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In an unusual move the chairman of China's carmaker Geely, takes a 9.7% stake in Germany's Daimler AG. The investment was made not by Geely but by Mr. Li on his own. Geely acquired Volvo in 2010. After a decade of effort to turn Geely into a high quality brand from the low quality brand it was seen in 2008, Geely has now set its sights on expanding in the electric car field by allying itself with Daimler and other car companies. Geely is now the largest domestic brand in China.

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This report  by Joshua Partlow in the Washington Post shows frequent and extensive contacts between Mexican officials and the Trump administration. Skeptical experts say this is mostly damage control. Yet it has helped defuse tensions on NAFTA and other issues, in some situations having president Trump reverse his stance. Mexico sends 80% of exports to the U.S., making this relationship crucial. Yet the scaling down of plans for a border wall, the emergence of a solution to NAFTA through changes without canceling NAFTA with support from Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Secretary, show the dialogue has preserved relations. Uncertainties loom such as the trade stance of president Trump, and the potential of front runner Lopez Obrador from the opposition party to emerge in upcoming elections as the new president of Mexico. Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico who was a close contendor in previous elections, says he will take a different stand than the current government in negotiations. Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray made 12 trips to Washington in 2017 as part of the effort by the Mexican government to preserve NAFTA with some changes. He has relationships with John Kelly and Jared Kushner in the Trump administration that have facilitated his efforts.  ...

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European Council president Donald Tusk says he would present draft guidelines on how the EU sees its relationship with the UK in March at EU summit, whether the UK is ready or not. His view is that the UK is trying to "cherry pick" its relationship with the EU, and this was "pure illusion."

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Germany's National Statistics Office reports the country showed a budget surplus of 36.6 billion euros in 2017. The economy expanded at 2.2%, the highest growth since 2011. Export growth was strong with exports up 2.7 percent in 2017.

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Italy's Five Star Movement is gaining in popularity before national elections in March 2018, because voters are fed up with the old political parties and the old political system. A Five Star Movement member Virginia Raggi is Mayor of Rome. Even though this has not led to improvements in tackling Rome's problems such as urban decay, garbage collection, and weak transportation, this is acceptable with angry voters who want to send a message to the traditional political parties that ran the government for 50 years. About a third of these voters who support the Five Star Movement are from the right, a third from the left and a third young people who never voted before, according to Italian pollster Pregliasco of You Trend. Recent polls show the Five Star support at 28% and the leading party. The anti-politician message really resonates in Italy with its lack of growth, and a sense that things will not change under politicians of the old system, right or left. As in France with the En Marche movement bringing in younger and new faces in parliament and in government, Five Star Movement is bringing younger faces to the forefront. As young as 31 years for the party's candidate for prime minister, Mr. Di Maio. As a result older politicians in their fifties from the established parties are running against younger people in their twenties and thirties, a situation seen in France in recent elections that brought new faces to parliament and new ways of governing.   ...

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Astoundingly in America 90 percent of people support universal background checks, yet private party sellers are not required to conduct background checks when selling guns. According to a Pew Research Center poll 67 percent of people support a ban on selling assault weapons to civilians, yet no such ban exists. It has taken this long just for president Trump to come out in favor of background checks. Ironically mass shootings have led to higher stock prices for gun manufacturers such as Smith and Wesson, as DW.com points out.  The National Rifle Association, NRA, has five million members and it lobbies hard to prevent gun control measures being passed in Congress. Members of Congress are even rated A to F based on their support for the NRA. Today an estimated 42% of Americans own guns, with 265 million guns in private hands. The NRA sees gun owning rights as part of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, believing that the right to bear arms is a basic right supported by the Constitution. The NRA over many decades has shown no flexibility in its stance and fierce lobbying has brought down every gun control measure introduced. ...

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This report from Italy by Jason Horowitz of the NYT, shows the Five Star Movement as having emerged as Italy's leading political party, and making efforts to tackle its inexperience in politics with charges from other parties that its candidate for prime minister Mr. DiMaio, 31, is a complete novice. Here he is shown to have inflated the qualifications of a candidate with a pro-EU background, Italian Ms. D'Alessandro who lives in Berlin, Germany. She is one of many candidates from the professional class recruited by the Five Star Party to polish its image and show it is capable of governing. Ms. Alessandro was presented in the Southern region of Italy by Di Maio as an "economist" and someone close to Merkel's CDU. In elections on March 4, the governing Democratic party is presenting older candidates in their fifties with family and political connections in contrast to the young people like Ms. D'Alessandro who is only 27 years old with a masters degree in public policy from a German University.  The Five Star Movement hopes to gain from Italy's proportional system and the voter dissatisfaction with existing parties. A similar situation led to the untested and untried En Marche Movement in France winning the national elections. A separate report in the Economist magazine shows the Five Star Movement retaining its popularity even after other parties accused it of inexperience, improper financial dealings of candidates, plagiarism, anti-immigration views of specific candidates.  ...

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It is shocking to see the virtual lack of cultural or other people to people contacts between the two largest regions in Asia, and most populous regions in the world, India and China. There appears to be a near total lack of understanding on both sides at the university and government level of the importance of setting up these contacts, so that misperceptions do not exist on either side and better relations can be built using such contacts. Rana Mitter, a expert on Modern China at Oxford University, says in an interview in the Times of India, that India and the 1962 conflict occupy less attention in the Chinese mind because other issues such as the relations with the U.S., ASEAN and Japan, take up more space. Mitter says India should emphasize its pluralism, democracy, and peaceful engagement in its external relations.  Mitter puts less emphasis on the 50 day standoff between India and China on the border at Doklam, Bhutan region, when he responds to a question about the risks of a conflict. He points to a bigger problem that affects relations between the two countries- the lack of exchanges that bring Chinese students, faculty, and government personnel to India, the difficulty of obtaining visas. This lack of cultural exchanges between the two countries is a major issue, considering also that trade and business exchanges are taking place and growing during this lack of cultural exchanges.  As a result it appears that business and economic relations guide the China-India relationship today, with people in China's key ministries and government, in universities and local government, lacking an understanding of India. Mitter makes this clear that cultural exchanges need to be established. Even a search for China- India dialogue brings up little information with a location in Beijing but none in India. It is mind boggling that the relations between the two most populous regions in the world are based on a huge lack of contacts and exchanges that would improve perceptions and understanding.  Britain's effort offers a model to follow as Tsinghua University in Beijing, as part of China's C9, has set up cultural exchanges with British universities in the ongoing cultural exchanges between Britain and China. ...

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In a effort to improve nutrition for the urban poor in India, the Indira Canteens formed in 2017 have already made substantial progress in Bengaluru (Bangalore). The canteens backed by the state offer subsidized meals, breakfast costing 5 Indian rupees or 7 U.S. cents, lunch and dinner costing 10 rupees or 14 U.S. cents. About 65 million Indians live in urban slums, a highly marginalized group, many migrants from nearby villages who now live in slums that are often near neighborhoods of the affluent and upper middle class. In addition to low income groups, rickshaw cab drivers, and laborers, this program has benefited school and college students who also use the canteens. More than 170 canteens have been set up in Bengaluru in a hub and spoke model with canteens located near colleges and hospitals and supplied from central kitchens nearby. An app gives the menu, nearby locations and takes feedback. It costs the state 16 million euros from a state budget of 26.4 billion euros, and is an imitation of a similar project Amma Canteens in neighboring Tamilnadu state. It reaches 250,000 people a day in Bengaluru. ...

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Exercizing reguarly helps the communication between brain cells, and this counteracts the effects of stress on our lives in the way it reduces the brain's ability to learn.

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An exceptional look at burnout and stress at work in the Guardian newspaper. In the UK 526,000 workers were affected by the burnout epidemic, suffering from stress, depression or anxiety, in 2016-2017, according to Health and Safety Executive. More women are affected than men, and more in professions in healthcare, social care and education. Longer work hours are part of it till pressures at work became intolerable for people shown in this report. Problems remain masked at the beginning and act in a kind of mission creep. Experts say it is important to see this as the result not of sick individuals unable to cope but of ailing organizations that have created workplaces where burnout can occur, where blame takes the place of collaboration, and support is limited or non existent.

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Millenials are promoting healthy eating habits in the U.S. as awareness among young people grows about faulty eating habits that have become commonplace in the U.S.  Words such as naturally grown, organic, sustainable, locally sourced are important in the way millennials demand their food, and grocery stores are listening. Millennials are also trying vegan and vegetarian options. Packaging has to be resealable, easy to open and portable. And when it comes to baby food millennials have definite preferences. 

The result is that variety and quality is improving on grocery market shelves.

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Barkha Dut says it is unacceptable that the Modi government- elected after corruption scandals in the previous Congress party government- allow the cronyism and collusion between business and government that existed under the Congress party in India. The $1.8 billion fraud at state owned PNB bank has drawn attention to banking and bad loans in India. Dutt  cites an Indiaspend report that shows in 2016 and 2017 5200 "wilfull defaulters"  made up bad loans given by the state owned banks of $8.65 billion, larger than the government allocation for farmer and agricultural welfare. Agriculture and rural farmers still make up a large part of the Indian economy and national elections results can be determined by how well the farmers are doing. In the recent Gujarat elections in Modi's home state the lower farm support prices for cotton farmers in Saurashtra region of the state led to Modi's BJP party losing that region in the state, and barely winning the election in the state with a thin majority. As a result the farm support prices for an extended list of farm crops was increased to 1.5 times the cost to farmers in the new 2018 Modi government Budget. To maintain a  steady industry and business policy for industrialization and modernization any Indian government needs the support of farmers. Modi has raised the issue of bad loans in the state banking system as being generated under the previous Congress government in a speech to parliament. A cleanup of bad loans in the banking system is needed to generate growth and investment for the Indian economy. Good governance in the country's banking system and vigilance of regulators is needed along with this cleanup of bad loans, as public confidence is shaken. ...