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The European Union has adapted well to a cutoff of supplies of Russian gas. Alternative sources were quickly pulled together in a matter of months after the invasion and cutoff to tackle the winter of 2022-2023. Conservation was moved into high gear, renewable energy investment expanded, and alternative sources for gas established. Germany sought supplies of LNG from the US and Qatar and built gas terminal at Wilhelmshaven in record time of less than 6 months. Norway increased gas supplies to Europe and now provides one third of Europe's gas needs. German industry changed the way they used gas supplies to reduce usage and make it efficient.

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The Iran Saudi talks had already taken place and there was a sense of fatigue on both sides after the prolonged war in Yemen. The Chinese mediation was able to build on this to get the two sides to discuss their differences and come to an agreement. The situation in Russia and Ukraine is very different. China's interest in ending the war in Ukraine comes from its need to not let relations with the European Union deteriorate any further, as this will affect China's economic growth. The pandemic and supply chain shift to home country manufacturing is not likely to change even if China finds a way to keep its relations with the European Union from deteriorating further, as this shift is seen by the US and the European Union as part of the new way of meeting their own strategic interests in the new world following the pandemic.

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European Union countries rush to build their own supplies of lithium inside Europe for renewable energy and batteries. 

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The title says it all. The Jobs bank the United Autoworkers trade union in the US setup in GM in 1984 threatened American automaker GM's very survival in 2006. It put workers who were not needed at GM in a jobs bank. It basically meant the idled workers -many of them close to retirement -would stay there till they retired doing nothing collecting full salary. As Mohandas Gandhi had done for India in Hind Swaraj in 1910, the American labor movement needs to look at itself in the mirror if labor is to find its way into a world of dignity and fairness in wages that Mr.Biden truly seeks for American workers.   It was setup when GM had 45% of the US market and 415,000 workers. By 2006 113,000 workers were not needed with GM having lost marketshare to Japanese makers and the Jobs bank was costing GM about $10 million a week, half a billion a year threatening its survival. The Labor movement and the UAW union did nothing to fight its own membership and set it on the right course in union with management, putting at risk the very foundation that labor had put in place since Wilson, FDR and Truman for  fairness in wages and working conditions. Jeremy Peters tells the story in the NYT. That it was recent as 2006 and shows how much had gone wrong with the labor movement and the failure of its leaders to do the right thing. The Jobs Bank says NYT was intended to prevent manufacturers from shifting manufacturing overseas, instead it did just that by undermining confidence in unions and the American labor movement, and in American workers. Two crippling wars initiated by Republicans Bush and continued by Democrat Obama, disinvestment in American manufacturing, companies like Apple shifting their entire manufacturing through outshoring to Taiwan and China, the 2009 crisis from deregulation of American banks, led to the loss of not one, but two decades for America. In today's news a modest $2 in minimum wage increase from $15 to $17 over 3 years is all that New York governor Kathy Hochul could get- even though Assembly Democrats were asking for more- to give American workers and families a fair wage to meet the cost of living crisis.  ...

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Biden delivers a rousing speech at the State of the Union to the US Congress yesterday. He touches on every aspect on every issue that is important for ease of living, for improving the lives of workers and families, for ordinary Americans, in every state of the Union. NYT says he made his case vigorously and unrelenting throughout the address, leaving no point in doubt on every issue of the action needed and the path to be taken for the American people and for America's leadership in the world.

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French and German authorites raid banks in an investigation on a $50 billion tax avoidance scheme in the European Union.

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Independent contractors rule reinstated by DJT administration following employee status push by Biden and unions. This affects 11.9 million workers in the US. Independent contractors cannot unionize and lack some of the protections of labor law. The independent contractors get to choose where they work for remote work days and get to choose the projects they want to take up, set their own hours which can help for childcare or care for parents. It includes workers in real estate, construction, arts, design, and personal care, where most of these independent contractors work. Only a small part is in Uber drivers or DoorDash delivery gig workers. This Editorial Board opinion in Wash. post cites Bureau of Labor Statistics that says from a 2023 survey that 80% of this worker group prefers independent contractor work to full time traditional employment which has less flexibility.

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How the threat of the energy offensive by Russia against Germany and the European Union was met and tackled successfully.

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Melissa Eddy of the NYT provides this exceptional account of the debate in Germany on national priorities, as the child care educators represented by the Verdi service workers union go on strike for a 10% increase in wages. Workers at entry level jobs in manufacturing represented by strong unions earn the same pay as teachers in child care centers and early childhood education who have many years of experience. The child care education workers are supported by the federal family minister, SDP minister Manuela Schwesig, who says that the additional experience and education upto university level of the child care educators in early childhood education should be recognized. Schwesig said: "We need a debate in Germany on how much we value the work of those who take care of the early education of our children and with young adults." One aspect of the 240,000 child care educators strike has drawn less attention. This is the gender pay gap as a large percentage of educators in childcare centers are women. Equal Pay Day in Berlin was organized for June 5, to call for equal pay for women who have fallen behind in pay. Data from the European Commission in 2014 shows Germany ranks third to last in gender pay equality, with only Estonia and Austria trailing behind, as cited by Deutsche Welle. Schwesig who attended the rally pointed out: "When women, despite equal work and education, earn less than their male colleagues, it is not only unfair. It is wrong." While Germany has moved ahead in quotas for female employees, women in boardrooms, parental leave, this does not help women in critical areas such as early childhood education and elderly care, which suffer from a large pay gap with men working in manufacturing jobs. ...

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Removing nuclear material has already been done for Kazakhstan and Georgia by the US in the past. The same methods and advanced technologies could be used to get all of the nuclear material out of Iran. Special operations set up for this purpose can also be used to get this done. This appears to be the only safe and certain way to avoid the nuclear proliferation. Despite what the media has been saying, even the Pope and others like Starmer and Macron are saying, who have never brought this up, but is the only way to tell the whole story,  the US and the world is safer without nuclear proliferation -especially in the most volatile region of the world for the last 5 decades. This is all the US is doing and getting more than its share of blame when all it is interested in is making it safe for the people of the world , including the people of India, Brazil, China and Russia, European Union and Africa, Latin America, whatever their leaders say.

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Adam Taylor explains what Brexit is about. What should be added is that Brexit is a child of the time in 2015-2016 when Angela Merkel was ill prepared to tackle the sudden wave of migrants from North Africa from wars and population growth outstripping what little progress was made, making decisions to let in close to a million migrants. Migrants are now being returned back to their home countries and the issue has faded. The austerity policies in the EU with Greece, Spain and Portugal as bad poster childs for the EU are also largely over, with economic recovery in Europe.  As a result confidence is growing in the future of the European Union. What pessimists including Mr. Trump saw as a breakup of the European Union is no longer the case. Britain's long negotiations and divisions for Brexit are now reinforcing an opposite conclusion- that it is beneficial to stay in the European Union. Fully 68% in a Eurobarometer Survey of 27 EU countries by the European Commission in March 2019 think so, only 17% think it is not beneficial. In Britain also a majority now support membership in the EU. The European Union and Britain have a lot to learn from this experience and the divisions generated, which is likely to be part of the acquired experience of a new generation of leaders.  ...

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Though the German public opposes a "transfer union," bailouts of EU countries, and fear a weakening of the euro, there is also support for the European Union. Most of Germany's political leaders and business elite see the euro as good for Germany. And nearly two thirds of Germans agree that Germany can only prosper inside a strong EU, according to the ARD poll. Yet the same proportion of Germans oppose bailouts of troubled countries such as Greece. This suggests that the way forward will have to be the development of mechanisms that ensure fiscal discipline throughout the EU to back up the euro currrency, and agreement on enforceable sanctions.

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FR24 shows how European governments and the European Union responded to the election of Giorgia Meloni in Italy to form a new government.

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President Biden meets newly elected South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol on his visit to South Korea. During the visit Biden also promoted South Korean investments in Texas and Georgia. He visited a Samsung semiconductor plant with the president of Samsung. Samsung is investing billions of dollars $10 billion for a new electric vehicle plant in Savannah, Georgia. By getting American semiconductor and electric car manufacturers to invest heavily in the US president Biden is changing how America invests for regaining technological leadership by 2030. In an effort to get plants to support unions president Biden called for the plants to hire union workers. Biden called by name two Senate contestants in upcoming Georgia elections for their efforts in getting the Hyundai plant that will hire 8000 workers. In contrast to Mr. Trump who lacked a plan or vision for the future Mr. Biden is keenly focused on getting South Korea, Japan and Germany to invest heavily in the US and help restructure the whole supply chain. Where Mr. Trump called for South Korea and other partners to share the defense burden, Mr. Biden is focused on getting American allies to have their large companies invest in American plants and jobs and a new supply chain. ...

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A look back at the Merkel 16 years in Germany and the European Union, the compromises to keep the Social Democrats out and her party the CDU in power, the failures in preserving social mobility in German society, immigration that led to divisions in German society, and climate change where she took some faltering steps. Only in the end did Merkel put all her convictions behind Scholz and the effort to bring trillions of euros of aid to Germany and the European Union devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. This may be her singular achievement.

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Patricia Cohen show here that the global economic system (globalization) was a project that benefitted one country: China. President Biden talks repeatedly about reversing these trends at an AFL-CIO campaign rally in Philadelphia- building infrastructure and infrastructure jobs here in the USA. Biden talked about investments, in trillions of dollars, in renewable energy, chips, science, airports, bridges, the I95 repair, that had all one common thread running through it- jobs in America, jobs for union workers and families. And the idea behind it of respect, respect for the dignity of hard work of workers in the US and union workers.

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Javier Solana reflects on his years building the institutions for a European Union foreign service. He has been the face of the EU in foreign affairs since 1999. A former foreign minister of Spain, Solana says in an interview with Steven Erlanger of the NYT, that Europe has been an adventure and he is proud to be one of its guides. In his view the European Union is a journey, a beautiful journey from the alliances that led to World War II, to the broader union and a zone of peace and stability in Europe for the first time in centuries. In a world which has changed completely with the West having less influence, he syas Europe and the USA need to talk about how the future will be shaped. For France, Germany and Britain to think that they can play an independent role in the world is a fantasy. Europe is not a sentimental thing, but a must, he says.

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Labor seeing a decline in unionized workers from 20% in 1980 in the private sector to 7.5% today according to the Labor Department, wants legislation embodied in the Employee Free Choice Act to help increase the number of unionized workers. Without the required 60 votes in the Senate to resist filibuster and reluctant to pick a big fight with the Chambers of Commerice and National Manufacturers Association and the business lobby on this issue early in the term, makes the Obama administration unlikely to push this issue too hard. The Employee Free Choice bill would give unions and not companies as under current law, the choice of having workers vote for a union by signing cards instead of through a secret ballot election. Card signing is preferred by unions because it can be done without an employer's knowledge. With secret ballot elections companies typically have months to mount an opposition. The bill also authorizes an arbitrator to impose a first contract ifa union fails to reach agreement with a company by 120 days following the union's formation. Under current law if the two sides don't reach a contract within a year, the union typically loses its right to be the exclusive bargaining agent for the workers....

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During the debate on the name of the country in the Constituent Assembly in 1948 the wording was to be changed from "India, that is Bharat, is a Union of States" to "Bharat, that is India, is a Union of States." This was suggested by Kamalapathi Tripathi and Kamath. At some point in history the Union can only be "Bharat." Why? Because for the hundreds of millions that Gandhiji led in the Independence Movement it was for the idea of Bharat and freedom that they were fighting for. Freedom could only be defined in the word Bharat. It can be argued that Gandhiji and Sardar Patel, Nehru left it as "India, that is Bharat" so that at some point it would be changed once the country had taken Gandhiji's movement of "We, the People" to the next step lifting up the hundreds of millions of people from poverty and illiteracy, a process that is Gandhi 2.0 happening today.

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Biden makes a rousing speech to workers and worker families at the AFL CIO campaign rally in Philadelphia. He tells them when he thinks about global warming or renewable energy he is thinking of jobs for union workers, when he is thinking of chips and science he is thinking of jobs for workers and union workers, all in the USA. What trillions of dollars in investments mean is jobs for decent workers, working families in the US, jobs with respect for hard work and dignity. And trillions of dollars that come with deficit reduction because of the super wealthy paying their fair share just like everybody else, not 8%, less than schoolteachers pay, firefighters pay. "What this all means for you is a simple proposition. And I remember having this discussion with you, old buddy. When I think global warming I think jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Good paying union jobs. Jobs you can raise a family on. Jobs you can't outsource (applause) that can't be outsourced." ...

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Chancellor Merz says after the signing of the UK- Germany Friendship Treaty on July 16, 2025 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London-

"This is a historic day for German-British relations. . . We want to work more closely — especially after the UK's departure from the European Union."  

UK and Germany will work closely in all areas and increase education exchanges, setup a direct rail link for close cooperation after Brexit. French president Macron visited London the week earlier and DJT is expected to visit King Charles soon.  The E3 countries UK, France and Germany are working closely in 2025.

Compare this with the Merkel period and one can see a significant improvement in Europe, a more dynamic forward looking Europe replaces the idea that only the European Union arrangement speaks for Europe.