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Gordon and Dowell report in WSJ on F-16's and Houthi use of radar turned on at the last minute. Ballistic missile aimed at aircraft carrier Harry Truman that caused it to change direction. Stretched forces in the Gulf region a warning from Gen Dan Caine of the US Air Force on capabilities. This is an account of the lessons learned from the Operation Rough Rider to get the Houthis to stop attacks on shipping in the Red Sea Suez route, including an attack on a Greek ship that had 1 million barrels of oil which after damage could have truned into an environmental disaster worse than the Exxon Valdez.  It shows the risks of the war, risks of stretching the forces and the fleet, the calculated risks taken each time as the US faces both the need to keep peace and shipping safe in the region and also address challenges in Taiwan and the Pacific, challenges closer to home in Latin America to keep America safe with the Monroe Doctrine. Every bit helps including the US doing the right thing, not being belligerant but standing up where it is right, working with the Russians and Chinese, and the Indians, with the Europeans, for what is fair and does good for the world at large. And working with the Europeans on a settlement of conflict in Europe that detracts from the need for addressing challenges that hurt the well being of the people of the world in Asia, Latin America, and the rest of the world. ...

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WSJ was effective in calling to the attention of the US president that tactics of one Border Patrol officer were against the American tradition and appeared to be not what police, ICE and Border Patrol, DHS itself was doing in the past. Greg Bovino of Border Patrol led sweeps in LA, Chicago and other cities in what people inside ICE and DHS including Border Head Homan  considered  "unnecessarily aggressive"  and less effective tactics. By being provocative in tactics this attracted more protestors on streets, made law enforcement look worse than when it was using the normal approach of ICE, and by reducing the local authorites cooperation required more and more Border patrol and ICE agents till it became unworkable and attracted critics from within the government and Republicans in Congress. Even DJT said that the this agent was an "out there kind of guy." In Congress many Republicans including Kennedy of Louisiana went on the floor of the Senate asserting the right of peaceful protest enshrined in the US Constitution and called for soul searching to get effective but the right kind of law enforcement that was the tradition in America. Anotehr aspect of what happened in Minneapolis is the troubled history of the city as this is where George Floyd and unarmed man during Covid lost his life in a situation with Minneapolis police, which had already created a sense of unease in that city, compared to Chicago, and Los Angeles BP and ICE sweeps which did not end up like this. In Nashville, and Washington DC National Guard not ICE operated which has different training.  ...

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Protests planned in smaller towns in eastern Germany are the largest since the fall of the Berlin Wall, says this report in DW.com. Protests are against far right AfD and plans to deport immigrants from Germany. About 300,000 people turned out near the chancellery and the Bundestag parliament buildings in Berlin on Saturday Feb. 3, 2024. About 30,000 turned out in Dresden in East Germany. About 1800 organizations have called for protests in Berlin. Luisa Neubauer of the Fridays for Future Climate protests told the crowd according to DW.com- that hope does not fall from the sky, hope is damn hard work and that Germans must live democracy not just passively have democracy. This is showing Berliners and Germans in many cities and small towns in a different light, where the people themselves are taking charge. When political parties from the CDU and SPD, Greens and the Left have let the political landscape fragment with no party having more than 20% support. The future of Germany and the EU depends on these young people out on the streets. ...

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Robert Pape of the University of Chicago political science department points out the facts that show an increase in suicide bombings and roadside bomb attacks witrh asharp escalation as the foreign troop presence increased. He quotes Gen McChrystal's own report, " the increase in firepower and force protection have severely damaged the International Security Assistance Force's legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghan people." In this respect he says McChrystal's request is not bold enough because with further escalation on the ground even more troops than he has requested would be required. THe numbers he gives are- neglibible roadside bombings after 2001, then as US and foreign troops increased 782 in 2005,1,739 in 2006, 2000 in 2007 and 3200 in 2008, all focussed on western targets not Afghan forces. He says the approach of buying support is used by the Taliban, and the US needs to allocate more resources and money to this effort. The switch would be gradual to fewer ground troops as they are seen as foreign occupiers, and America would maintain its military presece but differently avoiding the large forces that would only increase resistance to foreign occupation as its perceived in Afghanistan....

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Lucy Powell, deputy leader of Labour party, on Andy Burnham as the right choice for Denton seat in parliament, as the Greens would not have gone after that seat the way they did knowing Burnham was in it. Lucy Powell says of Andy Burham of the Greater Manchester region-  people “see in him someone who is on their side, someone who is delivering those Labour values and those Labour policies”. Starmer's error was to keep Burnham out, and he well realizes this.

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Fed chairman Powell sees inflation right now in the US as driven by supply chain problems, by the war in Ukraine and its effect on oil prices, and by shifts among American consumers from spending on dining and travel to furniture and goods. An added factor is the tight labor market that affects spending.

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British establishment Labour's Mandelson and Conservative's Prince Andrew -the Epstein connections in the Epstein files and the political fallout for Labour and the Conservatives. This happens as they approach local elections with the Greens, Liberals, and Reform UK already taking 50% of Labour's 2024 general election voters with disillusionment over results in the first 2 years of Labour. Labour assumed it had the immigration issue under control with some headline grabbing  stories of it taking tough action when it won in 2024. That has not deterred illegal migrant trafficking. Labour soon lost sight of the ball, and did not realize that the cultural issues around excessive tolerance of such migration itself had not been resolved such as ECHR rights which were completely misinformed when written to approve of such illegal migrants rights and ignore the citizens and women of the neighborhoods in which people had lived for generations. After decade and half of Conservative Cameron austerity Labour needed time to wrestle with the issues of levelling facing Britain's north and the Midlands. Instead Labour found itself on the backfoot and Farage was brought out of retirement after issues in towns like Epping and all across England, where migrants were put in hotels as women and locals loudly disapproved. Labour thought under Conservatives  that over 50,000 were in asylum hotels in 2023 and this has come down to 35,000 in 2025 under Labour, as a kind of improvement not realizing that the public mood questioned the whole idea of the migrants in hotels itself, of little tolerance for any illegal migrants in neighborhoods itself. It shows the political processes have great importance and a series of mediocre leaders from Blair, Brown, Cameron, Johnson, Sunak, Starmer and Farage over a period of 4 decades can change the trajectory for nations and region. A similar period for India in 1720-1760 with warring factions and regions inviting British East India Company troops to opposing sides fractured the country and led to losing its grip on itself. Gandhiji describes this for introspection in Hind Swaraj (1905) not taking the easy road most now discredited anticolonial writers after 1950 took in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Where does this leave Britain in 2026? It can only come to grips with it knowing that the quality of education, quality of leadership, honesty and introspection of the kind suggested by Teddy Roosevelt in Applied Idealism in his Autobiography, chapter 5, and in Gandhiji's Hind Swaraj are essential.  ...

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The White House is expecting the half of the 2.2 million federal government workers who do not work out of their government offices to show up at offices and use them with "enhanced flexibilities." A GAO report shows that 17 out of 24 federal agency headquarters buildings in Washington D.C. had an utilization rate of 25%.

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The International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations stands for advancing social justice and promoting decent work. It says in this edition of its journal that trade unions have stood their ground to better protect workers rights during the pandemic when workers suffered from its devastating impact and in a difficult environment. In the US 1041 of 1363 elections at companies led to unions getting the right to represent workers. This is the highest number of elections over two decades. It also includes Microsoft and other companies showing wider acceptance of unions to protect workers rights.

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Young people in the job market and retirees making less than Rs 60,000 a month will not pay any tax under the Budget for 2023 for India. Growth will be generated through capital spending on infrastructure improvements that is 33% higher in 2023 than in 2022. By keeping the fiscal deficit under 5.9% the government is encouraging private industry to invest for growth. This report in The Indian Express says the Modi government and finance minister Sitharaman are acting with fiscal prudence and yet maintaining momentum for future growth.

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Benedict Carey provides this fascinating account of one woman's experience in the U.S. Army's mission in Afghanistan. Lieutenant Courtney Wilson served in Kandahar in 2010 and experienced many of the stresses women face to a larger degree than men integrating into what is for the dominant part a male focussed culture. This is increasingly important as women now form about 15% of the force in Afghanistan and Iraq, and are likely to be an even larger part in the future tech driven force. With fewer women in the force Wilson had less opportunity to interact with women, and like other women in the army she felt the emotional bonding that men have with other men in the army is something they lack. Like women in male professions, and men at the margins of the dominant culture in other fields, women feel a higher level of psychic stress.