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The amazing and unbelievable story of Oakland situated on San Francisco Bay with some of the worst illegal dumping of trash in the nation, 18 million pounds of illegally dumped trash dumped each year is the City of Oakland estimate. This NYT report says two thirds of it comes from local residents and businesses. The problem spiked in 2020 and has not improved much says this NYT report on this city in Northern California, where to the east of it there are hiking trails through redwood forests and natural beauty.

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China's economy expanded at 0.4% growth rate in the second quarter of 2020, according to the Bureau of National Statistics. It is not just the lockdowns that are dampening consumer sentiment.  US and EUropean demand for manufactured goods from Taiwan, South Korea and China is shrinking.

Youth unemployment is high with 20% of people 16 to 24 years without work. Some experts say the youth unemployment is increasing because companies are showing less interest in hiring and training new workers, or in investing in the future.

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What would making a new vaccine for the Omicron South African variant look like? How long will it take and how does it happen? Adam Whipple, Science Editor of The Times, looks at the process in the 100 days it would take Pfizer to do this in this excellent article that anticipates and answers readers questions. New mutations are shown to be taking place in the virus, it is shown here that UK and world capabilities have also increased to tackle the problem in the last 18 months.

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Thanks go to Pfizer and CEO Albert Bourla for their latest effort the antiviral pill Paxlovid, says the editorial Board of the WSJ. It reduces viral load ten fold and is a game changer in the pandemic, says the WSJ, when vaccinations are not as effective as they could be with the large number of unvaccinated. Pfizer charges $530 per treatment for the 10 million doses ordered by the Biden Administration and signed a voluntary licensing agreement with UN backed Medicines Patent Pool for worldwide access. This should enable access in all countries.

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Bernie Sanders announces his support for Hillary Clinton as nominee of the Democratic Party after a long season of bruising primaries. The effort is now to heal the divisions in the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton has adopted some parts of the Sanders agenda including some aspects of providing tution free education in public colleges. Both Hillary and Bernie appeared at a joint rally in New Hampshire. Sanders said that at the Democratic Platform Committee ending on July 10, 2016, the two had come together on setting a platform that he believes is the most progressive ever for the Democratic Party.

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Steven Rattner points to the decline in U.S. median household income as a result of globalization. At $7 an hour GM's Mexican auto workers are just as efficient as workers in the U.S. The result is a shift in jobs to Mexico and the two tier wage system in the U.S. auto industry, now formalized in new UAW contracts with Ford, GM and Chrysler. The UAW agrees to hire entry workers at $14 and hour. A new VW Chattanooga plant pays $14.50 an hour. Rattner points to the need to create new jobs with high intellectual content in service industries such as education, digital media, entertainment, and financial services. This requires a greater committment to education.

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Bob Herbert calls Obama's attention to afew simple facts- the jobless rate for men 16 years and over is 11.4%, for blacks 15.7%. About 35% of black children live in poverty and the number could soon reach 50%. Hepoints to the mood of the country where a crowd cheering Yankee win in Manhattan erupted to rhythmic chants of "Wall Street sucks." And he reminds us that the full extent of the carnage and costs of the twin wars has been kept hidden from the public. Visit one of the military medical centers and one sees the costs. And he cites Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell saying in an interview that the people in the Pennsylvania National Guard have been in the wars two, three or four times, and are worn out. Where are we going to find more troops, he asks.

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With 9.5 million barrels a day cut for U.S. G20 and OPEC+ negotiated by president Trump many Texas oil wells will be shut in. Even with these cuts price is sensitive after dropping to $22 by April 12, 2020. The cuts averted a complete collapse in oil prices when markets opened on April 13. By April 12 oil demand worldwide had fallen by 30 million barrels a day. That is how grave the situation was. By doing so the U.S. protected its oil industry. There was complete lack of leadership from Russia, Saudis, Mexico and other countries until president Trump intervened with strong action. Trump threatened tariffs on imported oil to protect the U.S. oil industry if other nations did not come to terms, including calls from U.S. senators telling prince Abdulaziz the Saudi oil minister the U.S. Saudi relationship could not be salvaged if the Saudis did not come to an agreement. Once again president Trump's tariff moves worked, this time to save the world oil industry and oil producing economies such as Russia from severe hardship. ...

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China's regulatory authority places a fine of $2.8 billion on Alibaba for anti-competitive practices. This is about 4% of sales. The law limits fines to 10% of sales. Qualcomm paid a fine of $975 million equal to 8% of sales in 2015.

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All sides had to make concessions to reach a new agreement on a restructuring of Greece's debt, and new terms for loans to Ireland and Portugal. The agreement was reached after negotiations between France, Germany, the ECB, and eurozone countries with a declaration issued on July 21, 2011. The powers and financing of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) were expanded to be the main mechanism for channeling EU funding to reduce the burden of Greece's debt. Germany will provide new funding and be open to additional commitments, something German chancellor Angela Merkel had resisted since the beginning of the crisis in 2010. Earlier funding had come with high interest rates and only when the situation had reached a crisis, with Germany insisting on the punitive rates and conditions as a way to discourage countries from taking advantage of cheap borrowing. In exchange for commitment of German funds Ms Merkel had insisted that banks and private creditors share in the losses. Private bondholders resisted but finally agreed to take a loss of 20% of principal on a small portion of the bonds. Their larger concession was to take lower interest rates and extend the maturities to 15 years and 30 years on new bonds which are guaranteed by the EU. The specific terms of the agreement are as follows: The EFSF and the IMF will lend Greece 109 billion euros over 3 years at 3.5%. Private creditors including German and French banks will "voluntarily" turn in their old bonds for new ones that mature over 15-30 year periods. These new bonds include 15 and 30 year Greek bonds with varying coupons. Some of the bonds would have a 20% discount on principal. EU leaders say the private sector contribution amounts to 37 billion euros through 2014 and 106 billion euros through 2019. Another part of the program is for the EFSF to buy back some of the Greek bonds on the secondary markets, which would mean Greece would now owe a smaller amount to the EFSF on these bonds. The EFSF will now have additional financial support from Germany and other EU countries and be authorized to provide aid to countries before a crisis situation arises. It would also have power to buy Greek bonds at prices on secondary markets to reduce the Greek debt burden. Ireland and Portugal are also assisted in the agreement. The interest rate for EU aid to Ireland and Portugal is taken down to 3.5%. Ireland is paying about 6% on the EU portion of its 67.5 billon euros bailout and efforts to reduce the rate were resisted earlier. The main theme behind these concessions and provisions is to give Greece, (and Ireland and Portugal) a chance to grow. High interest rates came under strong criticism because it only increased the size of the debt burden of these countries with a shrinking economy and high unemployment. The failure to come together behind a broad and sensible agreement with all parties making serious concessions, the EU, the ECB and the political leadership in these countries especially Greece, was undermining confidence in the euro and the eurozone itself. By mid-July Italy and Spain were feeling the effects of contagion in the financial markets, U.S. debt ceiling negotiations were unsettling global financial markets, the pressure was intense to come up with the workable agreement achieved on July 21, 2011. ...

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The lack of economic opportunities for an increasingly urbanized African younger generation is a major challenge. The median age of 19 makes Africa the world's youngest continent. Megacities are growing up in places such as Lagos and Kinshasha as millions leave subsistence farming to go to cities. Unlike Asia and Latin American countries men and women are coming to shantytowns in cities at a time when Africa is much poorer for a similar level of urbanization that Asian and Latin American nations reached decades earlier. In 1993 this WSJ analysis and graphs show the Asian emerging economies and sub Saharan Africa had similar GDP per capita of $2415, by 2019 this was $4000 for Africa and $12,000 for Asian emerging economies. Latin America was at $10,000 in 1993 and in 2019 was at about $15,000. The gap widened considerably between Asia and African countries. Asian emerging economies increased GDP to 5 time from the same starting point as Africa in 1993, Africa doubled GDP over the period of 25 years to 2019. Latin America started from a much higher point and increased GDP by only 50% over 25 years. Asian economies that performed better over this period did better because of stable even entrenched governments such as in Singapore with Le Kuan Yew and in China with stable successive governments under CPC leadership of prime minister Deng. The difference in Asia was a commitment across all classes and groups to development, a sense of development as a way to make up for the years lost under colonialism of foreign powers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A sense of correcting historical injustice and wrongs. This is a missing ingredient in the processes unfolding in Latin America and Africa in the last 25 years. ...

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Trade patterns are changing as shipments to the US by China dropped 21% and goods were shifted to Southeast Asian countries where exports went up 21%.

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There is still a chance that the Oakland A's could come back to their glory days at a new location in Oakland, California - a new waterfront $12 billion development at the Port of Oakland's Howard Terminal is proposed and facing a decision. Public approval is needed. Four World Series title games were played in Oakland since 1968 and Oakland would like to keep this going.

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The Test cricket attendance record of 91,000 set at the MCG grounds in Australia for the 2013-14 Ashes cricket is likely to be exceeded for the Fourth India Australia Test match. It will be played at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday. Both the Australian pm Albanese and India's pm Modi will be in attendance and hand out bats before the match.

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The Biden administration is pushing ahead with a new supply chain at a virtual two day meeting of 17 countries. In addition to the US and the European Union trade and economy ministers of Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, Singapore, Indonesia, will attend. It is an effort to build an alternative to the existing supply chain because of its dangerous dependence on China and Russia.

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With Russia supplying 10% of the world's oil supplies and about 40% of Europe's natural gas supplies US sanctions on Russia's energy economy would only end up driving inflation higher and hurting the US and Europe. This leaves only a limited role for sanctions acting as a deterrent in the Ukraine crisis giving Russia more room to act in Ukraine.  

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With 17,000 daily cases Britain faces calls for a second lockdown on October 14, 2020. A new paper by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies says hospital admissions for the rest of the year could be reduced from 132,000 to 66,000 with a 2 week lockdown on October 24 in Britain, according to The Times. Pressure is growing for prime minister Boris Johnson to do this.

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Children are not getting enough time outdoors. The pandemic has worsened this. The Tech company driven changes in use of screen time have added to this with children spending as little as 10 minutes outdoors. The progression of myopia increased by 35% by one estimate after 3 years of the pandemic. Natural sunlight is needed for the eye not to grow longer which contributes to nearsightedness, say researchers.

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3M based in Minnesota makes a $5.5 billion settlement for earplugs over hearing loss complaints. It is the largest mass tort in history with 300,000 claims by veterans who served in the military, says the WSJ. An earlier settlement with municipal water providers by 3M was for PFAS forever chemicals. This settlement waits court approval and the WSJ says could cost it $12.5 billion over 13 years.

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Impeachment inquiry of president Biden is launched by Mr. McCarthy in the US House of Representatives under pressure from a minority called the Freedom Caucus. The bar should be set high says the WSJ. It says this will likely imperil the 18 Republican seats in the House where Mr. Biden won the popular vote and could turn the House to the Democrats in 2024. 

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45 million acres burned, large parts of the Canadian forest from the Northwest territories to British Columbia, area four times the size of California making up 10% of the world's forest devastated by wildfires. This is Canada in 2023 with unimaginable smoke and evacuations. David Wallace looks at the situation in this part of Canada, just north of the US and stretching to the Arctic Circle.

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The S&P 500 index gained 5.9% the week of October 29th for its best gain since November 2022. For 2023 it has gained 14%. A jobs report showing less job growth of 150,000 slightly higher unemployment at 3.9% and slowing inflation, led the US Fed to pause raising interest rates. This has created optimism that inflation would gradually decline which is good for the economy.

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With record snow after years of drought the eastern Sierra region in California is experiencing effects of climate change. The ski season will extend into August 6 in the mountains because of the effects of the climate crisis, even as nearby Arizona sees record temperatures of 111 degrees Fahrenheit.  The southern US is experiencing a heat wave with temperatures at levels unprecedented in history.

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Macron's call for snap elections quickly is also a move to have the election for National Assembly when the National Rally opposition party has so little time to prepare by June 30 in  just 3 weeks. It comes after the National Rally of Le Pen won 32% of the vote in France in EU elections, about twice the 15% for Macron's En Marche party.