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See who qualified and how for World Cup 2026 in the US in this detailed report in The Guardian.

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A former solicitor general questions the 4 page summary of Attorney General Barr as a misrepresentation of the findings of the Mueller investigation following the protest by Mr. Mueller himself that the findings were distorted in the summary. It defeated the very purpose of appointing the Special Counsel. It was upto Congress to come up with its conclusions according to how the U.S. constitutional process was intended to work on questions of national importance, and not the Attorney General appointed by the president. Neal Katyal helped draft the regulations about the way a special counsel is supposed to operate. He can show the findings on each matter whether the president is cleared or not cleared, bu it is Congress that has to make up its mind and come up to its own conclusions. That is Congress's role and not the Attorney General's role. By taking on Congress's role and drafting a 4 page report that exonerates the president Mr. Barr has violated the letter and the spirit of the regulations set for the Special Counsel's office. Mr. Katyal concludes this article saying -"There is no more sacred duty for Congress than gettting to the bottom of whether our president has taken care that the laws of this country have been faithfully executed." He says in drafting the special counsel office regulations he and others had thought of the possibility of there being "a nefarious Attorney General" though "we didn't predict this amount of duplicity."  The U.S. Congress now faces the challenge of getting to the bottom of the matter and drawing its own conclusions. Katyal questions polls showing that the public does not want further inquiry because he says the Attorney General has created confusion, misrepresented Mr. Mueller and delayed the release of the Mueller Report to the public.     ...

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Goldfarb says everyone is focussed on the "fiscal cliff," yet there are other issues which when put together could lead to a drop of 1 percentage point in growth and add a million people to the jobless. The temporary payroll tax cut for 160 million workers was setup in Dec. 2010. The payroll tax which funds Social Security is 4.2% since then, down from 6.2%, adding about $1000 for the average family to spend. The unemployment insurance benefits which expire for millions of people will also have an impact. As will the $60 billion in spending cuts on domestic and defense spending under an agreement made in the summer of 2012.

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Following concerns about cybersecurity China is pursuing the development of its own chipmaking capacity. Tsinghua Ungroup has the support of Chinese officials. It emerged as China's largest chipmaker with the acqusition of two large mobile chip firms in China- Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics in 2013. Intel took a 20% stake in Tsinghua Unigroup for $1.5 billion as a way to enter the market serving the low end smartphone market with chips. Taiwan's Mediatek Inc. is its largest competitor. China's technology in mobile chips is still 2-3 years behind the latest technology, according to research firm Canalys, and serves mostly the low end smartphone market for emerging markets.Tsinghua Unigroup CEO, Zhao Weiguo, says that by investing in the long term like Huawei, his firm can catchup with larger companies in the field. China plans to use its chip fund to invest $1.6 billion in the company over the next 5 years. The company was started in 1988 at elite Tsinghua University, is still controlled by a university holding company, and has close ties with the government through its alumni network. Xi Jinping and other leaders graduated from the university. It is considering an acquisition of HP's H3C. H3C is a joint venture of 3Com and Huawei supplying corporate data networking gear in China, now part of HP. Tsinghua Unigroup is in its early stage of development as its estimated sales of $1.8 billion for 2015, make up a small part of the $340 billion global chip market, according to Gartner Research....

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World Baseball Classic and US loss to Italy 8-6 at Daikin Park Houston, Texas.

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The title is misleading as it does not day that the the drop in the trade deficit is largely because of the steep climb in the trade deficit in March so that the April numbers decline was made that much larger. Importers tried to beat the DJT tariffs by importing ahead of the tariffs date. For the trade deficit to truly turn around Make in the USA has to go into effect over the next 5 years reducing imports and rebuilding American manufacturing, and the tariffs should be seen in that context as a way to do this. Tariffs only reduce the overconcentration of manufacturing in one country which poses serious risks as well as leaves American workers at the mercy of other countries.Imports were still $351 billion in April and the deficit at $62 billion.

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Google former CEO Eric Schmidt at Arizona University commencement speech gets booed for statements on AI. The Google ex CEO says its your turn to shape AI but does not say that AI is shaped by a few individuals at corporations such as Microsoft and Google. Pew Research shows majority of students on campuses across the US have serious concerns and are not excited by the way AI has developed. This when Pew has not asked people to comment on how trillions of dollars needed for rebuilding of the dilapidated infrastructure and transportation of the US and for reindustrialization to create jobs after manufacturing was shipped to China by Elites, have through the capital markets been shifted into AI. Even when financial returns cannot come anywhere close to what these investments would do for the American people (and investors) if invested in reindustrialization+ infrastructure. The public knows better, no wonder Google founder Schmidt is booed.

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Inflation in the European Union is being pushed up by higher profit margins of companies as they push up prices. Wage pay rise is only part of the problem, says Mr. Panetta, an executive board member of the ECB. Profit margins at public companies in the eurozone were pushed up from 7.2% in 2019 before the pandemic to 8.5% for the year through March 2023. A similar situation exists in the US. Companies could be increasing prices to make up for input price rises, anticipating future price inceases, or with market power to take advantage of  the situation, says Panetta. Panetta says his job on the 6 member executive board team of ECB is to look at all the causes of inflation. He has found sectors where even when input prices are decreasing profit margins and profit are increasing, a cause for concern. At a conference in Frankfurt last week Panetta pointed out that about half of the pressure for inflation came from wages, the other half from rising profits. In Europe wages rise is slower than in the US. It is also seen that market power of European companies was higher than in the US last year.  ...

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There is more ot it than just the monopolies crushing new competition and small firms in their space. The gatekeeper role for information that Google and other tech monopolies have is a danger for democracy in a way that the Rockefeller's monopoly of the oil business by Standard Oil never was at the turn of the previous century. TR took up the role of government ensuring that fair competition exists by breaking up the monopolies in the oil business at that time. Today this is left to the courts and they take far too long and come up with decisions that do not address the main probem points brought up by the US Justice Department. Judge Mehta after 5 years did little to address the problems of tech monopolies and it is now left to other remedies and other leadership to come up with ways to break up these monopolies.

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Information from cables by former US amassador Eric Edelman, about Mr Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey, and 8 Swiss bank accounts. In a cable from 2004, Edelman reports claims that have not been proved about Erdogan's period as Mayor of Istanbul and of having directly benefited from the privatization of state oil refinery compay Tupras. The cables are from the Wikileaks on US diplomacy. Other cables from February 2002 cite Erdogan's close friends and brother as beneficiaries in an Iranian natural-gas pipeline deal.

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Develop calming evening routine letting go and be up at consistent time and don't obsess are 4 Must Do's for Sleepting Well. Olympic Athletes can have a tough time sleeping in a new environment far away from home, with the lack of quiet, and the tension of sports.

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Transocean's legal settlement wih the Justice Department for $1.4 billion in the Gulf oil spill.

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British Foreign Secretary Dennis Healey on the British reaction to the US air strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026.

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Iran war cost for the US is $29 billion by May 12 2026, a month into naval blockade of Iran.

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WSJ Editorial Board says US targets should not be ones that hurt the people of Iran such as power plants.

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Biden's ultimate faith in the fairness of the American cause and the American people gets him two big wins with the $280 billion semiconductor bill, and the $369 billion climate change action bill. Biden says about this when many had given up hope- "The work of government can be slow and frustrating, and sometimes even infuriating. Then the hard work of hours, days and months from people who refuse to give up pays off. History is made. Lives are changed." With Europe at war and struggling to get through the winter with gas rationing it was up to America to lead the way as the world faces ever increasing floods, fires and heat waves that affect food supply and environment. And Schumer? The New York Democrat asked about the effort quoted his father who passed away last year. "As my late father said: you need to persist. God will reward you." For months Mr. Manchin a critical vote in the US Senate had opposed the Democrats proposed bills. Then Senators Mark Warner of Virginia, Chris Coons of Delaware, John Hickenlooper of Colorado took a different approach. They did not openly criticize Mr. Manchin, and appealed to his sense of history, his zeal for playing a leading role in a high stakes legislative deal. Schumer and Biden were willing to make some concessions for fossil energy now that with the war in Ukraine the US needed to export LNG to Europe to replace Russian supplies. China and India were still going to be using fossil fuels after COP26 and after the pandemic induced lower growth. The US had to find a different approach some fossil fuel concessions would make it possible to use it as abridge towards the larger goal of getting ahead on renewable energy in a big way. This opened the way for a deal that centrists could support.  ...

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The Consumer Price Index CPI rose by 8.3% in August, US Labor Department reports from same month a year ago. This is down 8.5% in July and 9.1% in June, even though oil prices are coming down. The average household is spending $460 a month more to pay for the same basket of goods and services than last year according to Moody's. Core CPI excluding volatile food and energy prices was higher in August at 6.3% compared to 5.9% in July and June 2022. The US price of gasoline was average of $3.71 at the pump in August down 26% from its high in June, according to OPIS/DowJones.

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The story of Ma Yinjiang. Ma lives in Hangzhou and a reporter caught up with him at his ancestral home in Dushi, 10 miles noth of Hangzhou. His is a typical story in China of optimism about the future and a feeling that there are opportunities to make progress even without the connections in his case like that of many Chinese. Even though he graduated with an engineering degree and postgraduate work he decides to go into business and invents a new kind of soap dispenser based on ones available in western countries. And then branches into hair dryers and electric kettles with sales of $200,000. He dabbles in Christianity and has participated in student protests in 1989. He has aspirations for the future like those of people in western countries yet the reporter finds him just as sensitive when it comes to Tibet, seeing it as an effort to breakup China. Provides some insight into the new China and the millions of urban Chinese some of them like Ma who were on farms in their father's generation and spent time there themselves....

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The Russian economy gets an exceptional boost with the behaviour of ruble currency separating from the oil prices. Russia benefits from higher oil prices at the same time as it benefits from a weaker ruble. The ruble has declined 15% since April after more sanctions on Russia. The revenue earned in dollars converts into more rubles for imports and other financing for the Russian economy. At the end of 2017 a barrel of oil brought in 3,835 rubles for Russian sellers, when converted into rubles from U.S. dollars. In October 2018 each barrel brings in 5,262 rubles, an increase of 40%.  Russia deftly managed its emerging market crisis with lower ruble following the crisis in Ukraine by adapting its economy to a lower ruble, lowering imports and using import substitution. Initially Russia split with OPEC and Saudis to produce oil all out, but by 2018 with the Saudi economy hurting and Russia feeling the impact of lower oil prices, an OPEC agreement with Russia has pushed prices higher with production limits. Earlier adaptation by 2016 to the lower ruble, further decline of the ruble in 2018 with sanctions by U.S. for Russian interventions in other countries including the U.S. election meddling, have combined with higher oil prices to strengthen the Russian economy. Russian private and government debt held by foreign investors has fallen since 2016 to 32% in the first quarter, according to Societe Generale. This means Russia is less sensitive to foreign investor exit from the country with political and economic winds changing. Russia's current account surplus increased to $18.3 billion in the first quarter of 2018, up from $14.6 billion in the prior quarter. A weaker ruble has translated into more inflation which reached 5.5% at the end of 2017, above 4% target. Russia's central bank made quarter point increase to 7.5% for the interest rate in September 2017. Overall the management of the emerging market crisis since 2016 as Russia responded to NATO expansion and adopted its own policy is remarkable considering the damage from earlier emerging market crises. Countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and even India are feeling the impact of the current emerging market crisis, each with its own version of the crisis- Argentina with dollar denominated debt, Brazil lacking money in the budget after high pensions, and India with higher energy costs and weaker rupee.   ...