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Boris Johnson says no deal Brexit remains a real possibility after dinner meeting with Leyen and discussions fail to lead to any agreement. Johnson says he has the backing of his senior ministers. The UK Johnson says, should not remain stuck in "the EU's regulatory orbit." There now appears to be a German led group that includes Sweden that seeks a compromise, and a French led group that accepts Britain leaving the European Union without any agreement.

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The dire situation in Brazil with 180,000 deaths and Mexico with 110,000 deaths by December 9, 2020. Latin America has 460,000 deaths.

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Italy vs. Brazil in World Cup Soccer 1982 in Barcelona. Memories from that game in which Paolo Rossi of Italy scores a hat trick to knock Brazil out of the World Cup. With the passing away of Rossi this report looks at the legends of the game. Rossi also scored the opening goal in a 3 to 1 win for Italy against Germany in Madrid. 

Amazingly Rossi was seen as coming out in personal redemption after getting a 3 year suspension from the game for a match fixing scandal of 1980.  When it was reduced to 2 years Rossi got the opportunity to redeem himself. The World Cup Soccer was to be held in Spain only a few months after he started playing again. Rossi was declared unfit to play and did not score in the first three pool matches. Then came the Brazil game. Followed by 2 goals in the 2-0 win over Poland in the semi final. And then on to play Germany in the final with the opening goal. 

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Lost revenue from digital apps and need to recover this by changes to VAT rules is the subject of this report. The government has to make up the cost of coronavirus to the budget as its stimulus meets needs of business and the unemployed.

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A major British and Indian collaboration and scientific achievement of both countries is not given the recognition it should get because of mismanaged communication of the results of clinical trials. Tom Whipple science editor of The Times says do not make the mistake of thinking oh Pfizer vaccine scores a 9 out of 10 and Oxford's a 7 or 8 out of 10. Pfizer vaccine says it 94% effective. But this is only part of the story. It is the first exam paper in a long number of exam papers and the final score will require scoring them all. "Oxford vaccine is complex, and we are happy with the complexity," says Adrian Hill, Oxford researcher and head of the Jenner Institute. It is not highly unusual in this complex field for a half first dose to work better than a full first dose in a two dose vaccine treatment. This happened with the Oxford vaccine. As a result the study results were harder to communicate. This happened by accident. Much of medical research and much of medicine's biggest breakthroughs in the last 200 years happened by accident, as one researcher looked for something and accidentally discovered something else profoundly useful. Whipple's points are turning out to be true now that Britain's medicine regulator has asked that Pfizer vaccine not be given to people with history of allergic reactions after 2 NHS workers had strong allergic reactions. A lot of questions remain for all vaccines. How long will the protection last? WIll it prevent transmission of coronavirus? Are there any other complications? Which vaccines can work without ultralow refrigeration storage? Ahead lie the prospect of billions of doses. Two are in final stages in India including Bharat Biotech request for emergency authorization. Johnson & Johnson has a competing one to Pfizer's in the U.S. As many as 30 are being developed in India and 100 around the world. Countries like South Korea say they will wait to find out which one works best and where cost overall combined with benefit is attractive. Some of the vaccines are coming out only weeks apart. The early ones could stumble, if something was missed. ...

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The ruling party LDP's defense committee has decided Japan needs to strike North Korean missiles on the ground. There is a growing consensus on this. Another consensus is developing over the issue of protecting the Senkaku islands adminstered by Japan and claimed by China. 

Earlier in 2020 T12 missiles with 100 kilometres range were deployed on Miyako island between Kyushu and Taiwan. Now these missiles range will be increased to 300 kilometres to reach the Senkaku islands. China has sent patrol planes and ships near the Senkaku islands. Other cruise missile range is planned for 1000 kilometres as Japan Self Defense Forces expand their capabilities to take on more of the responsibility for defending the Japanese islands. In alliance with India and Australia this capability is being expanded to the entire Indian Ocean region to counter an expansionist China.

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Greece's minister for migration tells the Times that seven charities including one in London form part of a chain stretching from Somalia to Britain in which smugglers move migrants illegally.  One of the seven charities is in London and is seen as colluding with human traffickers who are putting lives of migrants at risk. Greece has 70,000 migrants living in squalid refugee centres. Of these 17,000 are on islands in the Aegean sea. Europe cannot cope with all these migrants illegally making the crossing, much less during this pandemic. It has also unsettled the countries where migrants are settled on a humanitarian basis as there is at the same time serious neglect of poverty stricken communities inside Europe who are not getting the assistance they deserve. The result is even less focus on the development needs, on infrastructure, education and healthcare of the countries in Europe where migrants are headed, with the attention diverted to the migrants issue. Economic progress in Europe and rapid development could not only improve the condition of people in all communities, it could also help finance more foreign aid development project assistance to Africa and other countries. This would if vigorously done keep people in their home countries and help fulfill their development aspirations there, which is the better way.  Chancellor Merkel of Germany should have opted for a better way by setting up a program for aspiring migrants in the countries of Africa with a generous visa program offering training and technological skills, which could then be brought back to the country in Africa where it could generate jobs and opportunities with the necessary capital from European and other financial institutions and governments. This effort made in alliance with Britain and France could be powerful in its impact. Instead a haphazard three years of migration led to internal divisions, loss of confidence in the CDU and the SDP, FDP parties in coalitions, ending up where it should have started in the first place- reducing the migration to a trickle, returning some migrants back to their countries, and focussing on bringing economic assistance and development assistance to African countries for opportunities in these countries and a brighter future so that no one would want to leave and drift on oceans in tiny boats in the first place. The condition of the people in Africa is not so hopeless that the best they can do is to send their young people to drift on boats on the high seas in the hope of refugee status. China has shown that the there is a path from famine during the years following the Great Leap Forward to the development of today. India is doing that now and can repeat that story. Japan and South Korea, Taiwan have done this after devastating wars and out of nothing. Imagine what the world would be like if all these people in Asia set out on small boats for Europe.       ...

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The coronavirus pandemic has pushed New York into a $8.7 billion deficit for the fiscal year that began April 1, 2020. A bipartisan bill in Congress would have given $160 billion to state and local governments in the $908 billion bill. 

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Elon Musk and others who say MBA's are a problem for America. MBA training does not bring  the creativity and original ideas and doer approach America so desperately needs today. Asking Business school professors or lecturers about their opinion on MBA's does not make sense as this is how they earn their living. Musk is outspoken about this- "I think there is a MBA-ization of America, which I think is maybe not that great. There should be more focus on the product or service itself, less time on board meetings, less time on financials."

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About one third of people in America are living in areas where there is a critical shortage of ICU beds. Deaths in America are averaging 2200 a day on December 8, 2020.

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Two health service workers at NHS Britain experienced symptoms after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. NHS is told by medicines regulator that people with a history of significant allergic reactions should not be given the Pfizer vaccine.

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Britain's prime minister Boris Johnson and his negotiating team meet EU president Ursula Leyen for dinner in Brussels on December 8, 2020, to get over fundamental differences for a Brexit deal. This report in The Guardian describes the details of that dinner meeting.  Boris Johnson told parliament that the European Union was asking Britain to be the only country in the world not to have sovereign control over its own fishing waters. He said the EU was also asking that if the EU were to pass a new law that Britain does not comply with they would have the right to  automatically punish Britain or retaliate. On the issue of environmental and other laws that relate to the EU and Britain they are both at the same level today. The EU is worried that in future competition between Britain and the EU in trade and business Britain could relax environmental or other laws to gain an unfair advantage. Boris Johnson and his Conservative party back benchers insist that Britain should have sole right to make its own laws. France's Macron introduced the idea of automatic retaliation as a way to get Britain to keep a level playing field. Both sides see this as a negotiating tactic, hence the dinner meeting as a way to let top negotiators including the leaders to set an informal tone to the final stage of tough negotiating. Merkel made her own remarks to the German parliament saying she was willing to let the negotiations collapse if Britain rejected the EU approach. Merkel stated that if Britain insisted on certain conditions EU could not accept she was willing to let Britain leave without an exit agreement. This way if something went wrong Merkel would not take the blame.   ...