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To understand the situation in Hong Kong and in China, it is necessary to know about the early years of the Cultural Revolution around 1966 to 1976  and the period of economic and cultural experimentation that followed its failure. This is the period in which China's leader Xi Jinping was growing up and went to University, a period during which his father XI Zhongxun was persecuted in party struggles about ideas driving the party. Ironically the Cultural Revolution was a period when China under Mao launched an effort to stamp out western and capitalist influence in China promoting efforts to go back to the countryside where most of the people lived, in sharp contrast to the opposite of attracting western technology and urbanization pursued today.   Xi Jinping's father as party leader in Guangdong province 1978-1980 after rehabilitation under premier Deng in the period of experimentation with economic models, never lost faith in the party's ideals and what it sought to achieve. China's rejuvenation after centuries of backwardness and the disaster of the opium wars that led to opening China to opium trade by Britain and the ceding of Hong Kong as a British colony, remained indelibly in the mind of the father and today in his son in the form of the "China Dream." The South China Morning Post gives useful insights by looking at the early years of Xi Jinping. ...

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Russian president Medvedev offers his view of the protests in Russia, that Russia is entering a new stage in the development of its political system. Medvedev told his United Russia party: "We are entering a new stage in the development of our political system and we should not close our eyes to that. It has already begun... It began because the old model- which faithfully and truly served our state in recent years, and did'nt serve it badly, and which we all defended- it has exhausted itself." He wanted to see United Russia take a leading role in reform. He warned that "it is categorically inadmissible that the political system be delegitimized." And warned Russians that the consequences of this were disastrous after the last time this happened in 1917. He was also critical of the U.S. government for its criticism of the elections.

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Socialist Party in Spain increases its share of the vote to 29%, and emerges as the largest party to form a government with the socialist leaning Podemos party in 2019 elections. It does this by returning to its labour base and working class roots. It pitches a platform of worker's rights, higher taxes on wealthy, environmental roots, issues important to its social democratic roots. The WSJ cites a 57 year old employee of Spain's health service Antonio Benitez, living in Andalusia who says people have a hard time making ends meet, and its about time socialist parties speak of the main pillars of being socialist, without all the deviations to the centre. As free market thinking entered the mindset of leaders in the UK such as Tony Blair and Gerhard Scroder in Germany, Clinton in the U.S., the shift began towards economic efficiency in the tradeoff with equality and social justice. This was aggravated by the effects of international trade and technology in worsening income disparities and unsettling communities in traditional manufacturing. This trend is now being reversed as Socialist parties or Labour allied parties in the UK, Spain,and increasingly in the U.S., take a new position different from the past. A political scientist at the Free University of Amsterdam says its like these parties got hit on the head and now decided to go back to core values around equality, reducing disparities, social justice and the environment. Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party in Britain increased Labour's vote in the 2017 elections to 40% up from 30% in 2015. Italy's Socialists won 41% of the vote in 2014 European elections, moved to the centrist positions that made firing workers easier, pension overhauls raising retirement age, leading to losing half its support with 21% ahead of European elections in 2019. Pedro Sanchez of Spain raised the minimum wage by 22% before winning the 2019 elections compared to his predecessor Socialist premier Zapatero who is reported to have said "cutting taxes is left wing." Now workers rights and higher taxes on corporation are on the agenda.  ...

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Manchester City lose 4-2 to PSG in Paris, France. Barcola, Neves and Ramos score for PSG. City were a shambles at the back says this Guardian report. Barcola was at his best.

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The Stimson Center looks at the closing of an era of Conservative politics in Japan which ended in 2025 after the death of Shinzo Abe and the 2 year premiership of Kishida. Interview is conducted by the Stimson Center of a senior Japanese political figure with 30 years of experience in the Foreign Service, and the author of the only English language book on Shinzo Abe, reflecting the paucity of research on Japan. Shinzo Abe was premier for a short time in 2005-2006 and for a full term in 2012. He made changes to Japan's SDF, its partnership with India, Australia in the Quad, and his economic policy which increased women's participation in the economy. For the first time in post war Japan there was a new sensde of confidence under Abe and he is missed sorely in Japan today. Yet as this senior Japanese politician says, Japan has changed the way the US and Europe have changed, and nationalist politics are replacing old Conservative politics of the LDP. In a way also how the deindustrialization of US, Europe and Japan has also taken place discrediting that era. Takaichi Sanae is itself a representative of the new era, as she did not hesitate to say Japan would get involved if China attacked Taiwan. Her popularity is at 62% and she has called a snap election, as she came in to replace Shigeru Ishiba in October 2025 and was not directly elected PM. Yet in the long view this is also a misconception because neither the Stimson Center or the interview participants had a keen sense of who Abe really was and Abe's grasp of the history of the Kamakura period of Buddhist Japan and China, India, of the 12th century before the foreign invasions from the north. One of Shinzo Abe's biggest legacies is the relationship that was close to his heart, the relationship with India and prime minister Modi. This week chancellor Merz of the Federal Republic of Germany was at the kite festival with PM Modi in Ahmedabad and at the Sabarmati Ashram of Gandhiji. The same degree of warmth shown by the German leader and Modi reflecting Vivekananda's time in Germany, was seen long time back between Modi and Abe. The bullet train project Mumbai to Ahmedabad and the ones that follow across India are a testimony to the warmth shown by Abe for India, and his knowledge of history from the Buddhist period in India when by the 12th century in Japan in Dogen's time Tenjiku (India) was the sacred homeland of Buddhism. Today India has revived the Buddhist traditions and centers of Buddhism, the universities and research centers for Buddhism from that period in Indian history. Buddhism started in India near Nepal in what is now Bihar state at Sarnath and Kushinagar, and spread through China to Japan and Korea. The whole continent of Asia would reflect Buddhist ideals and ideas without the intervening period of Vedic culture in India and China's Mongolian and Manchurian northern invasions, and the periods of European colonialism. Today Buddhism and The Bhagavad Gita are itself strung like pearls on a string as the Gita itself says, part of the long spiritual traditions of three nations- India, China and Japan, and of the many others Vietnam and Korea. ("All these worlds have their rest in me as many pearls on a string." -Mascaro tr. of Bhagavad Gita, Penguin). As Asian nations and peoples come to their own inner selves, find their inmost self, this is the culture that really pervades all of Asia. ...

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Six former clerks, many of them now professors at well known law schools, Georgetown, Cornell, Yale, share their memories of Chief Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in 2010 as the longest serving Supreme Court justice on the bench. One of the clerks remembers Stevens for his courteousness, which started with "May I ask you a question?," and did not attach importance to formal titles. Stevens showed remarkable empathy in talking to the clerks about legal cases. Another clerk remembers the time when Stevens pulled up the plaque on his wall "Small Town Lawyer of the Year: Associate Justice John Paul Stevens," as he talked about small hometowns with the clerk. It was given by the bar association of Poulsbo, Washington, and Stevens took pride in his modest beginnings. Some are amazed by his energy, he played a good game of tennis at 85, hired only 2 clerks instead of four to do a lot of the work, and would join the clerks for discussion on different aspects of the law.

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JP Morgan Chase Treasurer, Joseph Bonocore, left the bank in October 2011, and his replacement took office in March 2012. Bonocore had served as chief risk officer of the Chief Investment Office for 11 years and was intimately familiar with its operations. The executive in charge of risk management at the Chief Investment Office had little risk management experience. Mr. Goldman was named chief risk officer in February 2012. His brother in law Barry Zubrow had previously served as chief risk officer of the bank for many years. In January 2012, Zubrow took the position of head of corporate regulatory affairs. Goldman had spent most of his years as a trader starting at Salomon Brothers in 1980's He later worked at Credit Suisse and Cantor Fitzgerald. He left Cantor after his unit incurred trading losses. In February 2012, Goldman, Zubrow and Ms Drew met with officers of the Federal Reserve arguing in favor of less regulation on proprietary trading, including the Volcker Rule, according to Fed documents....

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DJT arrives in Beijing China May 13 2026. Topics that will be discussed are - the Iran War and how to resolve it, trade with China, tariffs, and US Taiwan policy. China continues to run trillion dollar surplus in trade with the world with lower trade surplus with the US after DJT tariffs. From $295 billion in 2024 under Biden the new DJT administration with DJT, Bessent and Jamieson has lowered this to $202 billion by 2026. In that same period the world trade surplus of China has increased from $992 to $1.19 billion. It is not clear whether some of the drop in the US figures is from China sending product through channels to Mexico and Vietnam that is then shipped to the US. DJT showed results in his policies by lowering the trade imbalance by 32%, while trade imbalance with the rest of the world has worsened (increase in trade surplus of China) by 20%. What does this show? We can safely assume that excessive trade imbalances are not in either China, EU, or America's interest. China increases trade and political friction by doing so, and it leaves its own policy weak by overdependence on exports, too little effort to increase domestic consumption and living standards.  FOr the US and EU trade imbalances with China of over $1 trillion reflect misguided policy at the top by US and EU decision makers and governments. By exposing their manufacturing base they are losing valuable jobs by the millions and creating a situation where the few with good jobs in select industries live in large cities and the rest of the country in smaller towns and rural areas suffering from lack of amanufacturing base. This weakens the investment base for public services and leads to lack of investment ininfrastructure. This is called deindustrialization which the DJT and Biden administrations both fight hard to reverse for the last 10 years since the disastrous years of the Obama and Bush administrations 2000-2016. For this reason we can say a good Republican is as good as a good Democrat, a bad Republican is as bad as a bad Democrat, political labels are just that labels. The media in US and EU are on a wrong footing and still fail to cover this the way it should be covered to shake off the lethargy in public sentiment in the US so that a rapid drive to reindustrialize and build new new infrastructure on top of the old that was built after World War 1 can take place. In today's world India is stepping up with major infrastructure building just as the US and EU ramp up their rebuilding.  ...

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Members of the U.S. Congress lead a lousy life with life split between the capital and their home state location, most are weekend dads or moms. This makes them less likely to grasp the issues of work-life balance and the issues of parenting faced by average working families or couples with both parents working, says this essay in Politico magazine. This is true also of understanding issues facing women and mothers. Hard to believe but this report points out that Congress in the U.S. does not have a family friendly leave policy and no restroom for women till 2011 on the floor of the House. Similar issues face women in Japan and other countries for women in parliament. Former Speaker Ryan says he is tired of being a "weekend Dad." Senator Biden, former vice president says of his commute from Delaware to Washington D.C., he realized that "a child has a thought he wants to share and 12-18 hours later its gone, gone, gone." ...

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Steep rate increases hit retirees holding long term care policies. About 7.3 million retirees hold such policies.This means that either retirees pay these steep price increases or simply are forced to turn away from the policies. A safety net has now turned into something else. Sales of such policies have dropped from 750,000 in 2002 to 100,000 in 2016, and even fewer in 2017, according to the American Association for Long term Care Insurance.

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Macron changes policies in France to accomodate the yellow vest protestors.  The movement erupted on the basis of a small additional climate change tax on fuel showing how struggling families view the Macron government's policies. Macron's popularity has declined more rapidly than his predecessor Francois Hollande, making it uncertain what the future direction is for France in a society divided between the rural low income areas and the urban areas.

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With imported farm laborers not allowed into Britain during the pandemic local people volunteered for the job of berry picking during strawberry season. A professional cricket player for a team in New Zealand whose season was interrupted says its hard work but he enjoyed it. He picked 565 pounds of strawberries in about 6 hours. He says he is proud of his effort, and he thinks he did something worthwhile plus in the outdoors.

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During the primaries Trump appealed to blue collar voters of a white working class that felt neglected by leaders and policies of both parties that did not seem to work for ordinary people. Having caught onto this early long before Republican candidates, Trump registered a series of wins in the Republican primaries. He continued this theme in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016, saying- "The forgotten men and women of our country- people who work but no longer have a voice: I am your voice." The idea was to couple this with the theme of law and order and put perception of Hillary Clinton as part of the rigged system of the past that Trump would change, with Clinton's legacy described in terms of "death, destruction, terrorism and weakness." As a change agent Trump described his entering the political arena in terms of coming into this election only to help blue collar people "so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves." The two themes for the rest of the election season- law and order, and blue collar lives- and who can best defend them a traditional Democratic politician with a fighting spirit for traditional Democratic values, or a blustery newcomer adept with slogans and the public mood and ironically representing the Democratic values of representing the working class to become the  Republican nominee, with the law and order theme thrown in. The voter or independent listening in to all this will hopefully ask what all this means. As the WSJ, July 19, 2016, pointed out in a recent look at economc policies under the two candidates- on Glass Steagall Act being reinstated to increase safety of the banking system that caused many of today's problems through the 2008 financial crisis both Trump and Clinton are similiar, on opposing trade agreements similiar except that Trump's bluster is a riskier approach, on infrastructure building similiar with Clinton's $275 billion plan spelled out out for source of financing and Trump's unclear as to source of financing. On immigration the candidates are different, on the minimum wage which impacts low income people Clinton supports $15 minimum wage and Trump has not taken a stand. On ISIS and the Middle East Clinton is in reality a hawk and not much difference in the candidates, on law and order more chance of divisions in the country with Trump than Clinton. Overall for the working class and blue collar voter his life will take a decade or more to rebuild, with both candidates commiting to go in that direction. And the bluster and ads to come- just that.  ...

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This is a WSJ special report on Nissan and the failure of Carlos Ghosn's management style at Nissan leading to deep discontent in management ranks and employees, and also in Japan. Ghosn failed to invest in Japan seeing it as an aging society, and preferred the U.S. for investment. This was an affront to many Japanese, not just Nissan employees.  A big problem was that Ghosn's salary was larger than that of all nine top Nissan executives combined. Even during the 2008 financial crisis and cost cutting Ghosn's salary was understated by using accounting methods not approved by its auditor Ernst & Young. Under new Japanese rules oversight on compensation was given to Mr. Imazu who had to uncover the different shell companies that were used to shield the compensation and benefits going to Ghosn from public view. Lack of transparency and frugality was a major issue as one Nissan executive put it- "where is the transparency, and where is the frugality." New laws introduced in Japan in 2015 required release of compensation for any company executive making more than $800,000. Under these rules Japanese prosecutors were able to investigate the situation at Nissan.  In the end when the CEO of Nissan, appointed by Mr. Ghosn announced the arrest and detention of Mr. Ghosn, the Japanese audience applauded, showing how deep the discontent was in Japan. On November 19, in a carefully managed operation that would make a detective type story Japanese prosecutors arrested Mr. Ghosn as his plane landed in Tokyo, and arrested his assistant Mr. Kelly on the same day after his plane landed and his car was taken off the road to a rest area. Ghosn story has also its management lessons as this type of hard driving management with time spent jet-setting more than in contact with people and employees of the company is becoming unpopular. It is bad for employees and presents a rather unhealthy lifestyle, lacking any kind of role model for the rest of the company and society where the company is located. In this case not just Yokohama, but all of Japan, which resented the way it was treated. Recent articles have highlighted the situation at other companies. The General Electric story about the failure at GE in the U.S. - also explored this week in the WSJ -tells a story of hard driving management style of some executives that is increasingly becoming unpopular. A more thoughtful management style, with mindfulness, not based on personality or ego, is more productive leading to better decisions after taking in all views and enabling participation of other top and middle managers. ...

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Embraer 190 aircraft flying fo Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to Grozny crases in Kazakh airspace after possibly being hit by Russian air defense systems. Russia was facing Ukrainian drone attacks in recent months.

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On one of the major issues of 2014-2015 U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky provides conviction and vigorous defense of liberties. Senator Rand Paul made this the centerpiece of his campaign for the U.S. presidential election of 2016. On May 30, 2016, Rand Paul said: "Tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program. I believe we must fight terrorism, and I believe we must stand strong against our enemies. But we do not need to give up who we are to defeat them. In fact, we must not." With Republicans split on this issue, the strong defense of liberties taken by Rand Paul makes it certain that the Patriot Act will expire on May 31, 2015, and the NSA bulk surveillance of phone data will end. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative Tea Party Patriots have praised the extensive debate on the issue of the damage done by such surveillance tactics. Both the ACLU and the Tea Party see the need to let the 2001 Patriot Act and legislation supporting bulk data surveillance to expire....

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Republicans in the U.S. are talking about impeachment more than Democrats in tweets, ads and messages they send out. The Democrats are talking about other issues and this is not what you would expect after Democrats voted together on party lines to pass two articles of impeachment of president Trump. Republicans may even use the issue of impeachment in favor of president Trump as the impeachment process moves to the Senate where Republicans are in a majority. Republicans believe president Trump did nothing wrong and may call Senator Biden and his son Hunter Biden to testify in the Senate about activities in Ukraine, say experts.

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Paul McCartney of the original Beatles group does a new solo impromptu effort that ends up as an album. It was done in a very casual manner with no intention of producing work that does a job. During the lockdown period McCartney experimented with unfinished work on the musical instrument that he had used for the work. Each day he would decamp to his studio to relax and have fun. He says it was all about making music for yourself and having a lot of fun not doing a job or work. The album is called McCartney III to be released in December.

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Barcelona has been hit hard by the coronavirus. The city's small bars, restaurants and tapas places depend on the 1 million tourists visiting each year. The Las Ramblas Plaza is mostly deserted in these photos in DW.com, La Boqueria near Las Ramblas plaza is closed, airport traffic has dropped by 75% in summer months, 1.8 million depend on food from food banks with one picture of middle class persons reading newspapers while waiting for food. Many have lost their homes after losing jobs. One third of the city's hostels popular with young people are likely to close.

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Andy Jassy joined Amazon in 1997, three years after it was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. He is credited with the rapid growth of cloud computing into a $51 billion business for Amazon with market share of 28%. He now takes over the role of CEO of Amazon with day to day responsibilities just as Bezos shifts his attention to other opportunities. Jassy shares the traits of inventive spirit and investing heavily in growth opportunities one finds in Jeff Bezos. Careful planning and a long term plan in entering a business and achieving one goal after another as the business accelerates.

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There was a time under president Obama when rural America's problems were not given serious attention, or simply ignored. This is not happening under president Biden. Biden has learned from the failures of his predecessors. When Biden Democrats think of president Trump they are keenly aware that the Trump phase in America was a result of the repeated failures of presidents who preceded Trump in addressing the problems of rural America, in prolonged wars overseas that wasted resources needed at home, and in sowing the seeds of division through policies that favored large corporations, Silicon Valley and capital markets driven from New York, London.

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Argentina imposes currency controls as the economic crisis worsens. The peso has lost 25% of its value and inflation is at 50%. A $57 billion IMF loan has failed to restore confidence. President Macri came into office abolishing currency controls, now he is compelled to reverse his policy. Macri also said the government will delay $7 billion in debt repayments. Argentina is back to the frequent economic crises it has faced since 1945. Macri's loss in primary elections to Mr. Fernandez of the Peronist Party has changed the situation in Argentina ending the Macri administration's period in office by December.

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After a long year of frustration with a small faction of 20 Congressmen in the Republican party led by Mr Gaetz Mr. McCarthy is taking on this group as it seeks to oust him from the Speaker's position. He will need Democratic support. This report looks at the changing situation in the US Congress. America needs a bipartisan approach to tackle major problems of infrastructure, climate change, wages and the cost of living, and education. It does not make sense to allow a few members of Congress to thwart the nation's plans to tackle its problems and challenges.

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Britain's former prime minister David Cameron who said after resigning that he would continue as constituency Member of Parliament, says he will stop representing his constituency in the county of Oxfordshire. The decision comes early compared to previous prime ministers. Cameron says he does not want to continue because of the "risk of becoming a diversion." Critics say Cameron was reckless when he called for the referendum that led to the "yes" vote on Brexit with 52% support, leaving Theresa May with the daunting job of negotiating Brexit throughout the remainder of the term as prime minister.

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Years of low prices for soybeans and corn with competition from Russia and Brazil, combined with tariff war with China roiling agricultural markets, are leading to the highest bankruptcies in a decade for farmers in the U.S. in 2019. Dairy farmers are hit too with low milk prices.