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Sophie Landrin's Le Monde report on Sri Lanka Ditwah cyclone devastation December 9 2025. Her report with pictures of the destruction wrought by the cyclone show parts of the Kandy region in the mountainous uplands in the central part of Sri Lanka, including the University of Peradeniya. There was no warning when the cyclone hit with 10,000 of 16,000 student on the campus. This is the worst cyclone to hit Sri Lanka in the last hundred years. Sri Lanka is a island nation that is Buddhist located at southern tip of India. It has been hit by a civil war, financial crisis with no central bank reserves, the pandemic, and now the cyclone. 

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Pakistan win by 5 runs over Sri Lanka T20 World Cup 2026 - not enough to get into semifinals.

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Australia after 104 by openers Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head collapse to lose 5 wickets in 12 balls to spinners - Nissanka's fast 100 gets Sri Lanka past 181 with 8 wickets to spare.

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Authorites say that in the Swiss French region ski resort fire sparklers were held too close to the ceiling resulted in the blaze and a flashover. It resulted ina tragedy for Switzerland with 40 killed and 115 injured many Swiss and from Germany, France and Italy. The Guardian shows pictures of the bar at the time of the fire.

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Kathryn Ruemmler is legal counsel at Goldman Sachs, and adviser to the CEO. The WSJ looks at Epstein file releases by the US Justice Department on Ruemmler's connections to Epstein in 2019 as a legal adviser. Some of it is after FBI arrested Epstein. Other files released show Ruemmler had consulted with Epstein on jobs she was interviewing for with Goldman, and potential jobs at Google, Facebook and Citadel, according to this report. This aspect is similar to what is reported in the media about Mandelson having consulted with Epstein for job offers at large financial companies. In the case of Mandelson he described his access to influence in Labour government decisions. The Mandelson connections are rocking the British government of PM Keir Starmer for his poor judgement in appointing Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US and lack of due diligence on his background.  WSJ report says Ruemmler had helped try Enron executives and this brought her attention that led to her going to the White House as Barrack Obama's counsel. She left in 2014 and was a white collar defense lawyer at Latham and Watkins.  ...

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Extreme heat and dehydration affecting farming villages and fishing communities, and lack of clean drinking water, contamination of water supplies by chemicals, has led to kidney disease in 40 year olds in Sri Lanka. This also shows how important the clean drinking water Har Ghar Jal - clean water for all homes- of prime minister Narendra Modi is for 1.4 billion people in India. Sri Lanka (Ceyon) faced with decades of civil war, and mismanaged finances with corruption, is ill equipped to tackle the huge problems that it faces.

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Prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe has assumed the finance minister position as Sri Lanka completes one phase of negotiations with the IMF. The IMF says "Since Sri Lanka's public debt is assessed as unsustainable, approval by the Executive Board of an IMF supported programme would require adequate assurances that debt sustainability will be restored." Sri Lanka facing lack of capital to pay for essential energy and other food needs suspended payment on nearly $7 billion foreign debt repayment due this year with action taken under a new central bank governor. About $25 billion is due for repayment by 2026 and total debt stands at $51 billion. The IMF comments come after reports that Sri Lanka Monetary Board at the central bank and finance ministry in 2021 failed to address the debt sustainability issue even though the IMF in April 2020 had advised Sri Lanka to go for restructuring. Discussions IMF says "focused on restoring fiscal sustainability while protecting the vulnerable and the poor, ensuring the credibility of the monetary policy and exchange rate regimes, preserving financial sector stability, and structural reforms to enhance growth and strengthen governance." ...

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Parussini describes the different style of new RBI Governor Urjit Patel, who is no rock star economist like his predecessor Raghuram Rajan. Rajan is quoted as once saying; "My name is Raghuram Rajan and I do what I do." Rajan engaged widely with the media. At his first press conference Patel made a short statement thanking RBI staff, and turned it over to staff at RBI who talked about financial supervision, banking regulation and other issues. Patel's answers were short without follow-up questions, the whole event over in 20 minutes. Patel was chosen by the new government of prime minister Modi to run RBI in 2016.

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The Observe Research Foundation looks at Sri Lankan debt crisis.Too much borrowing at high interest rates above 6%, without concessionary loans typical of what developing countries need, can create havoc for poor countries such as Sri Lanka. When macroeconomic factors collide with health and politics such as drop in remittances, global financial crisis of 2009, civil war, borrowing for unsustainable type of infrastructure such as ports and airports, the results can be disastrous. Sri Lanka is an example. Borrowing that is off the official record of loans such as to state owned companies can leave the country with higher debt load than even the Finance ministry has kept track of, a severe problem for small developing countries, including countries  in the Caribbean shown in recent NYT reports.

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With pressure from Germany and France Austria will close its ski resorts over Christmas season to prevent spread of coronavirus. The situation is where Swiss ski resorts are open incensing Italian and French ski resorts. The next step would be to close the Swiss ski resorts in the same way Austria has done to prevent infections. 

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Indian financial and project assistance to Sri Lanka is making a huge difference for Sri Lanka. With a relationship that goes back to the time when the first Buddhist missionaries arrived on the island India has a long relationship with Sri Lanka. In addition to financial help India is planning major long term projects in renewable energy, port infrastructure and energy pipelines from southern India. Reuters looks at these projects in this report.

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India was the first to offer financing assurances on behalf of Sri Lanka for a loan of $2.9 billion from the IMF. Written financing assurance from Japan will follow soon. A similar assurance from China will help Sri Lanka get the IMF loan of $2.9 billion. India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar will visit Colombo on Jan. 19 and 20.

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Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves drop from over $7.5 billion in 2019 to about $2.8 billion in July 2021. The tourism industry on which Sri Lanka depends for foreign exchange and which supports the economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Sri Lanka rupee has depreciated by 8% in 2021 and the country struggles to maintain food imports with declining dollar reserves. Sri Lankan government declared an economic emergency last week with rising food prices.

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Trade Agreement talks will begin in December between India and Sri Lanka as Sri Lanka looks for ways to bring back growth following a 9.2% contraction in the economy in 2022 and estimated 4.2% in 2023. Mr. Weerasinghe at the International Trade Office setup under the presidential secretariat will represent Sri Lanka. Engaging in trade with India and China and regional countries is part of the plan to restore growth. Sri Lanka's exports to India were about $980 million in 2021 and imports $4.74 billion. This time Weerasinghe says we must avoid taking rigid inflexible positions and strive for a win-win for both sides.

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Anantha Nageswaran of the CEA tells Sansad TV that the RBI estimate of 6.4% is close to the government's estimate of growth. He says RBI's estimate is based on oil prices of $95 per barrel higher than it is today. He says India's financial system is in much better shape than in the previous decade and the corporate sector is deleveraged, MSME's are in good shape with government support, giving the government confidence in its figures for growth.

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Working culture and attitudes towards women change as three women, the new CBI director general and two other women, represent CBI before the business and trade select committee of parliament in UK. Conduct towards women became an issue for the CBI leading to departure of companies from the organization which represents British industry.

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Ski resorts in the northern French Alps in the Savoie region and the southern French Alps near Grenoble are easy to access with flights from the US and cost a fraction of what the ski resorts cost in the US in places like Colorado. About 4000 mountain ski resorts are owned by families or a municipality and have kept costs low. By contrast corporate consolidation has led to much higher prices in Colorado and other mountain ski locations in the US. 

During the summer and fall seasons these locations are attractive for hikers and cyclists and cost much less. 

Shown here are-

La Clusaz an hour's drive from Geneva, Switzerland with five sprawling mountains.

Obergurgl-Hochgurgl in Ausstrian Alps near Italy, the Tirolean region and culture.

Tignes, France about 2 and half hours drive from Lyon or Geneva.

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The FBI search at Mar Lago Mr. Trump's Florida home is part of an investigation into Mr. Trump's handling of classified information.

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The overhaul at the Confederation of British Industry after issues with its working culture and problems about how women were being treated at the CBI.

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India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar visits Sri Lanka. He says-  "We felt strongly that Sri Lanka's neighbors must take proactive steps to facilitate its recovery. India decided not to wait for others but to do what we believe is right. We extended financing reassurances to IMF to clear the way for Sri Lanka to move forward."  He emphasized the enormous renewable energy potential of the island nation which India supports. The larger region provides new possibilities for Sri Lanka to get the benefits of scale for energy development. He pointed out that India is " prepared to go the extra mile when Sri Lanka feels the need." India and Sri Lanka share a long history from the period of the first conversion by Mahinda from India of the island to Buddhism.

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The governor of India's central bank, the RBI, says cryptocurrency are a threat to the economy and stability and savings of ordinary Indians. He believes private cryptocurrencies should be prohibited. He recently launched RBI own digital currency to combat the problem of private cryptocurrency firms. There is no proper regulatory oversight for cryptocurrency leading to abuses as most recently seen in the dramatic collapse of FTX in the US which was based in the Bahamas. It is covered by the WSJ.