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China and Nepal differ on the exact height of Mount Everest. Nepal says is measurement shows it at 29029 feet or 8848 metres above sea level. China calculates it to be 8844.3 metres. Nepal uses as sea level the Bay of Bengal, China uses the Yellow Sea. It varies whether the rock base is used or the variable level of snow and ice at the top. There is more climbing activity on the Nepal side than the Chinese Tibetan side. The mountain is always moving even if it is minutely. Seismic activity has raised it 5 metres. Till 1840 Kanchenjunga was considered the highest till the British surveyed the mountain. In 1856 Andrew Waugh, Surveyor General of India stated that the peak 15 of Everest was 29002 feet or 8840 metres high. In 1865 the mountain was named after Sir Colonel George Everest a fellow surveyor in the British Army. In 1955 India declared the current height given by Nepal. The Chinese occupation of Tibet by 1956 made China a neighbor of Nepal and for Mount Everest. ...

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This Times leading article on UK government's coronavirus policy says it is inconsistent, and a muddled effort just as the third wave is accelerating. It asks the public to be cautious when going outside and still opens nightclubs with covid passports not required till the end of September. By August cases could reach 100,000 say experts so that the nightclub and bars reopening can only fuel the rise in cases. The British government must be aware that the Netherlands opened nightclubs and bars in June and this led to a sudden jump in cases with 40% of new cases coming from nightclubs.  The policy is undermining public confidence. It is doing this at the same time as it is asking people to self isolate for 10 days. The policy also does not require covid vaccination pass for all events and for shops and restaurants as is being done in France and in other countries on a regional basis as in Germany. 

 

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The WSJ covers men's falling enrollment in colleges, with a sharp drop in community college enrollment during the pandemic, in a recent report. The NYT look at this issue from the perspective of women pointing out that women have historically experienced a disadvantage. Women are shown to be struggling in lower paid professions, and underrepresented in higher income fields and positions. Seen from this perspective what is seen as a calamity for men is also not happening in a way that is providing visible advantage for women. Women stayed home more than men during the pandemic and were more likely to quit work during the coronavirus pandemic to take care of children when schools were closed. This was happening not just in the US, but also in Europe. The result is that both men and women have suffered setbacks during the pandemic. Biden's families and workers plan investment in America comes at a time of severe stress for families and workers. ...

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Indian foreiign minister S Jaishankar meets with his counterpart Wang Yi in Dushnabe, Uzbekistan, to restore peace in border region of Ladakh after the violent clash in 2020. Jaishankar tells China not to view ties with India through "the lens of a third country." China agrees. Jaishankar was actively involved in setting up cultural and other Sino-Indian contacts in Chinese cities when he was Indian ambassador to China. Jaishankar also tells China that India China relations set the tone for peace in Asia. China says it agrees with this idea. India's strong response to China's border infrastructure building and its moving forces close to the border line of control, has led to China reconsidering its policy following deteriorating relations with Australia, US and UK. China now sees that it has little to gain with worsening India relations and border issues or clashes, when the US and UK, Australia, are moving forces into the Indo-Pacific region and in the seas around Taiwan. ...

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Olaf Scolz, Germany's Vice Chancellor and Minister of Finance, since 2018. He  wants to counter the myth that individual success is always self-made. As candidate for the Social Democrats he is the leading candidate to succeed Merkel. Scolz believes in genuine "respect." If elected chancellor he will take Germany in a new direction after the Merkel years marked by neglect of infrastructure, increased division among Germans and fragmentation of parties, addressing euro currency issues left behind by her mentor CDU chancellor Helmut Kohl, poor migrant policy that divided German opinion, lack of social mobility for working class Germans, and failing families in childcare, other services.  Biden in the US, Scolz in the European Union, could offer an opportunity for combining the strength of Europe and the US in tackling the problems the world faces today- restructuring supply chains, reducing divisions sown through neglect of families and the working class, climate change, competing with an assertive China using western technology and resources. ...

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A supply chain crisis with shortages of goods is affecting all economies in the world. The price of oil has increased to $80 and supply chain shortages are affecting most industries. Power shortages in China lead to cutbacks in consumption for industry and some large cities not having essential  electricity for traffic lights. Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted supply chain factories in Vietnam and Malaysia because of lockdowns. Once a product is manufactured it still has to be shipped from far flung places in today's cumbersome and costly supply chain. Cost of shipping is up 3 times according to one shipping index in one year. Prices to ship from China to Rotterdam in Netherlands is up 6 times in one year. Global supply chains at such high cost of shipping means that companies will look to invest in manufacturing at home so that they do not pay high shipping costs and also create jobs at home, and are able to build critical experience in manufacturing technology. ...

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PM Modi describes situation of Indian Rail from Himalayas to Ceylon after 1947. The budget is now six times that in 2014. Action was taken to include Rail India under government of India's budget so that the government could directly invest in modernization of Indian Rail as top priority. Parts of northeast were not included in Indian Rail. Today the entire country is integrated in a modern network for the 21st century with Vande Bharat high speed trains. It opens possibilities of setting up these rail networks in other parts of Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe with new technology trains at a fraction of the cost. This was the vision of John F. Kennedy in his New Frontier of the vast potential of India when he told the US Senate on March 25, 1958- "India today represents as great a hope, as commanding a challenge as Western Europe did in 1947- and our people are still, I am confident equal to the effort."   ...

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France has renewable energy potential for wind farms that is similar to Britain with its long coastline. The Saint Nazaire wind farm with 80 turbines opens on the Atlantic coast with president Macron saying it is time to go twice as fast as other countries in Europe. France gets only 7% of its energy from wind compared to 22% for the UK, 23% for Germany and 44% for Denmark.  Saint Naziare wind farm took 10 years after protests from environmentalists, fishermen and other groups. France is looking at diversifying its energy capabilities so that it is not too dependent on nuclear energy. Macron says- "Our neighbors are going twice as fast. we have to get rid of the legal disputes and the delaying tactics."

Three wind farms will come on stream in months in Normandy and Brittany. A floating wind farm is proposed for the Mediterranean. Macron wants to see more nuclear reactors. He also says the key to better energy supply is diversification.

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What is the best way to get ahead in a company? New studies show that the most important thing to do is to pick the right company for mobility and advancement, getting further education and skills, and for job stability. The studies shown here were done by the Burning Glass Institute in Philadelphia and the Harvard Project on Managing the Future of Work, the Schultz Family Foundation. The study looked at workers in 200 companies over a 5 year period to understand what helps workers build good careers. Companies that rank high for employee retention and pay are Adobe, Alphabet, Boeing, Microsoft. Companies promoting workers without a college degree are Southwest Airlines, AT&T, American Express, CISCO. For launchpads to further mobility Apple and AT&T do well. The main thing is that a person gets into the right company which has big consequences yet the workers starting out they don't have the visibility to make an educated choice, says an expert who did the study.  ...

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PM Modi's address to the Law Conference in October 2022. Modi talks about the importance of laws in society playing a constructive role to promote ease of living, ease of justice, and innovation. Laws from the British times are still on our books, says Modi. About 1500 laws that were outdated have been scrapped and 23,000 compliances that were not needed and a burden on people were scrapped by his administration, says Modi. These laws and compliances had become a "loko ka dabai" a burden on society.  In Gujarat delays in justice were lessened by the introduction of evening courts. During Covid virtual hearings have facilitated the work of judges and made it possible to continue the work of the courts during the pandemic. It is imperative, says Modi, that the courts and the law officials keep this idea of ease of justice and ease of living in mind as they tackle the work of implementing the law, so that respect for the law is enhanced. ...

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This report in The Times shows how Africa is tackling malaria by using modern methods such as drones. Drones are used in Ghana to send medicine to remote parts of the country. The rollout of the world's first malaria vaccine is taking place in Malawi, Ghana and Kenya. The Glaxo developed vaccine requires 4 doses over 18 months. Gavi is a partnership that brings UNICEF and WHO in partnership with private companies to  buy vaccines in bulk and distribute them where it is not affordable. Gavi supported 66 million vaccines in 2018 for children, yet about 20 million children in Nigeria, Congo and other parts of Africa lacked routine immunizations in 2018. UPS and health service workers are joining in the effort for administering this vaccine correctly.  Software that tracks the taking of the vaccines by children is essential for success and this is being implemented with Ghanian authorites. This report shows how it is done in Dateng, Ghana, a town of 800 people 3 hour drive from Accra.  ...

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India moves forward with ports and maritime development with projects worth 38,000 crores or $4.75 billion including Mangaluru Port Authority and refinery, petrochemical industries. Priority is being place in port connectivity and development for 150 projects on a 7500 kilometres coastline. Ports are important for logistics and exports, a key priority for linking India to the new supply chain being built by the US and EU, which would link India to manufacturing supply chain in Vietnam, Japan and other countries. Natural gas brought in through ports would enhance green development to reduce climate change emissions. India's coastline of 7500 kms compares with 20,000 for the US, 25,000 for Australia and 14,000 for China. India's coastline is about that of Brazil and a bit less than Mexico. New Zealand with a coastline of 15,000 has more coastline than China or India showing how the Pacific ocean coastlines are of a magnitude higher. Japan's is similar to Australia stretching across the Pacific. Canada has the largest coastline in the world. ...

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Abdulrazak Gurnah who left Zanzibar for England in the 1960's was given the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021 for his "compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee caught between cultures and continents." In his acceptance speech Gurnah says in his writings he engaged in a refusal to accept the attitudes, the stereotypes and disdain towards people of British colonies that he met daily. He says that after a prolonged period of poverty and alienation in England it became clear to him that there was something he needed to say. Gurnah says he came to the "deeply unsettling realization that a new simpler history was being constructed, transforming, even obliterating what had happened." Writing he said was to show "what can be otherwise, what it is that the hard domineering eye cannot see, what makes people apparently small in stature feel assured about themselves, regardless of the disdain of others." ...

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At the New Year's eve service on National Day of Prayer January 1, 1942 president Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill worshipped together at Christchurch Episcopal in Alexandria, Virginia. The Reverend Wells said on this day 82 years ago. The idea that we could not prevail with military strength alone but with deep humility depend on God's help was one of the great strengths of Franklin Roosevelt. That it says much to the present, to the divisions of the present and lack of humility cannot be overstated.

"Our president has appointed this first day of 1942 as a Day of Prayer, for asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, power for the present task of achieving victory... but spiritually we are in bad shape. We must have a deep spiritual unity that will make us ready to sacrifice our material possessions and even life itself for the moral principles for which this war is being fought." 

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Jaishankar  of India and Blinken of the US join to say the world should not be divided into political blocs and that there is room for working together in different groupings such as the Quad, in the Indo-Pacific economic cooperation, as two largest democracies, and for the rule of law, open navigation in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific. Both agree that polical complexity should not be reduced into black and white and simplified. For India Jaishankar says it means we are in a certain location in the world, there is history, our experience is different, all this shapes how we see the world. India gives voice to the aspirations of over 2 billion people in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other countries. It created the G20 out of the G7 nations.

Baerbock of Germany adds that Europe has to accept that in the past it when it backed colonialism based on attitudes at the time, when it supported Apartheid in Africa, it had made mistakes.

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UBS buys Credit Suisse for $3 billion when the tangible book value of Credit Suisse was $45 billion. Tangible book value means little says this report in the WSJ. More significant for investors was that Credit Suisse was losing billions each year and its governance, its investment banking activities were seen negatively. It either had to stop the losses or shrink quickly. Another lesson is that digital banking makes it easier to withdraw deposits and digital communication magnifies the damage. Bonds can be risker than stocks in this situation. Tier One capital ratios also mean little in this situation as both UBS and Credit Suisse had capital ratios of about 14.2. 

What is notable is that even the $3 billion UBS paid was seen as risky so that the Swiss government had to step in with a guarantee that it would provide $9 billion to cover losses after the first $5 billion in losses were taken by UBS, after that the losses would be split between the two.

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Pope Francis recalls his days as a boy playing soccer on the streets outside his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a rag ball because they did not always have a leather ball. "There was not always someone with a leather ball so we played with a ball made of rags, a pelota de trapo." Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants in Argentina. He calls it a great school of life for him being the goalie and having to take all the shots taken at him. His leadership has shown concern for the marginalized and the poor through the repeated economic crises and the current pandemic. In his talks with world leaders including Trump, Biden, and recently Modi of India he has shown the importance of taking good care of the environment, the downtrodden and the marginalized in society. 

Some of the influences in his life come from his father, an accountant from Asti in northwest Italy, who loved reading to the children and had a library.

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A states attorney generals lawsuit filed against Google states Google operates a monopoly that harms advertisers and publishers by lowering sales of publishers and charging inflated prices to ad buyers. Cases will go on trial in 2023. The Justice Department and 35 states attorney generals have a separate antitrust lawsuit against Google's search services. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are pushing forward a bill that would treat Google search engine like a railroad operator making it illegal for it to give an unfair advantage to Google products and charge inflated prices by distorting the markets. This report in WSJ shows the way Google ran a series of programs named Project Bernanke, Reserve Price Optimization and Dynamic Revenue Share, to distort the normal operation of markets so that Google obtained an unfair price advantage. Bernanke program was operated between 2010 and 2019. In some cases the lawsuit says publisher revenue was reduced by 40%, according to internal company communications quoted in the complaint, as shown in this WSJ report. ...

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Heather Stewart and Jessica Elgot ask if Johnson's Conservative party can deliver for Britain, can deliver for women, can deliver for climate change, can deliver for health, education and infrastructure, can deliver for workers dignity, can deliver for families and children, by looking at one of its leaders. He looks at the polished image of Rishi Sunak after his Stanford days. This Guardian report says Treasury insiders see this Tory leader with respect rather than warmth, with some saying that the smooth veneer or polished tech-bro image is hard to penetrate. In a separate piece Ian Jack looks at Jacob Rees-Mogg in The Guardian in January 2022. This comes as Johnson's leadership is challenged because of Christmas partying at a time when the Queen was alone in Westminster Abbey mourning for Prince Philip to follow Covid-19 protocol. What kind of leadership Britain needs for the future after the pandemic is the question put forward by these writers in The Guardian. ...

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Tories White Paper on "leveling up" by Michael Gove is out and gets a scathing review from Karl Holbrook of the Northern Echo. 

Holbrook says you can't spend 15 million pounds in one of the wealthiest areas of the country, Javid's constituency Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, and nothing in Knowsley, one of the poorest in the North of England , and call it "leveling up." He says he has little hope that the Tories will get much done without the funding to back it up. And he says one cannot plaster this up with 12 new slogans masquerading as missions in a White Paper as Michael Gove has done and expect people in England to buy it. Labor under Tony Blair and his "Middle Way" - let the huge inequalities between the north of England and the south develop under its watch- more muddled than middle in any way one looks at it today. He says this northerner has had enough of waiting.  

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Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister, says India's approach to pandemic aid appears to be the right one because it avoided handouts that have in the form of large stimulus packages in the US and Germany, created high inflation. India's focus was on providing food for weaker members of society during the pandemic.  The basic idea behind the approach was to conserve capital, and use increased GST tax revenues in such a way that capital could be concentrated where it would deliver the most in projects that would take India forward in infrastructure and development for 2042. This is essentially the approach taken by first, Japan, then South Korea, then China, in becoming advanced industrial nations, increased revenues and capital concentrated on projects that would deliver in terms of industrial progress such as infrastructure, today in climate change renewable energy, and other actions. Gati Shakti integrates this into a Master Plan for the country for 2042. ...

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The first lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska talks to BBC News about the war and the impact of the war on herself and her children. She says her family misses most spending time together. Her emotional state at the beginning of the war was a constant flow of adrenaline, and she found it necessary to calm herself to live in the conditions that existed in Ukraine. Some months were spent in hiding in different locations. She doesn't live together with her husband and the family is separated because of war conditions, she says. She becomes emotional when she talks about her family.

She met Mr. Zelensky in high school and went to work together in a comedy troupe, Zelensky as an actor and she as a screen writer. Zelensky went to Kviv National Economic University where he obtained a law degree in 2000. His career was to be with Studio 95 for a comedy series which he did till he became a producer for Inter TV, and then joining Ukrainian network 1+1.

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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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This analysis by Gerald Seib in the WSJ shows the FBI chief Comey reopening the investigation into Clinton's email server just one week before election date November 8, as a move that does not enhance the democratic process because either way it will lead to questions why this was done at this late stage. The emails were found on a laptop used by Huma Abedin, an assistant to Hillary Clinton. Experts say the emails can be processed in a few days, and the FBI, the Justice Department are moving quickly to do this. 

Election experts say most of the decided voters for both parties will not be affected by this especially since most people will have made up their minds by now. Some voters who had questions about Trump might be moved to vote for him, and some undecided voters may be less enthused to come out to vote, though it is not clear at this stage. By mid week a clearer picture is likely to emerge. 

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Former Special Counsel Mueller answers questions in the U.S. Congress related to his investigation of the president's election campaign and interference by Russia. Mueller continues to say nothing exonerates the president for his actions. And insists that he did not act on his investigation findings as a sitting president cannot be indicted according to Justice Department rules. Only Congress can do this and it was upto Congress to act. Mueller also replied in the affirmative that in this case the investigation could continue and action could be taken on findings after the president leaves office. The 74 year old lawyer calm demeanour appeared to be under strain as he handled question after question from Democratic Congressmen. The appearance of Mr. Mueller only brought the details about the flawed election process and poor judgement of officials at U.S. government agencies and of the candidates themselves, to a larger audience. It left the issue unresolved, with new questions, and no one looking good in the process. ...