports these exports to China. As a result the development looks similiar to what is happening in Australia with the huge expansion in rail and port infrastructure in that country to support iron ore and other mining exports to China. Any slow down in China will affect Brazil as the IMF has recently warned, because of an overdependence on commodity exports to China. Alexandre Rands of local Datametrica consultancy points to this when he says that infrastructure booms while helpful are not enough to sustain development. Big firms train the workers they need which is how Brazilian companies cope with a weak educational system. Schools in the northeast are however not getting the financial support to improve education, a situation that affects Brazil as a whole, but is even more evident in the northeast....

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There is a small opening for talks between North and South Korea after sanctions lead to an overture by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The Korean president Moon sees this as part of his campaign effort to engage directly with North Korea. This report points to considerable skepticism of South Koreans whether a new "Sunshine Policy" effort is likely to work as it was tried with little success by previous presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. Yet it offers an opportunity to calm things down after the volatile exchanges between Trump and North Korea.

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Boris Johnson 5 million pounds of speeches over 2 years 2022-2024 after leaving office, some with risks of moral hazard.

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The Trans Pacific Trade Agreement TPP adds so liitle, only 0.04% to Britain's GDP in 15 year from 2023, says the Office of Budget responsibility in Britain. It is this trade agreement ignoring American workers that Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton pushed for leading to the Democrats defeat in the 2016 election. Most of the trade deals including ones with Canada and Australia add up to no more than 1% to Britain's GDP when the loss of the EU through Brexit means a loss of 4% of GDP for Britain. This is how much the trade deals were over hyped by the Brexiters Johnson and Sunak.

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Private real estate handed over to a new generation in 2026 in the US is worth trillions of dollars.

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Liz Truss, new UK prime minister, says higher energy costs will not be passed on to bill payers and households.

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WSJ's Michelle Hackman, Josn Dawsey, and Tarini Parti give this in depth report on the way Kristi Noem has run the US Department of Homeland Security, and sidelined Tom Homan who headed the Border effort, resulting in the mistakes made in Minnesota and other places in law enforcement that led to strong protests. Eventually Tom Homan was put in charge and has helped to restore some of the trust lost through the actions taken by Noem. This WSJ report is critical of how the former governor of North Dakota has run DHS and taken actions to help her image as she planned to run for national office in 2028. In the process she has damaged trust in the DHS methods for law enforcement, with criticism from Republicans in Congress.