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The two contrasts between Eintracht Frankfurt a soccer club with a local presence and modern management with Germany's 50+1 rule, and Barcelona with Catalan support but an international club in which the president runs the club independent of members, could not be larger. 30,000 Eintracht Frankfurt fans make their way to a game with Barcelona at Camp Nou in the Catalan city. Barcelona did not make it to the final stages of the Champions League and struggled to pay the large amount of money owed to Messi during the pandemic. Because of its old ownership structure Barcelona is not able to raise financing by selling shares and in capital markets in the way Frankfurt can. Under the 50+1 rule, a German Football League regulation, club members retain majority voting rights in an outsourced company that runs its football team. This gives it a genuine local presence and is why German clubs have opposed the Super League of just a few star teams playing each other. This DW.com report shows messages on Twitter by Eintracht Frankfurt saying that the whole Super League idea "is completely absurd." And that "every decent club must distance itself from it." German fans have a different culture, come early and watch the game standing. ...

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The new president of India Droupadi Murmu is from the state of Odisha, formerly called Orissa. She is from a tribal community in the state and brings a new face for development through "sab ka vikas sab ke sath" new India's slogan today of development for all Indians through their own efforts, as it brings to the forefront the tribal communities all over India. The tribal communities in India have a population of 106 million or about 9% of India's population. In Orissa percentage of tribal is over 25%, in most of the northeast it is at least 25%, and in borders areas with China Arunachal 70%, Sikkim 34%, Jammu & Kashmir 12%. In key states of Madhya Pradesh 20%, Gujarat 25%, Rajasthan 13%. The strategic nature of the decision for the unity of India can be seen on how the tribal communities are critical parts of the northeast, the border areas,  and even of the central, eastern and western regions of India which most people are not aware of. Bringing in the tribal communities through respected leaders is part of the unfinished work of Mohandas Gandhi in getting the delivery of services to the last man in the line, and the tribal communities are a forgotten part of this.   ...

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No one in Northern Ireland wants to go back to the sectarian clashes of the twentieth century says one resident of the region. Most people recall the divided barricaded border with watchtowers and helicopters with extreme anguish. All that was dismantled long ago. But Northern Ireland still looks to the outside for help. Will president Biden bring new investment in the region? Can the Sinn Fein and DUP be persuaded to work together with US participation. A new generation has moved away from the sectarian to the economic issues of the cost of living and provision of public services in education and healthcare across the region. This was affirmed by Sinn Fein winning 27 seats the largest bloc in the 2022 election where focus was on economic issues and the quality of life. Because of Mr. Biden's very personal connection to Ireland there is much hope in Ireland for a new chapter to be written again. There is also a different sentiment in Britain with Keir Starmer's experience as human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board. Starmer attributes his decision to go into politics to this experience seeing the changes he could make in Northern Ireland from the inside. The switch to a government by Labour could come at a good time for Northern Ireland and for Scotland.  ...

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Jenny Medina looks at America's Biden 10 months into his presidency. Biden compared his presidency to that of FDR in his first years in office in 1933 with America in the depths of the Great Depression.  This report says FDR was better able to communicate how the New Deal would help families and workers in the face of distrust. Biden needs this today. During the ten months of the presidency Biden has already taken the tough decisions that are needed. For the vaccination drive, for the vaccine mandate on the coronavirus pandemic. On Afghanistan Biden took a similar tough decision to step away after learning the lessons of that conflict. He has quietly moved forward to build the alliance with Europe. On the infrastructure plan he has made the tough decision to make certain the essential components of spending on healthcare, education, childcare, support for mothers and older Americans are put in place, so that one bill for infrastructure is not passed without the bill for healthcare, childcare, mothers, elderly and education. Only this can provide the needed credibility for Republicans in states such as Tennessee who support community college open to all to come behind the overall Biden families and workers plan, and for working families throughout the whole country to support further spending for renewal of America.  ...

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It costs about 8 million pounds for maintenance of St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's Cathedral income declined by 90% as the pandemic led to fewer visitors and ticket sales. The government provides 3.3 million pounds from its culture recovery fund. Because this is not enough for maintenance, much less the 15 million pounds needed for the repair of the 17th century lead roof, one of England's best known cathedrals had to dip into and nearly exhaust its reserve funds. If this is the condition of St Paul's one can imagine what decades of misallocation of capital have done in the rest of the country. St Paul's Cathedral remained a defiant symbol of British resistance in the Second World War during the Battle of Britain.  The dean of the cathedral Very Rev. David Ison says "if we don't have the resources to pay for heating and lighting we may have to close our doors." Imagine closing England's most famous cathedral and symbol of its spirit for lack of funds. Notre Dame Cathedral by contrast in Paris is being renovated with $100 million euros donated by two French businessmen and $700 million pledged so far to rebuilding and renovation of Notre Dame. ...

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India's New Education Policy completes its first year of implementation.  Multiple entry points for studies so that students can change disciplines and try new areas of study - offers opportunities in a broad array of disciplines, and new combinations of disciplines to open new pathways to knowledge and work in a future economy. This encourages  students to try new areas of study and not be stuck in one course of study. Engineering and science taught in different Indian languages. 18 Engineering colleges in 8 states in India now offer engineering and science studies in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Bangla. India has a rich diversity of languages and this opens up opportunities for students who do better in their own home languages and brings opportunities to more people. Prime minister Modi emphasized the new approach has advantages- by breaking free of old conceptions of education, preparing for a New India in which youth of the country make their own systems, assure young people that the future is theirs to make. He stated that the New Education Policy is part of the endeavour of nation building, and the fate of India, how far and what height is achieved depends entirely on education received.   ...

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More than 600,00 people in Hong Kong are expected to use their colonial era British National Overseas (BNO) status to seek the pathway to citizenship offered by the British government. The advocacy group HKB Hongkongers in Britain surveyed the city's residents hoping to take advantage of the program that starts in January 2021. The Home Office had expected this to be about 500,000 over 3 years. About 80% of those surveyed want to emigrate in 2 years, faster than expected. About 75% of them have university degrees and earn well above the city's average, so that they can contribute to the British economy. About 75% plan to travel with children. Only half have friends in the UK and few have family there. Compared to the influx of migrants into Germany this is likely to bring a fresh infusion of talent into the UK economy at a time when Britain is embarking on building trade with countries around the world after leaving the European Union. Germany had language classes and many problems to integrate migrants from Africa. There is no language barrier and cultural issues are also for the most part absent. The technical skills of Hongkongers with BNO status could add to the British economy in many unanticipated ways.   ...

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After the loss of a crucial UK byelection by Labour under Keir Starmer (May 2021 Hartlepool) Shabana Mahmood says she brought out her inner-Kashmiri and steadied the party with wins in other byelections over the Tories. Shabana is the daughter of a teenager from Kashmir who came to Britain in the sixties, studied to be an engineer and settled in Birmingham. She is the Shadow Secretary of Justice and as a Oxford trained barrister she wants to put Britain's justice system on a good footing by remaking prisons and making the system work.  Shabana is a special kind of person simply because she has kept her values and religious beliefs and still taken the best of British thought and culture and the scieintific mind even as Britain faces real challenges. One is struck by the sheer broadness of her mind-  “I don’t like anything that smells of fundamentalism in any way, religious or political or ideological, it doesn’t really matter what it is, in the end. “It’s quite authoritarian in nature, and in my own life experience of people that are most intransigent and the most prescriptive about what everyone else can say and think and do tend not to be the best of people themselves.” ...

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See these really remarkable black and white pictures of what happens in a period of decay for industrialized economies as old industries die out- as happened in the UK,  in the US with communities left without hope. Only now with Biden and Starmer a new sense of purpose for the US and UK to correct what went woefully wrong- no plans for transition to new industries and outshoring of the nation's industrial base. This exhibition of 20/20 of photos taken by Kilip and Smith in black and white is at the Parr Gallery in Bristol, UK- you can see it here by clicking on original article right now. It is the failure to plan for the transition that has led the Conservatives from Thatcher onwards to the situation today, and a similar situation in the US from Reagan onwards. The haphazard transition has let China take the lead in new industries with government support. Only now is America under Biden making a real transition and backing up new industries for factory jobs with government support and planning for the next 10 years. Britain with the Conservatives in charge is without a clue and financially strapped- the mood in Birtiain is now for Labour under Starmer to right things the way Biden is doing in the US.  ...

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This report in The Mint gives information on the extensive preparation for 5G in India including auctioning of 5G spectrum for 51,236 Mhz that was allocated to telecom service providers for 150,000 crore rupees. Jio bid 88,000 crore for half of the spectrum with Airtel Bharti bidding with Vodafone for the rest. The cumulative economic impact on transformation of India is expected to be $450 billion for India by 2035, according to the Ministry of Communications. PM Modi will be shown three different case studies of use in education and other fields. PM's vision is for India to develop 5G parallel to global standards and take the lead in 6G technology. Jio video case will show how a teacher in a school in Mumbai reaches out to students in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha. The Airtel video will show how a girl in Uttar Pradesh learns about the solar system using 5G augmented reality. The Vodafone case will show how safety of workers in an underground construction tunnel of Delhi Metro can be maintained through creating a digital twin of the tunnel on the dias. The digital twin would help give safety alerts to workers from a remote location. Other demos include smart ambulances, health diagnostics, precision drone based farming, smart agri-programme and others. ...

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This Editorial Board article of the WSJ says the EU's embargo on Russian oil raise the cost for Putin's invasion of Ukraine and demonstrate Europe's resolve. The new round of sanctions by EU will ban the imports of Russian oil by sea as well as insurance for shipping companies that transport it globally. About two thirds of Russian oil comes by tanker. Germany and Poland will also stop pipeline oil imports from Russia, only Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia will continue with Russian pipeline oil. The result- an effective embargo on 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. How effective is this if Russian oil is rerouted through other countries to reach China, Western Europe and the US? The WSJ says don't underestimate the impact especially when it is combined with the ban on insuring ships that carry Russian oil. The higher insurance rates and costs of shipping will limit Russian oil exports. Europe makes up half of Russian oil exports and WSJ says the rest of the world can't use up all that oil. Russia exported $180 billion of oil in 2021, a large amount of this will no longer be available to Russia to finance the war. ...

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The Times offers insights into what sort of man Scholz is and how he went on from mayor of Hamburg to lead Germany as chancellor and head of a coalition government with the Greens and the FDP. Scholz made a pitch in his campaign for "respect" as a way to unify German society, with respect for the less well off and people left behind. Scholz is an avid reader, most recently of Brendan Simms Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, on Germany's and Europe's role in the period since the 15th century and the Reconquista of Spain. He is a lover of jazz, Mahler, the poetry of Mario Vargas Llosa and Heinrich Heine, the novels of Thomas Mann and Gunter Grass. He also loves rowing, which he says can get him out of bed before 7 am in the morning. He once told the Frankfurter Allgemeine - "The greatest mistake in my private life was that it took me until I was 40 to find out I like sport." He is married to Britta Ernst, who is a SPD politician and minister of education in the state of Brandenburg that is next to Berlin. Asked what qualities he prized in a person Scholz has said - "Self-reflection and self-evaluation."   ...

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The Supreme Court of the US lets stand the ruling of lower courts and the National Labor Relations Board that says unions can organize and represent workers on the docks in container terminal at South Charleston. The Charleston terminal is in right-to-work state South Carolina. It is the fourth largest container terminal on the East Coast after NY NJ Terminal, Port of Savannah Terminal, and Port of Virginia. A new terminal is being built at Savannah on 395 acres to handle addition 2 million containers per year. Savannah, Georgia is another right-to-work state. Georgia Ports Authority now says it is talking to the ILA and the decision for union labor will not affect its plans for expansion. The Biden administration has supported cost of living action through increase in workers wages and helping workers organize through unions after a long period when labor was not able to push for a fair wage and the relationships between labor and employers were excessively drifting against workers. Rail strikes were settled with an agreement, auto strikes were settled with Biden on the picket lines in Detroit for the United Auto workers. International Longshoremans Association labor efforts at NLRB are part of this story of Biden and the changing face of labor in the US.   ...

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Twenty years after Japanese prime minister Koizumi visited Pyongyang in 2004, Japan's PM Kishida plans to talk to North Korean leader Kim. Koizumi had talks with Kim's father in 2004. The effort is to reduce tensions in the region with elections approaching in Japan, India, and the US in 2024, and to bolster the sense that Japan can manage its role in the region. The Europeans are doing the same as the French and the British are taking a bigger role in Europe during Ukraine conflict. After the Gaza conflict, the Houthis in Red Sea maritime channels, there is a sense that reducing tensions proactively is a better approach rather than wait for things to take their own course in directions that are not good for the world, or taking rigid ideological or other motivated positions that serve no constructive purpose and exacerbate tensions. Gandhiji used to say "tit for tat makes the whole world blind." It is not idealistic to say that but very practical and useful because if you do that you end up with situations where you lose leverage and ability to take positive action and come up with better outcomes, than if you let some unforeseen event or some events by other actors without proper motives to intervene to your serious and the world's detriment. ...

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A sign of the growing people to people relationship of the US and India is the number of Indians in US graduate schools which went up from 68,000 to 102,000 in the 2021-2022 academic year, up 48%. There almost as many Indians taking the GRE exam for entry into US graduate schools in 2023 as Americans taking GRE in the US. Another sign of the expanding people to people relationship is the decision of the Biden administration to give 1 million visitor visas to Indians in the coming year. In India physical sciences and humanities for GRE exceed engineering by a wide margin, showing the shift in subjects. Under India's new education policy NEP the shift is to a more multidisciplinary approach and allowing students to mix science subjects, math with humanities. This approach is seen as best for India to produce a new generation that can think for itself better than the purely engineering science or medical track graduates of the past who had limited knowledge of the humanities. This overly engineering focus has prevailed in the educational approaches of Japan and China during their rapid growth period. India under the Modi administration is betting on a wider knowedge of different and contrasting subjects and disciplines for its future. ...

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WSJ Editorial talks about so called "spending blowouts" of the Democrats in 2024. Are Republicans saying let the roads, bridges, airports, built in the 1940-1960's heyday of American industrialization as China and India's is now, let them crumble? What do the educated minds of the WSJ Board say about coal in China and India and their effects on their massive use multiple times that of US and EU in history, is it not damaging to the environment? And why the Chinese realized the health in North China with coal winter use was worse than in South China cut their coal use. Are they saying lets burn fossil fuels and ignore, and if investment has to be made in solar who is going to do it? Is it OK for Republicans that we just import from China all our solar panels indefinitely into the future? "Green New Deal" is just a perjorative term, policy has to be made thoughtfully and without prejudice or bias of any sort for the best that we can do for the American people, ignoring so called "right" or "left." Doing what is right, what makes sense, is a lot harder.   ...

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The RNC speech of the former president is described by the WSJ Editorial Board as long and rambling for 90 minutes after a good start becoming a typical speech that did not broaden the appeal, and with its random comments lacking clarity. The former president's claims on crime up when it is actually down by 15% according to FBI. On inflation and cost of living the inflation peaked at 9% is now down to 3% in 2023 with cost of living actions by Biden and Powell. The former president's solution to "Drill, baby drill," would only affect gas prices a bit, and do nothing for the principal causes of inflation in housing, in rental of apartments, in prices of automobiles and auto repairs, and in cost of drugs, student loans. Only a concerted action on all fronts as Biden and Powell have done would work, along with large investments in American manufacturing and jobs, which can only be done if no tax cuts are made for the wealthy not in the Republican platform. This means the hundreds of thousands of job creation each month happening now will stall and inflation from supply chains in China will be harder to control especially with a 60% Trump proposed tariff on Chinese imports. ...

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The debt brake put into the German Constitution by Angela Merkel's government in 2009 to limit the structural budget deficit to 0.35% of GDP during the 2009 financial crisis caused by poor banking behaviour, and in the 2015 eurozone debt crisis with overborrowing by Greece and Spain, is no longer relevant in 2024. It can be said that Merkel made some mistakes- not investing in digitization, in infrastructure and making the German economy dependent on low cost oil and gas from Russia. Putting the debt brake in the German Constitution and setting it at 0.35% of GDP except in emergencies adds to these mistakes, because it deprives policymakers and government of the minimum needed flexibility to meet changing situations in the interests of the German people.    It means there is no money to invest in the country's future, no money for infrastructure even when it is old and crumbling for roads, bridges rail stations and airports, no money for digitization of the economy in which Germany has fallen behind, not enough for defense, and no money to fund needs in education, healthcare, childcare. And not enough money to invest in climate change action. Absent this investment the German economy falls behind, jobs become precarious and public dissatisfaction leads to volatile political situation. ...

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The cooperation of Paris residents and visitors was key to the security achieved during the Paris Olympics. The stadiums were full, 743,000 people attended venues on July 30, and millions of people lined the streets for the men's and women's cycling road races. "The Games took place amid a great atmosphere, and the police were very well received by both Parisians and tourists, who cooperated well with them," says Axel Ronde of the CFTC police services union. Clarisse Agbegnenou, bronze winner in the women’s 63kg judo category was a member of the police force. 75,000 police, private security and soldiers were used for smoothly carrying out the Olympic games with the Olympics integrated into the city of Paris for opening and closing ceremonies in a way not seen before. It was also intended to revitalize neighborhoods of Paris that had fallen into decline. In this sense the designers aspired for something different and can draw satisfaction that they made the effort and it may leave a lasting value in revitalization of Paris. Yet considering the lack of adequate investment most cities in Europe and the US were getting over three decades of laissez faire economic theory of Reagan/Friedman there is a lot that remains to be done with new investment scale and spirit. ...

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In a response to Mark Cuban about intelligent women around DJT Susie Wiles his co-campaign manager shares that she and Linda McMahon are two she can think of "Well, here we are." Very disciplined and to the point using just the right words, and getting her message across, Susie Wiles is a remarkable addition to DJT's team from the outset. She once worked for Reagan's political campaigns. Susie Wiles says- "You don’t have to shout to get noticed. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I think it hampers your ability to be effective.” She comes from Florida and was introduced to DJT by a Republican lobbyist in 2015. She has handled Rick Scott's transition with Matt Gaetz, and also worked on the De Santis campaign in Florida. In 2016 and 2020 she has the remarkable achievement of turning Florida once a swing state into a core part of the Republican states in the southern US. Susie Wiles says- "You don’t have to shout to get noticed. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I think it hampers your ability to be effective.” ...

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The First Letter to the Editor in Lyrarc.com July 27, 2016 more true in 2024- "What is missing today is a sense of hope and optimism about the future compared to the early postwar period. There was much less - no ipads or iphones, just radio - much less of everything we take for granted, but there was hope, optimism about the future, a sense of can do and endless possibilities... A singular feature was the broader consensus to do good and to do right, a larger sense of public spiritedness in politics and society." To restore hope, optimism, one must judge our actions by words of George Washington in a letter to Thomas Jefferson Feb. 1783-  "To merit the approbation of good and virtuous men  is the height of my ambition, and will be a full compensation for all my toils and sufferings in the long and painful contest in which we have been engaged." Without this Jeffersons words about "holding these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with some inalienable rights," that inspired the world for 250 years would have come to nought.   ...

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Three events September 29 Sunday to October 5 Saturday described as "week from hell" for the Biden White House in this report. President Biden can feel a huge sigh of relief for having overcome in each event. The hurricane Helene devastating a swath of western North Carolina, parts of rural Georgia, and western Florida. The president was working round the clock for relief efforts and visiting the flooded regions. Then there was the large missile strike by Iran over Israel following its bombing of Lebanon. This was averted using US missile defense. And in the middle of all this there was the International Longshoreman's Union 45,000 members announcing a strike that  closed all ports on the East Coast from Maine to Texas. President Biden supported the dockworkers efforts to have shipping ports owners in Asia and Europe to share huge profits with dockworkers.  All the time the hard work at the White House and agencies for relief efforts paid off. Republican governors in North Carolina and Georgia praised the relief efforts. And Zient, Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary Brainard at NEC, were on the phone with port owners overseas at 5.30 am Thursday to setup a stopgap agreement till Jan 15 for settlement. The process and hard work paid off.   ...

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Nagourney Igielnik and Baker, give this report in the NYT that shows on questions of temperament and character and who you could trust, there is a shift towards Harris. In addition 75% of the people see the country headed not in the right direction, and on this issue of change Harris does better. Then there are he states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia, where things are being sorted out with the hurricanes adding to the picture. In the west there is also Arizona and Nevada. Also of interest is that in states like Texas there is only a 6% lead for Republicans. Lyndon Johnson was Democrat from Texas JFK's running mate and set up Social Security and Medicare as we know it today. It suggests a realignment from the old rural urban divide and college educated vs not college educated ideas separating the two parties. A new state university educated, small college educated, or community college educated is also emerging that like Harris's running mate from the State University of Minnesota in Mankato, sees things differently, and is spread across all parts rural, urban, white, minority, and from lower income families. These people are looking for who they can trust personally to improve their lives and make up 60-70% of American households.  ...

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Pew Research looks at Inequality as an issue. It also looks at whether people see that their children will be better off financially when they grow up. The Better off Financially is not the same as the inequality issue, on inequality issue progress can be inadequate but perceived differently among different income groups in industrialized nations to be inconclusive as in this recent Pew Research in 2024.  On whether children will be Better off financially there is a decisive result in Pew Research in 2024. With France and Canada at the top 81% and 78%,  Italy and UK at 79%, the US at 74%, Japan 77%, Australia 79%, Spain 75%. Almost across all the European Union countries and the US this is decisive, a clear unequivocal result. Both the Trump first term and the Biden first term felt effects of Covid pandemic.  Reviving Manufacturing in the US and  Europe is the only way, and with it infrastructure investment, to bring back a sense of optimism to the US and Europe. For this levelling the playing field and tariffs that do that selectively are the plan in the second term, getting industry to take up the challenge is the second goal in this decade to 2030.    ...

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It took action by DJT for what Canada and Mexico could have done from common sense. This is an unconventional use of tariffs by the US. Yet this was an unconventional situation in which the US under several administrations Republican and Democrat Clinton-Bush-Obama, allowed the situation at the Border leave the US in a deteriorating situation with its neighbors to the north and south. Canada and Mexico could have acted before the 25% yet they did not act till the tariff was imposed. A situation such as this cannot be found in the history of the United States of America from its founding in 1776, not in 225 years has the US seen such loss of life from fentanyl and drugs crossing its borders, or the constant flow of illegal migration, neglect of its auto industry and jobs in the US. DJT stated on Truth Social media site-"Canada has agreed to ensure we have a secure Northern Border. I am very pleased with this initial outcome, and the Tariffs announced on Saturday will be paused for a 30 day period to see whether or not a final Economic deal with Canada can be structured." "Fairness for all!"   ...