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The British trucking industry faces an acute shortage of drivers with coronavirus, aging workforce, and exodus of foreign workers after Brexit. As a result some supermarket shelves are empty and petrol stations across the UK had run out of gasoline for cars. One third of BP stations had run out of petrol by September 27.

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Giorgia Meloni of Italy as seen from Germany in this report in DW.com

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Tim Kaine tells the audience at the Democratic National Convention that Hillary Clinton was in Spanish "lista" which means ready, the biggest compliment he said in Latin American life from his days in Honduras. He used Spanish frequently during his speech at the convention.  Kaine wins good marks for his knowledge of Spanish. Other politicians have used Spanish in an awkward way, failing to sound authentic, including president George W. Bush and Mayor De Blasio of New York.

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Ashwani Lohani, head of the Railway Board for Indian Railways says the bullet train is creating a paradigm shift in how people travel in India. That the distance from the city where Mahatma Gandhi had his Ashram to Mumbai is covered in less time than it takes to travel by air is a huge shift for India. Some media reports have incorrectly stated that the money used for the bullet train could have been used for improvements to the railway system. Lohani says it is important that people understand that the money for the bullet train is coming from Japan and would not be available if the bullet train was not built. It is also at interest rates of 0.1% and a moratorium period of 15 years making the loans almost free. The advantage of the project is also that it has a demonstrative effect showing that a lot can be done in bringing Indian Railways into the pattern of rapid rail travel prevalent in Europe and now in China. China has shown the way by developing its rail system and also developing the technology for bullet trains using Kawasaki technology from Japan and building on this. It is imperative that India do this and modernize its own system. This is an aspect of infrastructure also that has a massive impact on people's lives. When trains can travel at bullet speed between city centres in India it also creates a new energy for bringing the rest of the system to higher technology standards.     ...

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China surpassed Germany as the world's No. 1 exporter in the first 10 months of 2009, with $957 billion in exports compared to Germany's $917 billion, according to customs data compiled by Global Trade Information Services, a Geneva based firm. With the global financial crisis China's exports fell 20.4% in the first 10 months of 2009 compared to 27.4% for Germany and 21% for the USA. Global consumer spending has fallen more than the capital goods and machinery exported by Germany. Yet these numbers suggest that there has been no significant change to the export models of the two countries even after the global economc crisis revealed cracks in the export model.

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Germany is once again seeing new cases of coronavirus at levels seen in May, with 1226 new cases August 11. Health minister Jens Spahn says it is because of family gatherings and partying, and also travelers from summer holidays overseas. Germany now has 218,000 cases and over 9200 deaths. Russia has 900,000 cases and is testing a new vaccine.

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The failure of the MF Global Board of Directors to question the huge bets on European sovereign bonds taken by Jon Corzine. This board had members with sophisticated knowledge of financial markets. Then why did it act passively, asks Davidoff. Boards have some of the same blinkers that the CEO has, and may have been led to believe that this was a good course of action. Failure of boards of directors in recent times include a long list- Lehman Brothers, GM, H-P, Toyota, most recently Olympus, and others. In some cases as with Corzine and the head of Lehman, one sees a headstrong executive with a history of success, in others as at GM and Toyota the Board is stacked with members selected by or favorable to voting with the CEO. And at H-P or Olympus, an inside group that runs things the way they see fit. Most boards of this type are highly insulated from outside opinion, and highly confirmed in the correctness of their own opinion even when the situation has dangerously deteriorated.

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Britain's unemployment rate edged up from 8.1% to 8.3%. Youth unemployment- joblessness among young people ages 16-24- went up to 1.02 million in October 2011, the Office of National Statistics reported. This takes youth unemployment up to 21.9% The ONS says that noncomparable and nonseasonally adjusted data show youth unemployment exceeding one million in 1984, 1985, and 1986.

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Su Liping, professor at Tsinghua Unversity, says there were 180,000 protests, riots and other incidents, protesting economic injustice in 2010. Most of the incidents were against land grabs, corruption and abuses by local officials, and unpaid wages. Inflation has hit the poor, migrant workers and people with low incomes hardest. Food prices were up 13.4% in August over the same month prior year. Pork prices were up 52.3%. Other problems are now meshed in with inflation. Local government debt in China, according to the National Audit Office, was 10.7 trillion yuan in June 2011. The National Audit Office estimates 23% of this, or 2.5 trillion yuan, depends on land for repayment. Analysts say China's local government made repayment in 2010 using the 2.9 trillion yuan in revenue from land sales. The same amount of land has to be sold in 2010 to make repayment. At lower prices even more land may have to be sold. The danger say Orlik and Jie, is that inflation and the pressure to acquire more land- and consequently more land grabs- will pose severe risks to the social contract in China....

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Labor party in UK gets 35% of the vote with Conservatives at 26% and Liberals at 20%, in Britain's local council elections. Other parties including the Greens gained 19% of the vote. There isn't much the Conservatives have done to help the British people meet the cost of living crisis. The economy is in worse shape and the country is not prepared to take on the climate change crisis. Britain gets closer to a general election.

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Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, calls for fresh elections on September 20, 2021. His term ends in 2023. Trudeau called for elections early as government aid programs have helped Canadians during the pandemic, and Canada has managed to vaccinate 70% of the population over age of 12. The economy is expected to increase by 6% in 2021. Trudeau's party, the Liberals, are popular and Trudeau hopes to increase his progressive base. He currently leads a minority government making it difficult to pass legislation on the government's priorities for child care, clean environment, healthcare, and affordable housing.

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U.S. job growth slowed in February to just 20,000 jobs in nonfarm sector following strong gains in December and January. The 3 month average is 186,000 jobs created. Unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%. The figures are watched closely as Europe and China are showing slow growth. The European Central Bank said it will not increase interest rates till 2020 and announced fresh stimulus loans. The U.S. Federal Reserve is not expected to raise rates in the next few months. Economic output growth was 0.5% in the first quarter after 3% growth in 2018. Other reports show labor scarcity with wage growth outpacing inflation. 

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Finland makes the decision to join NATO on May 12, 2022. NATO's land. border will increase from 1215 kilometres or 745 miles to 2600 kilometres. Sweden is expected to join NATO in a paradigm shift as it has been neutral for 200 years. Once Finland joins Sweden would be alone in the Baltic if it did not join NATO. Both Finland and Sweden have integrated their defenses and built up defenses at a time when other European states had not invested in the military. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg has welcomed FInland and Sweden joining NATO.

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The lawyers who organized a movement for respect for the judiciary and reinstatement of all judges fired by Musharraf say their goal is the rule of law in Pakistan and look beyond the present political parties to a system of government that respects the law and the judiciary as in a parliamentary system like that of the United Kingdom which offers the earliest prcedent of judicial systems in Pakistan from the days of the British in India. This bodes well for Pakistan as the lawyers and their supporters can provide some fair and judicial basis for good government when the politicaians and the military have failed.

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How one can meet the needs of older people in small rural communities is the subject of this video report in DW.com. Cottbus is 12 kilometres away and the nearest town to a small rural community Neuhausen in Brandenburg state, Germany. Many older people rely on public transport and there are no stores in the small rural areas. Hildegard Blaske in her 90, still goes cycling, and remembers the time before unification in 1990 when older people still counted in a different way and quaint little stores provided their needs in the area.  

Former Day center employees Ulrich and Cindy use a retrofitted Peugeot Boxer vehicle to take groceries to older people where they live. Older people hesitate to go to stores during the pandemic. And they offer a chat and local news. This kind of effort is also a part of life in France today.

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India's economy has overcome the challenges posed by demonetization and the implementation of the GST tax that slowed growth to 5.7% for much of 2017. The growth rate increased to 7.2% in the last quarter of 2017. The GST tax change that created a single market is likely to increase growth. Growth of 8-10% matching China's growth rate in the last two decades is possible. Faster economic growth is needed to meet the need for more jobs, as 1 million new job entrants enter the job market each month. Indian Railways received 20 million applications for 100,000 new jobs showing the need for new jobs cannot be met at current growth rates. A major problem is the condition of the banking sector with bad loans affecting ability of banks to lend. A planned bailout of the banking sector and a new bankruptcy code are efforts to address this problem. Governance in the banking sector is also a problem that needs to be addressed. The price of oil is now up to $65 a barrel, increasing the cost to India which now faces a larger oil import cost.   ...

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The private -government partnership Summers and Geithner see happening for restoring confidence in the banks may be a child of necessity as Congress is not too keen on providing large bailout funds in addition to the funds approved in TARP. But it has the same problems of pricing these assets for an aggregator bank that were seen from the beginning. How does one price a bad asset? If priced too low banks may not agree and if priced higher or on generous terms it risks taxpayer money. These problems still linger on in the continuing effort to sort the problems out.

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Indian prime minister Modi attends the 125th anniversary of Founders Day at the Scindia School of Gwalior. India's Minister of Civil Aviation and Steel comes from the royal family of Gwalior which ran the princely state as part of the British Empire and founded the school. It is the most reputed boarding school for boys in India.

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The US president DJT said today Feb. 13, 2025, as he introduced the new Health Secretary of the US-  "There's something wrong, and I think it's it's something that can be found out. In 2022, more than 40% of children had at least one chronic health condition, and today, nearly 80% of young adults do not qualify for military service in large part for health reasons. We're, ah, think of that 80%. Something is wrong and that's why immediately after Bobby is sworn in, I will be signing an Executive Order establishing the President's Commission To Make America Healthy Again. We have some great people on that commission chaired by our new secretary. This groundbreaking breaking commission will be charged with investigating what is causing The decades long increase in chronic illness, reporting its findings and delivering an action plan to the American people, and it's going to be a plan that people are really waiting to hear. Bobby, ah, I want to thank you. You've gone through a lot. It's taken great courage. You've been amazing actually. I'd call him and say, You're gonna be OK. And he said, I know, I really do. "Perhaps most importantly though, Bobby created a nationwide movement made up of millions and millions of mothers and fathers and young people and concerned citizens of every background who want to end this horrible chronic disease crisis that exists, exists in America. He's absolutely committed to getting dangerous chemicals out of our environment and out of our food supply and getting the American people the facts and the answers that we deserve after years in which our public health system has squandered the trust of our citizens, and they really have, they didn't, they don't trust us. They don't trust anybody, frankly they've gone through hell. There's no better person to lead our campaign of historic reforms and restore faith in American health care, and Bobby's going to do it. The United States spends more money in health than any other country on Earth, but we're growing sicker every year. We're not as healthy as countries that spend just a fraction of what we spend, so there's something wrong. He's going to figure it out. In recent decades we've seen staggering increases in cancer rates across all age demographics, including more than 40% increase in childhood cancer since 1975. Who can believe that? And an explosion in other chronic childhood illnesses not long ago, 1 in 10,000 people, children had autism. Now it's 1 in 36. Think of that 1 in 10,000, 1 in 10,000. Now it's 1 in 36. Who can believe that there's something wrong. There's something wrong, and I think it's it's something that can be found out. In 2022, more than 40% of children had at least one chronic health condition, and today, nearly 80% of young adults do not qualify for military service in large part for health reasons. We're, ah, think of that 80%. Something is wrong and that's why immediately after Bobby is sworn in, I will be signing an executive order establishing the president's commission to make America healthy again. We have some great people on that commission chaired by our new secretary. This groundbreaking breaking commission will be charged with investigating what is causing The decades long increase in chronic illness, reporting its findings and delivering an action plan to the American people, and it's going to be a plan that people are really waiting to hear. Bobby, ah, I want to thank you. You've gone through a lot. It's taken great courage. You've been amazing actually. I'd call him and say, You're gonna be OK. And he said, I know, I really do. He's really, ah, been supported amazingly by Cheryl and his family. And it was a very tough. It was a very nasty group of people that were after him, but he was tougher and he was smarter than they are, and that's why he's here today. There are very few people that could have withstood the, ah, the assault, but he was able to." ...

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Amazon is cutting 27 of 30 private clothing labels in an effort to cut costs and fend off antitrust scrutiny.