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Daily cases of coronavirus reach a high of 75,000 with increases in the upper midwestern states of Wisconsin, Illinois,  in Kentucky, Tennessee in the south, and in western states. Most of the increase is in the rural areas of the country in the second wave. In the first wave the high density urban areas such as New York and Los Angeles were worst hit with the rural areas not being hit. This time Chicago is in the worst hit midwestern areas.

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Mark your calendar for May 29 when You Tube will host screenings  of the virtual film festival from multiple locations- Cannes France, Venice Italy, Berlin Germany, Toronto Canada, and New York. This is the "We Are One- Global Film Festival," with virtual cinema program for 10 days with feature films, documentaries, shorts and round tables. Films can can inspire and bring people in different countries together in a useful virtual format combining many of the best film festivals worldwide.

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The run out given on English batsman Bairstow as he stepped out of the crease while batting creates tension at Lord's cricket crowd Ashes Test on July 2, 2023. A huge effort by English captain Stokes with 154 runs still leaves England short of the 43 runs to match the Aussie batting effort. England's Ben Duckett 98 and 83 runs and Aussies Steve Smith 110 and 34 runs were batsmen who scored for their side. 

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The housing downturn as a result of sharply higher interest rates as the Fed's Jay Powell takes on surging inflation is very different from the problems of bank's shoddy mortgages of 2008. The 2008 financial crisis was a banking crisis from overleveraging by US banks and the use of questionable mortgages in housing. The rules set down and strict regulation since 2008 protect the housing market from the errors of 2008.

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Both sides hold positions unacceptable to the other in the Russia Ukraine conflict making negotiations difficult. Russia wants to hold on to annexed regions in the east including Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia continues shelling of Kherson after it was taken back by Ukraine. The conflict drags on in the winter months. The civilian population of Ukraine bears a significant burden from damage to the electricity grid, reducing heating and lighting in the winter.

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Commodity prices are surging worldwide. Shortages of potash with cutoff of supplies from Russia and Belarus is affecting fertilizer supplies and agriculture  worldwide. New mines for commodities in much demand will take years to begin production. A mine in the Canadian prairies is expected to be the largest potash mine in the world, yet production will not begin till 2027. The situation is the same for coal  copper, nickel, and other commodities.

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The Ukraine war has serious side effects with food prices going up as much as 50% in parts of the world that include Asian and African nations and nations in the Middle East. Countries with debt or facing the aftermath of wars and conflicts fare much worse.  Coming after the problems created by the pandemic in the economy and health of many countries these nations are ill prepared for what is happening. 

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Cost to reduce global warming to 1.5 degree centigrade goal set for climate change is estimated to cost $131 trillion. $116 trillion would be for electrification, new technologies, rebuilding electricity networks, efficiency. $24 trillion needs to be redirected quickly from fossil fuel investment to investment in reducing climate change by investing in other energy sources. 

The danger lies in 2.7 degree centigrade warming of the planet by the end of the century.

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Pakistan follows other countries by making vaccination mandatory for all public sector workers. Pakistan also requires vaccination to go to airports. France and some other countries in Europe have taken this action to prevent spread of the Delta variant.

According to the US Census Bureau 3.6 million Americans say they face eviction in 2 months as the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to end suspension of evictions July 31, 2021.

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Natural gas prices hit a 14 year high in the US with futures reaching $10 per million British thermal units BTU's. Natural gas is liquefied and sent to Europe from the US leading to higher domestic prices. Europe is facing a winter of gas shortages with rationing of energy supplies to industry to meet winter home demand. Germany has built up its reserves to 80% and has agreements for additional supplies from Qatar.

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Tom Edwards talks to Julian Robinson the head architect for Crossrail project about the ambient detailing in each of the stations for the new Elizabeth Line. Edwards says these are strikingly huge and wide open spaces, and the stations were built for the next generation with space to spare for population growth. Design paid attention to smooth curves in the way the users see the stations while walking. Each station has its own unique design.

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Xi Jinping visits Russia in an effort to start peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian leader wrote an article in a Chinese newspaper saying he was grateful for China's "balanced" stance on the conflict," and welcomed China's "constructive" role in ending the conflict. Xi Jinping wrote an article in a Russian newspaper Rossikaya Gazeta saying "complex problems do not have simple solutions."

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The largest holder of America's debt is not China. It is Japan with holdings by banks, insurers and pension funds of $1.1 trillion of US debt. This is important with the growing borrowing of the US government to fund infrastructure and clean energy, services. This investment is growing after slowing during the pandemic. Much of it is done not for earnings gains but with hedging in financial markets to reduce exchange rate risk.

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How much capital allocation is distorted in the US today is again evident when dire needs for infrastructure and fighting climate change action are unmet. How much capital is being wasted in the $44 billion used to purchase Twitter? In just one part of that investment banks lent $13 billion to Elon Musk for purchase of Twitter and WSJ reports already taking a 15% loss of $2 billion. The list of wasted allocation is endless.

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A huge change in US China relations. President Xi abandons the harsh tone of the past decade in describing America and seeks normal relations with the US away from the acrimonious words of the past. He meets with president Biden in a friendly atmosphere.  The Blinken negotiated fentanyl accords are also agreed to between Xi and Biden that China would prevent sending of these chemicals from China, removing one more sore point in relations.

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Boeing's gumdrop shaped ship that will take Sunita Williams 58 years and Barry Wilmore 61 years  to the International Space Station in May 2024. It launched at 10.34 am on Monday May 6, and will reach the Space Station in 1 day and return a week later to earth. Both Williams and Wilmore have made 2 trips on NASA space shuttle and on Russia's Soyuz vehicles to the International Space Station.

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Not just state support for companies in solar and EV's- the weaker Chinese currency also adds to China's momentum in exports. The US and the EU are determined to avoid a repeat of previous waves of Chinese exports that decimated their industries and industrial regions. US and EU are preparing counter strategies to support their own companies and protect local jobs and lcal communities that thrive only when those jobs exist.

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Macron's decision for snap elections in July is a surprise for his own party Renaissance and for the party he wanted to help Les Republicains of Former president Sarkozy. Prime minister Gabriel Attal was also unaware and had opposed quick elections. Macron's idea that the left parties would not put up one candidate also did not happen as the left parties have united and Laurent Berger is emerging as their candidate. 

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By winning 30% of the vote Pete Magyar of Tisza party in the EU elections 2024 emerges as the second largest after Viktor Orban's Fidesz. This gives Hungary a strong opposition party to the Fidesz. It broadens the centrist parties trying to hold European Union together from the challenges presented over migration issues by AfD in Germany and Wilders party in Netherlands. It is expected to join Leyen's EPP.

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Public pension funds are beginning to adopt renter protections to limit evictions and to limit rate increases. President Biden has sought to limit price increases for rental housing to 5%. Evictions are increasing in many cities. About 25% of renters of apartments pay over 50% of their income for housing putting a huge burden on lower income families. This is a big issue in Nevada, and in other states Arizona, and in the midwestern states.

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Adam Neumann, the 40 year old startup founder of WeWork, which is basically a subleaser of real estate space, resigns. Aggressive brash attitude, a party heavy lifestyle, unpredictable decision making,  are cited by WSJ as reasons he lost the confidence of investors. Mr. Dimon of JP Morgan Chase was a key banker for the company. Chase under Dimon pursued startups in the hope of doing the IPO's. The company has substantial losses, and new management was brought in after Softbank decided Neumann should leave. Growth was fast, losses also mounted fast to $1.6 billion. WSJ says many investors decided that WeWork was not a tech company so much as a overvalued real estate company that engaged in business of leasing office space tricked out in millenial friendly decor. The greed for outsize returns has led to the accumulation of capital that could otherwise be spent wisely on infrastructure and other improvements in health and education, even though many of the gains in tech are behind us.  Recently the head of Uber was also asked to resign for an aggressive approach and questionable management style, also with substantial losses, and new management brought in. Fast expansion in an imprudent manner affects established companies. It led to collapse of India's Jet Airways, Britain's Thomas Cook in 2019. Yet the huge amount of capital of tens of billions of dollars wasted as investors seek outsize returns and are disappointed, is a pattern seen mostly in capital markets in the U.S. and to a lesser extent in Europe, China, Japan. The ideas piggyback on some aspect of tech already developed and are not major tech advances by and of themselves, and many as in the case of WeWork are touted as tech because of the catch and appeal of the word for everyone hoping to make an outsize return.    ...

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Angela Merkel said that contact tracing was "above all else" in importance in tracking down infection chains. Apps would not work in Germany because tracking movements and recording information is a sensitive subject in Germany with its history of communism and fascism. Germany still did it but very early on adopted a low tech way that so far is working. Staff from provincial administrations have shifted to do contact tracing work as other work is slow or suspended. Volunteers also have taken up the work. Germany's goal is 5 contact tracers for every 25,000 people- or about 16,000 for a population of 83 million. All the contact tracers have is the phone and a central database of information on the desktop computer as shown here in this report in the Washington Post. There is no advanced technology or software.  Most important say experts is social skills - to talk to people in a way that makes them feel comfortable to share information about how they are and their contacts in a very informal friendly setting, that even includes some humor. Here a contact tracer in Reinikendorf describes the work she is doing and a typical day. There are about 75 contact tracers for 260,0000 people in her area. When she calls someone she notes down what contacts they have had and puts them in Category 1,  2 , or 3 depending on the need for quarantine. The calling is mainly about asking the contact about his or her movements. A contact for more than 15 minutes is Category 1, less than 15 minutes Category 2. The whole conversation is for 10 minutes. Then someone from the health department will call the person contacted everyday. Reickendorf began building up contact tracing in March after an outbreak in a kindergarten was too much for the usual number of health officials to handle. The German trace and quarantine approach, home grown, low tech,  and based on what resources are available, the most important thing being start immediately, has its flaws. Yet it has worked to limit infections and deaths.  In about 65% of cases health authorites have no idea how a person was infected. Asymptomatic carriers are not detected. In some area the resources are limited.  This effort has helped control the virus first cluster in Bavaria at a car part manufacturer. Sixteen people had tested positive and hundreds were quarantined. The German approach is that testing is fine but if you are in quarantine testing is not going to make a difference in spreading. Testing with a negative result is also not helping as it could be that its too early for the infection to register because of the incubation period. ...

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This report in the NYT looks at the support for the AfD stalled at about 11% nationwide but closer to twice that in East Germany where years of neglect have led to voters shifting to far right parties. The view is presented that there is a core hard right of 10%. Yet it ignores or prefers to overlook what happened in the east which provides the real clues to what happened, so that future policy could be designed to address social goals in a way that never happened in Germany. This is in line with developments in China where president Xi is addressing social goals after years of tech and infrastructure expansion that neglected rural areas and urban poor. It is in line also with the same action taken to address social goals in US president Biden's $3.5 trillion workers and families plan. Social Democrats under Mr. Scholz and a younger generation represented by the Greens have the same challenges facing them to come up with the plans to correct these problems in Germany and with a plan designed for the neglected eastern part of the country. Helmut Kohl pushed for reunification of Germany. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall the momentum was set for this to happen. Yet looking back over that period since 1990, German chancellors and administrations for three decades from both CDU and SPD have failed to invest and create opportunities in eastern part of Germany. It makes German reunification an empty concept looked at from outside. The previous administrations including Kohl and Merkel relied too much on market capitalism to do what it has been shown not capable of doing- tackling social goals and economic crises, much less  political storms such as creation of GDR following Soviet army entering Berlinin 1945. Much commentary on the issues in east Germany show people there left to themselves after mass migration out of the east to the west leaving older people and pensioners in the east, and a sense of being ignored or forgotten. US president Biden said today in ther UN General Assembly- "Our shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity and to act together." And he went on to say the next ten years to 2030 "will quite literally determine our futures."  The Social Democrats under Scholz and the Greens under Baerbock and Habeck have to come up with plans and programs that will increase ease of living and opportunities for a thriving eastern part of Germany, after the failures of market capitalism in its unregulated form during the Merkel years and predecessor administrations. ...

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People in Japan are living longer healthier lives. So much so that people are working well into their 70's. In Nagano, Japan, people say that those in their 40's and 50's are like a child with a runny nose, and people in their 60's and 70's are in the prime of their careers. In this WSJ report, 38 years old Norohiro Aizawa is a part time farmer, who says he plans to work into his 70's like many farmers in Japan. Today his father in his early 70's is active and in charge. Sachiko Kobayashi runs a crafts business, has a job making box lunches, and a garden full of pumpkins and radishes. She is 65 and gets up at 3 am. In Nagano she is called by the term pre-elderly, not elderly. For elderly she has a long way to go. Japan has 29% of the population in under over 65 years group, Europe 21% and US 17%. Yet something else is happening. People are just taking better care of themselves and their health, and living, working longer. A 70 year old today in Nagano is in health status like a 60 year old one or two generations ago. Perceptions of what is elderly have changed.    Japan's White Paper on the Elderly in 2021 shows studies suggesting that many in the 65-74 year group do not share traits associated with the term elderly.  Only 6% require care by others. Half of 65-69 year olds hold jobs, and a third of those in their early 70's also hold jobs. Life expectancy in Japan stretches into the late 80's for women, and early 80's for men. This is almost 5-8 years more than countries like the UK with a strong national health service. In April 2021 a revised Employment Law took effect, telling big employers to offer work to workers until age 70, up from previously government sanctioned retirement age of 65 years. Government says it is meant to protect the right of people to work longer. There is even a term called late-elderly.  Oshima 82 of Nagano, leads a volunteer group that shoots video of community festivals and works late into the night, and is cited in this WSJ story as saying that even if people called him late elderly, his response is oh yeah? I don't care. It is all about living a full life, terms don't matter at all when one stays healthy.   ...

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In this interview of very personal remarks made to business groups and revealed by Reuters, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, says she would be relieved greatly if she quit. She called her actions unforgivable given the mood of most of Hong Kong people today in 13th week of protests. "What I did was unforgivable," she said.  Carrie Lam had a good reputation in Hong Kong as a dedicated civil servant when she assumed the office. She had not anticipated the turn of events from the push into Hong Kong sovereignty by Beijing since the umbrella movement leading up to the extradition bill. In her words- "For a Chief Executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable. It's just unforgivable." In this rare conversation remarks, Lam comes across as someone who was caught in the middle between protestors and Beijing. "The political room for the chief executive, who unfortunately has two masters, the Central People's Government of China and the people of Hong Kong, that political room for maneuvering is very, very, very limited." What is her ideal situation. "The first thing I would do if I had a choice, is to quit, with a deep apology. I make a plea to you for forgiveness." For Hong Kong people, especially the young it was about the rule of law, for Beijing a sense of the Hong Kong region as being a part of the neighboring area of Shenzen and of China. She says she sees no intention of China to send in the People's Liberation Army from her own feeling the pulse, from her discussions. She says China is playing "a long game." There is just too much at stake for China. "They care about China's international profile. It has taken a long time to build up that sort of international profile, and having a say as a big economy, as a responsible big economy, so to forsake all those international developments is clearly not on their agenda." For her personal life this has been very difficult as she can rarely go out in the middle of these protests, not even for a haircut or shopping. Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under formula of "one country, two systems." With the Hong Kong system, rule of law, free speech guaranteed under that agreement for 50 years transition period.  ...