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Cheap abundant coal supplies support the Australian lifestyle and standard of living. Australia is a big exporter of coal. Here prime minister Morrison is shown with coal in his hand in parliament lauding its benefits to the Australian economy as a source of its wealth. Only now with floods, drought and fires is the real cost of coal becoming apparent to Australians. In elections in 2021 Mr. Albanese of Labour party replaced Mr. Morrison and promised changes. Mining interests and jobs influence key swing constituencies in elections leading to the impasse on climate change action. As one of the windiest and sunniest places in the planet Australia says the OECD is in a position to play a large role in renewable energy. This suggests that policy so far has been shortsighted. Worse it may have fueled the rise of temperature on the planet by providing cheap coal for China to grow at rates close to 12% for decades.

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The devastating floods have increased the urgency of securing financing for Pakistan to avoid any risks of debt default. This report in WSJ says Pakistan has negotiated $4 billion for the current fiscal year that began in July 1, 2022 with the IMF Board meeting to approve it on Monday Oct. 29, 2022. The IMF required Pakistan to secure the remaining additional funding for the fiscal year. For this part of the deal China has rolled over $10 billion in debt, Saudi Arabia $3 billion and UAE $2.5 billion. Saudis will provide $1.2 billion for oil on deferred payments basis. Saudis will invest $1 billion in Pakistan, and Qatar will invest $3 billion in Pakistan.

Finance Minister Ismail says Pakistan is not in danger of default now but it depends on the viability of the IMF program. The heavy monsoon floods have put a reported half of the country under water, and the economic impact says Ismail is about $10 billion.

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The draft of the new constitution in Chile is rejected by voters in September 2022 with only 38% voting For and 62% Against, a much larger margin Against than previously expected. The new constitution was drafted by a Constitutional body specially elected for the purpose, As a result Chileans will have to go back and draft one that is more likely to pass. Unlike previous votes voting was mandatory for 15 million eligible voters. Clauses on environment, abortion, and the indigenous tribal people are seen as controversial as well as a tendency to put every conceivable right into the constitution and not thinking enough about how these rights may be secured, and focusing on basic rights. The protests were about the unequal access to healthcare, education, and services, weakness in the pension system, and lack of protections for the elderly and pensioners. Income inequality was also an issue in the protests. 

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A labor shutdown that nearly shut down the US economy says the Washington Post is a result of policies set by the BSNF management for attendance on freight trains by engineers and other workers. It resulted in a tragedy. Hiles, 51, suffered a heart attack on June 16. He missed a doctor's appointment because he was called back to work. Not showing up could have invited penalties under strict attendance policies of BSNF, one of the largest rail carriers in the US. Aaron Hiles told his wife he felt different, then he made an appointment to see a doctor. On June 16 the locomotive engineer suffered a heart attack and died in an engine room on a BSNF freight train somewhere between Kansas City and Fort Madison, Iowa. President Biden has stepped in and arranged an agreement that includes time off when needed for medical reasons and a 24% increase in pay by 2024.

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The border crossing at Kirkenes, Norway, remains one of the few border points in the EU with Russia that are open, where visitors go back and forth between Russia and Norway. This part of Norway near the Arctic Circle was taken back by the Soviets in the war, after Nazi Germany occupied Norway. Russia let Norway run this region from that time leading to friendly relations. Norway is the only neighboring country that was never at war with Russia. Because of its location far up in the Arctic Circle it remains a unique location with Russian ships coming here. 
And 62 miles from the Norwegian coast is Russia's ballistic missile submarine fleet. Norway as part of NATO provides support to Ukraine with $7.2 billion in aid. It also is a major supplier to EU for oil and gas helping the EU after the cutoff of Russian oil and gas supplies.

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With six and a half times the light gathering power of the Hubble telescope the new James Webb telescope will liftoff from the edge of the South American jungle into space. It will be folded into an Ariane 5 rocket and blasted off from French Guiana. The power of the new telescope will help it look deeper into the cosmos and farther in time, to open new windows into how the universe evolved after the Big Bang. John Mather a Nobel prize winning astrophysicist and NASA scientist says "we want to see the first galaxies growing."

The $10 billion truck size telescope will head out on a 29 day voyage to a spot four times as far as the moon, called the second Lagrange point, through 2026, collecting distant starlight and beaming back a stream of images and data. The ultrasensitive infrared sensors are designed to capture light emitted more than 13.6 billion years ago by primordial stars.

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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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Spain's prime minister agrees to use of Catalan, Galician and Basque languages in parliament in return for support of JxCat pro Catalan party to form a future government. Spain's parliament voted 178 in favor and 169 against for use of these languages. About 9 million people in the region around Barcelona speak Catalan, 2 million in Galicia in the northwest speak Galician, and three quarter million speak Basque in the north. These languages were banned since the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship of General Franco. Pedro Sanchez's government is also seeking approval of these languages as official in the EU joining 24 official languages. For Spain this marks the beginning of a new period in which the Partido Popular whose leader Mr. Feijoo is from Galicia as was a former prime minister Mariano Rajoy from PP, and the governing Socialist Party, both approve the making of these languages official. 

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The European central bank increases interest rates by quarter percentage point taking the deposit rate to 3.5%. The US Fed held off on increases. The US Fed started early with its increase in interest rates and maintained a steady posture with 8 interest rate increases over 2022-2023 in a period of just over 12 months. It has strengthened the dollar against the euro. The slow response of the ECB and price gouging in Europe has worsened the inflation picture there. The US Fed's policy combined with consumers resisting price gouging by halting purchases from stores, untangling of supply chains, the Biden administration's series of actions to tackle the cost of living increases, and overall investment in the economy that keeps employment resilient including government investment for the first time, is creating a better economy for America than most of the last two decades. 

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Professors Arum of UC Davis and Steven of Stanford show in a color graph visual how selective race based admissions called affirmative action apply only to a small number of schools, only 6% of college students in the US go to schools that select 25% or less of their applicant pool. The rest including all state universities and many colleges in the UC system in California are not affected. Another development is that these selective schools are not that much better than the others that cost a fraction of the money. A smart decision today is to study in a state system at a fraction of the inflated cost of all schools that is an aberration in itself, and make the discipline and effort to get the most out of that education, and make an effort to learn outside of the classroom through spirit of inquiry.

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NYT looks at the movies "Oppenheimer" and "The Day after Trinity." Christopher Nolan's film about the scientist who spearheaded the development of the atomic bomb was at theaters July 21. Else's documentary "The Day after Trinity," was made in 1981 and shown again by the Criterion Channel without a subscription to a new generation of viewers to keep alive its message and its relevance. The war in Eastern Europe and nuclear threats have created a surging interest in how the world entered a new era after Hiroshima. Else, now a professor at UC Berkeley, says this story needs to be told to a new generation, and by a new group of storytellers. It also shows the paradox of a thoughtful soul in Oppenheimer who never intended for his invention to be used and the savage nature of this creation.

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Latin America is hit hard by the pandemic. About 20% of the region's companies will close down or about 2.7 million companies, and loss of 8.5 million jobs. GDP decline in 2020 of about 10% is expected.

All the statistics of a fall in poverty in Latin America that used to be cited by economists have proved to have no good foundations. Even before the pandemic the economies of Argentina and Brazil were in trouble. The pandemic has worsened the situation. It shows how important it is for countries in Latin America to build on strong foundations of education, health care and good governance. With fall in trade and in tax income the debt to GDP levels are expected to go up from 57% to 70% and 30% drop in earnings coming from relatives overseas to support families at home, resulting in great difficulties. 

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Rep Marie Perez 34 years, of Washington State, is one of the new members of Congress who feel there is a sense of disrespect for people without college degrees, that Democrats have to go back to the days of John Kennedy when a majority of voters without college degrees supported him. John Kennedy had more support from people without collrege degrees than with college degrees. In 1960 John Kennedy had 52% of people with high school education, 65 years later Biden had only 41%. The 11 percentage points gap is what is needed to be filled to bring the Democratic party back to what its core values are, core values lost after entry of Silicon Valley people and finance industry people into the Democratic party -muddying up the core principles of the Democrats since Woodrow Wilson and FDR from the 1900's to Kennedy in the 1960's, standing up for the rights and aspirations of workers and families.

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Paris Olympics organizers want this to be the smallest footprint on climate at 1.58 million metric tons of CO2. This is half that in 2012 London Olympics of 3.4 and 20% less than in Tokyo Olympics of 1.96. No rhetoric, actual facts is the goal even with 13 million spectators from many countries.

It was an opportunity for us to stage this Games in a different way, both for us to prove that the Games can be done differently, but also to leave a legacy,” says Georgina Grenon, Paris 2024’s director of environmental excellence." It is not that difficult to get 50% cut in emissions by using wood or low carbon cement. New construction is a big source of emissions. Paris organizers plan to use existing or temporary infrastructure, and also reuse what is built, and build some facilities in underserved deprived areas to use later for affordable housing. It is a remarkable and commendable effort.

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The goal is to invest in Britain. Tax policy is calibrated to generate 25 billion pounds from the National Employment Insurance Tax.

Reeves says she is not increasing income tax, employees’ national insurance and VAT. National Employment Insurance Tax paid by companies will go up by 1.2 percentage points, to 15%, from April next year. Threshold will come down from £9,100 per year to £5,000.

Crackdown on welfare fraud saves 4.3 billion pounds. A new Covid Corruption Commissioner for dodgy Covid contracts

6.7% increase in the minimum wage

State pensions will go up by 470 pounds.

Carers allowance to go up to 10,000 pounds a year.

5000 extra tax officers to close the tax gap, update IT, update App.

 

 

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The new White House Press Secretary is a decent choice. She is 27 years and yet brings plenty of experience with youthful enthusiasm- graduating from Catholic college St Anselm in New Hampshire, she joined the 2016 White House as an intern. She then worked as a speechwriter and assistant press secretary, preparing high profile briefings for Mary McEnany the last DJT press secretary. In 2022 she ran for Congress from New Hampshire, losing to Chris Pappas. In January 2024  she came back as press secretary for the DJT campaign. 

She has a degree in communications and political science. Before running for Congress in 2022 she served as communications director for Elise Stefanik, another youthful enthusaistic senior Republican Congressmwoman 40 years, who chaired the Repubican Conference and is the new UN ambassador. This gives her insight into international affairs as she draws on working with Elise Stefanik.

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The NYT, Wash Post, WSJ, and television shows such as CBS, fail to clearly give a summary of Harris and Trump policies, showing  dangers or opportunities. Key issues are Immigration and here Kamala Harris simply will sign into law in the first months of her presidency the Republican Lankford McConnell legislation that president Biden has negotiated and agreed to for closing the Border with Mexico and fixing asylum policy.  

Social Security Medicare- The Trump plan for ending tax on Social Security in effect defunds Social Security and Medicare. For what purpose? Ending the tax only gets people earning less than $60,000  90 dollars. That's correct $90, according to Tax Policy center. And on average $550. It will bring up the insolvency of Medicare up by 6 years to 2031, and lead to cut in Social Security Benefits of 25% in 2032, according to Center for a Responsible Budget.

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This is a report on unfair trade with China. China and unfair trade resulting in a $295 billion trade surplus with US. China and unfair trade resulting in a $1 trillion trade deficit with the world. This has devastated manufacturing communities, workers and families, for 1 billion people in the US and Europe, and deprived India of opportunities in manufacturing for 1.4 billion people. Alongside this article we have CPA article showing losses in manufacturing and the cost to the American people using estimates of three types of losses in jobs, other jobs, and taxes that provide public services and infrastructure. The massive blow to America over the last decade of unfair trade and overconcentration of manufacturing in  China was for 25 million in job losses and $250 billion in local infrastructure and public services lost for workers and families in communities and towns across vast parts of America.

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Amazon expands during the pandemic when retail on line delivery has helped people reduce trips to the grocery or retail stores. Amazon hired 427,000 people to expand its workforce to 1.2 million people by November 2020, 9 months into the pandemic. Almost doubling the employee workforce. These workers are mostly at warehouses, with some software engineers and hardware specialists. This includes hiring in India and Italy and is worldwide hiring. This does not include 100,000 temporary workers for the holidays, and 500,000 delivery drivers working for contractors.  Only hiring of 230,000 people by Walmart about 2 decades a ago in one year comes close. Walmart hired 180,000 people during the pandemic. Walmart has 2.2 million employees. With the expansion underway Amazon looks to become the largest private employer in the world in 2 years, say experts.  Amazon pay is $15 an hour after an increase of $2 recently. Its coronavirus safety practices have been upgraded after early criticism in April and May. Recent expansion in Italy and in India are also part of worldwide expansion after Walmart has pulled back from its worldwide expansion. This also shows how quickly major aspects of life are changing during the pandemic as some companies in online business are becoming more prominent than others. Target and Walmart have also increased in size. Best Buy has changed its focus with its conversion into a company that leads with personal service in online plus store hybrid retail and a focus on seniors and older people for healthcare service and product delivery. Companies are changing the way they run or getting a new life in remaking their business. This is also a time when other aspects of business such as social media are becoming evident. Subtle aspects such as reports of higher rates of mental depression through use of social media platforms. There is also the awareness that information technology companies in Silicon Valley generate most of their money in advertising and this advertising of $100 billion is only a small fraction of the $12 trillion U.S. economy. Should Silicon Valley based in California decide priorities on where capital allocation should go through the part it plays in moving startups based less on America's priorities than other considerations. Healthcare, education, cities, and infrastructure have not received funding they need and capital allocation by financial markets has failed the American people, as it has failed in Europe and other parts of the world for similar reasons. This has hit hard communities and people across the U.S. and Europe and also in Latin America, Africa and Asia, with the loss of manufacturing to China and other countries from the U.S. India and Europe. ...

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Researchers at Kyoto University and Hokkaido University present their analysis at the advisory panel to the Health Ministry in Japan on the Delta variant on June 23. The research by Prof. Hiroshi and Prof. Kimihito shows the Delta variant from India is 1.95 times more transmissible than the original virus.

The group of researchers examined PCR tests from Japan and an international database for their analysis. Based on data from Japan the researchers looked at the Delta variant is projected to account for more than half of new cases in Japan by July 12. By the time the Tokyo Olympics open on July 23 this variant is projected to account for 69% of new cases.  The researchers say the recent lifting of the emergency restrictions in Tokyo and other cities as well as the high transmissibility of the new variant is likely to increase risks from infections in future.

 

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Kim Kyung-jae, aide to former president Kim Dae Jung, and reconciliation with the daughter of military backed president Park Chung Hee who ruled in the 1970's and suppressed dissent. Presidential candidate, Ms. Park Geun-hye, is reaching out to dissenters who suffered during her father's military regime. Much of the industrialized part of S. Korea is in the southeastern provinces, and Ms. Park's father pushed development in this region. There is a development gap with the southwestern provinces where much of the dissent to the military regime took place. The gap is still being healed many years later. Ms. Park's conservative party hopes to get 20% of the vote from the southwestern provinces with her efforts at reconciliation, up from the current conservative party president Lee Myung-bak who won 9% of the vote there. Moon Jae-in, the liberal candidate for president, is from the city of Busan in the southeastern provinces and hopes to increase his vote in the southeast to 40%.

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China's energy investments in 2011 with a 21% stake in EDP Energias of Portugal, and Sinopec's investment in Spain's Repsol and Portugal's Galp.

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With 40% of the people living below the poverty level, and 25% of working age people unemployed, S. Africa faces serious development problems.

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It is "bonkers" says this NYT report about how the baseball game has switched back and forth 9-0 and 8-0 from LA Dodgers favor back to Mets 12-6 in favor of Mets over 5 games. Dodgers winning 3 games, Mets 2. Into the 6th game.

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Calmcations, off the track and cooler Travel- travel are trends in 2025. Calmcations as people look for less noise and more quiet. Cooler destinations are ones in northern Europe, in Scandinavia and Finland where summer temperatures are in the 20's compared to the heat in southern European locations.