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How ChatGPT and Microsoft are seen as upending the search business at Google. ChatGPT's ability to explain complex concepts and come up with new thoughts are seen as creating anew way of doing Search. Microsoft is investing billions of dollars in ChatGPT. Much of Google's efforts in the last five years have gone into preserving its monopoly of the search business without adding much through innovation and new ideas. The monopolistic behaviours have attracted the attention of regulators. Microsoft once a monopolistic behaviour company is now playing the role of a challenger with new ideas and concepts.

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Opening up of the Bystre and Sulina canals to get Ukraine wheat from the port of Odessa on the Black Sea to Romanian ports and to the Danube. This is one more step in getting grain out of Ukraine. Ukraine taking over Snake Island on the Romanian coast south of Odessa in July was a positive step for creating a route for ships getting to Romania and the Danube. Yet this route only adds about 500,000 tons of grain taken out. About 8 million tons normally leave in June from Ukraine ports only 25% or 2 million made it out.

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Experts see strong growth in jobs in 2022. Employers added 431,000 jobs in March. This is the 11th straight month of job gains of over 400,000, the longest period of such growth since 1939. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, approaching the low unemployment rate of 3.5% in February 2020, just before the pandemic.

Low unemployment rate is boosting wages but not as much to keep up with inflation. The easing pandemic is also encouraging people to seek jobs. Many retirees are also coming back, and so are women. With 300,000 women joining the workforce in March 2022.

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Runners have turned to cycling and rowing as low impact exercize after injuries. Here a cardiologist, 55 years old,  takes up rowing after taking a lesson. He calls rowing a technical sport which requires technique as you push through the legs to start the power in the stroke. He says rowing is a rare full body exercize that one can do without impact on the joints for older people. Kayaking, or rowing can be outdoors, and works well indoors on a machine. Dr Zarate from Pensacola, Florida, also does cycling, yoga and other exercise for fitness.

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The US has a history of vaccination mandates, going back to the Revolutionary War under George Washington when all soldiers in 1777 were required to be vaccinated and Boston required the population to be vaccinated in 1809 for smallpox. Vaccine mandates were adopted during the measles, and diphtheria vaccination campaigns, and for other diseases. It is only through the mandates that these diseases were controlled. The coronavirus is no different as states and cities across the US take up mandated vaccination to avoid taking any risks with the fast spreading Delta variant.

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Australia increases its defense budgetfrom 1.8% to 2.2% of GDP, and shows willingness to go up to 3%, as it strengthens its naval capabilities. French submarine contract was cancelled as US shows willingness to provide nuclear submarine technologies to Australia. French diesel submarines were too slow and could not remain underwater for long periods. Nuclear submarines would let Australia monitor Indo-Pacific seas, with US help. This is now an issue as Taiwan is being threatened and Australia faces economic coercion in trade relations from China. US, UK and Australia form a new partnership with president Biden leading the way.

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Reduce risk of dementia later in life by taking up exercise seriously says this report in The Times. Habits of exercise are learned early and help later in life is proven. As people grow older the following forms of exercise and activities can reduce risk of dementia is proven in medical journals. Exercise such as walking, cycling, running. Strength training with weights and exercise balls.Yoga and Tai-Chi, standing on one leg for balance, and meditation. Household chores such as ironing, washing, and cleaning. Gardening and outdoor activities. Running barefoot on grass also help the mental process and brain.

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For the first time the public in Britain believes the Labour party under Keir Starmer can do better than the Conservatives under Johnson to improve healthcare, give respect and dignity to workers and families lost in the last two decades, improve incomes, and tackle the pandemic. Labour now is up by 4 points and Conservatives down by 3 points in a YouGov poll done for The Times. Following the lead of Scholz in Germany with the SPD in alliance with the Greens, and Biden in the US, Britain is faced with a real choice for the future.

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Sebastian Kniepp is Germany's barefoot walking guru. A German wellness expert from the period of the Hapsburg monarchy in Eastern Europe he came up with different ideas for wellness, including nutrition with home grown vegetables and fruits a big part of the diet. He turned to barefoot walking and storking using it as a form of exercise walking on one's toes in shallow water. This BBC report is from a Kniepp spa a short drive north of the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, which shows these ideas popular today are not new.

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Annette Bening  age 65 and Jodie Foster age 60 show up as real athletes in the film "Nyad," which shows Diana Nyad's 110 mile swim from Cuba to Florida in 2013 at age 64. Jodie Foster and Annette Bening say about their role- they were frustrated by so few roles for mature women in Hollywood, so that she wanted to shatter age images in people's heads. Bening trained every day for 1 year under US Olympian Rada Owen. It meant spending 4 to 8 hours in the water.

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Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House, is a Christian conservative from Louisiana who as a lawyer believes in incremental progress through legal process to make gains for Christian values. After graduating from law school at Louisiana State University in 1998 Johnson he joined the family firm of Thomas Benton and took up cases related to abortion clinics. He also volunteered with The Family Forum on Christian issues. This gives him a sense of credibility among Republican colleagues that other Speakers lacked, and the Freedom Caucus so called hard right conservatives have not opposed his budget passing efforts.

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Greg Ip looks at the Chinese economy its strengths and and many weaknesses including debt and declining foreign investment in 2023, as president Xi visits the US this coming week. With a slowing economy, high youth unemployment and excessive debt, China remains a resilient economy because it has strengths in manufacturing. It would take the US the next decade to build up its manufacturing capabilities after neglecting this important field with mistaken policies for three decades under presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama and Trump. President Biden is taking steps for this new manufacturing revival to take place.

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Suriname a small country of 600,000 people near Brazil, joins other countries with debt problems such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zambia, and others which have piled up debt borrowing with unsustainable debt payments. About 545 million borrowed from China and total $2.4 billion in debt accumulated. It is now negotiating with the IMF for $690 three year loan. The US says China has to agree to join in reducing the debt burden so that the cost of assistance does not fall only on the US as the IMF's largest shareholder. 

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Civility and civic responsibilities to get work done for constituents that motivates California Republican Doug LaMalfa  is shown here in his three minute conversation with Biden after the State of the Union address late Thursday night. La Malfa is head of the House Agriculture forestry subcommittee. His task to get the US Frrest Service to speed up permits for harvesting timber. "We gotta cut some trees," he told Biden says this report in the Washington Post. Soon Interior Department officials were reaching out to La Malfa's aides. And another American tradition was set to work.

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On tackling housing costs Applebaum says in NYT that Harris has a plan to build 3 million housing units and help homeowners with $25,000 to buy homes, and sets up a Housing Fund of $40 billion for builders. By contrast Trump says he will do nothing for supply or prices. For rental prices of apartments and homes Harris calls for limiting price increases to 5% for apartment property owners for federal benefits to be continued. Trump simply says the problem will fix itself once pressure of migrants looking for housing is removed. This is not a Plan says Applebaum.

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Reports in The Hindu, Indian Express, show a sharp contrast between the lack of improvement in setting up the rule of law in Punjab and the situation of major improvements in Uttar Pradesh. That the rule of law precedes industrial development is seen in Britain, Germany, France and the US. Young people need to be able to look to a future with hope for development in their state.

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The Biden administration and Taiwan are accelerating the development of supply chain in India to tackle a chip shortage worldwide. Taiwan seeks to come up with an early agreement with India on tariff reductions for semiconductor components. The $7.5 billion plant investment would provide 5G electronics chips as well as automobile chips. India is studying various plant locations and 50% financial support after 2023 is planned with tax breaks and financial incentives.

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British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tells parliament the extradition treaty with Hong Kong is suspended immediately. Earlier Canada and Australia suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong. This follows China's tough new security law to quell protests in Hong Kong. Raab told parliament "we will protect our vital interests, we will stand up for our values, and we will hold China to its international obligations."

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Locals trying to do what they can using sugarcane buoys and barriers to soak up some of the 1500 tons of oil still on the leaking oil tanker. A French ship from Reunion island is the only help on the way. Mitsui OSK Lines owns the ship in Japan. It has recovered only 1500 tons of oil so far. No one knows why oil tankers can come so close to inhabited islands.

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Global oil demand is expected to shrink in first quarter 2020, for the first time in 10 years, according to the International Energy Agency. China made up three fourths of growth in oil demand in 2019. The border closures, flight cancellations, and factory closures, are affecting Chinese oil consumption as a result of the coronavirus. China's growth in first quarter is expected to be 3-4% than a year earlier.

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Michelino Sunseri runs up and down Grand Teton at 13,775 feet in 2 hours 50 minutes 10 seconds in Nov. 2025. DJT says it is OK to use a restricted trail. He issues a presidential pardon for Sunseri who was cited by NPS for using that trail.

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A study by Bank of Japan's Research and Statistics Department in the Feb. 2013 Bank of Japan Review paper titled "About the Real Effective Exchange Rate," shows how Japan maintained international price competitiveness during the period of the strong yen at 80 to the dollar. It found that with deflation the cost inputs of labor, factory equipment and materials in Japan were reduced, even as the price in overseas markets for finished products went up. It found that while the yen went up against the dollar in nominal terms, in price adjusted terms accounting for deflation it has actually fallen. Nomura economist Kiuchi says the Japanese yen had to go to 54 to the dollar before it matched the level of the 1995 priceadjusted high of 79 to the dollar.

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The State of the Union Address in 2026 cited the enormous impact on the world we know today over 2 centuries by this Nation. Jefferson breathed his last in 1826, between that and two persons in the chamber- including Air Force pilot who is 100 years old- between 1826 and 1926 when this pilot was born is a span of 100 years, and in this pilot's lifespan another 100 years. In this period, a couple of generations in our lifetimes, so much was achieved, said the president. So much of the address was about the potential ahead following the heroic efforts of the past. We are part of something larger than us, says the president, and this larger than us is the collective consciousness of the American Nation. "Two-hundred fifty years is a long time in the life of a nation. But in another sense, it's really a mere moment in the eye of history. Two of the gentlemen we met in the gallery this evening took their first breaths one century ago. One hundred years before that, on July 4th, 1826, the author of the Declaration of Independence, brilliant Thomas Jefferson, drew his last breath. Just a single long human life span separates the giants who declared and won our independence from the heroes who stand among us tonight. Everything our nation has done, everything we have achieved, has been the work of those few great lifetimes. In those brief chapters, Americans built this nation from 13 humble colonies into the pinnacle of human civilization and human freedom. The strongest, wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation in all of history. Americans ventured out across the daunting and dangerous continent. We carved pass through an unforgiving wilderness, settled a boundless frontier, and tamed the beautiful but very, very dangerous wild west. From empty marshes and wide-open plains, we raised up the world's greatest cities. Together we mastered the world's mightiest industries, shattered history's monstrous tyrannies. And we liberated millions from the chains of fascism, communism, oppression and terror." Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and JFK, through their efforts and the efforts of scientists and industrial pioneers, and of the People of the United States, of educators and scientific endeavors, so much was achieved, and so much lies ahead. ...

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US $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027 fiscal year by the president for military and defense spending is about 4.7% of US GDP forecast of $31.8 trillion in 2026. In 1960 it was 9% following the Korean War. It dropped to 3.1% of GDP by 2000 and stayed around 3.4% till the current effort to modernization of the US military is thought to require about 5% of GDP.  (World Bank charts). The US spent far higher during an earlier period reaching 14% of GDP in 1953 during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. This report shows WSJ Analysis of where the $1.5 trillion request for Defense is going-  $1.1 trillion for War Department and $350 billion for critical munitions. The munitions are in short supply and war in Iran shows that it plays a critical part in defensive systems such as intercepting of missiles as missiles in short supply affect overall capabilities. An additional $200 billion for Iran War. Pay raises for Defense personnel. $66 billion for shipbuilding- 34 ships to put the US back in the lead for shipbuilding it has lost to China, with the help of Japan which is also ramping up the shipbuilding it has lost to China. US and Japan were leading shipbuilders in the  1930's and in the 1960's, then lost it to South Korea and China. About a 12% decrease in other Department's budgets including Health and Human Services, Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Housing and Agriculture.  These cost reductions some of it coming from more efficient functioning and from concepts such as zero based budgeting where every line item in the budget gets reviewed every year for how much is needed for the purpose, is the purpose still valid, and can it be done more efficiently costing less. $660 billion is coming from the savings. The Nation's capital will also get a facelift, a major renovation, after being ignored for years. In the new Budget is $10 billion for the Presidential Capital Stewardship Program within the National Park Service for beautification projects in Washington D.C., which will give the National Capital a much needed new look for millions of visitors from the 51 states in the Union.    ...

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"In the spring of 1971, I met a girl," with that beginning Bill Clinton gave one of the most memorable speeches at a Democratic Convention in history, to introduce the very human, Hillary- sometimes frail, but always looking for new mountains to climb, new barriers to break, new injustices to be righted. Of the long courtship at Yale and the years at Arkansas, buying that house in Little Rock Hillary liked before proposing marraige,  the time when they cried while leaving their daughter Chelsea at college dorm in Stanford; and all the private moments of a political couple one gregarious and outward looking, the other serious and inward looking. An introduction to someone you have heard too much about but you never knew. Never saw too close because of her intense longing for privacy- possibly coming from her own mother- Methodist upbringing that you were never the one to focus on, and family experience. Bill had seen this Methodist up close, and shared his experience with his countrymen who had not known her so well as he had.  ...