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Speaker Johnson tells Politico that he plans to take up Ukraine aid in a separate bill. It would  be one Ukraine aid only bill or combined with Israel aid. He said it would happen using the House's suspension calendar. He sees it coming up on Ukraine aid on a stand alone basis. Suspension calendar requires a two thirds majority to pass bills and this means a large number of Democratic votes. Separating Israel and Ukraine aid is under consideration. The Freedom Caucus and some Republicans are not favoring bringing up the Ukraine aid bill. A government funding bill comes to the floor of Congress next week. Johnson says of the raucous Freedom Caucus that he has been always philosophically aligned with it with the same core principles as a lifelong movement conservative.The only difference is in tactics, and its never personal, Johnson says.

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Abbott's decision to raise the price of AIDS drug Norvir 5 fold in 2003, and how it undercut Glaxo's drug Lexiva which is used in combination with Norvir. Abbott included Norvir ingredients in a new drug Kaletra and this was priced cheaper than other AIDS drugs when it increased the price of Norvir. Glaxio is now suing Abbott for this pricing practice.

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US Congress cuts to Corporation for Public Broadcasting (NPR and PBS) of $1.1 billion for 2 years. It passes Senate 51-48. $7.9 billion in cuts to foreign aid programs were passed in the Senate bill. Native American and tribal radio stations in 9 states are protected.

Note that no cuts to HIV $400 million which is protected, and also for maternal care and malaria, and tuberculosis. These programs will be protected with new language. Also protected, by Senator Moran of Kansas, are food aid programs used by farmers- Food for Peace, Food for Education and child nutrition.

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Aaron Tilton of DW.com provides this exceptional report on World AIDS Day 2016, showing that about one percent of the population in Russia could be infected with AIDS, becoming for Russia "an issue of national security." Mr. Pokrovsky, head of Russian federal AIDS center, says that the proportions are reaching an epidemic, and that it may now infect the general population. The campaign to have NGO's registered as foreign agents is cutting off funding from outside and this hurts efforts of private organizations. The government of Russia's attitudes towards AIDS and following the thought of the Russian Orthodox Church with stigma associated with AIDS as a moral failure, is also hurting efforts to tackle the AIDS epidemic among LGBGT community, sex workers and other populations. Only now is the Russian government waking up to tackle this as a national priority with support of prime minister Medvedev, and by backing up the UN 90-90-90 program. That program sets targets for total population- 90% to be diagnosed, 90% treated, 90% viral suppression. Russia has only 250,000 being treated, only one third of the affected population, says this report. ...

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Dana Goldstein of the NYT looks at the big problem in education today- the failure to teach reading and writing skills to students in American schools. Goldstein cites two alarming statistics. About 40% of students who took the ACT writing exam in the high school class of 2016 lack the reading and writing skills to pass a college level composition class in English. 8th and 12th grade classes in the U.S. have 75% of the students lacking writing skills proficiency, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Of the 1204 comments to this article in the NYT, many of the 17 selected by NYT say the problem is that students lack reading skills. Other problems shown here are the handicaps created by technology, yes technology. Mobile phone use is common and this is done quickly with the least attention to write good sentences, little attention to punctuation, spelling or grammar. Half or incomplete sentences are easier to type on mobile, so a new generation grows up thinking that this is normal. As a result a whole generation of kids have not learned to read or write well, constructing sentences with limited vocabulary. Steve Jobs and Apple may say that iPads and iPhones, smartphones and other tech devices have advanced reading with the beautiful display technology screens, but this is not what is really happening. Google may say that its search helps people access good reading materials, and this too is not what is really happening.  Equally alarming is that there is no clear agreement on how to tackle this problem. The No Child Left Behind 2002 law set a program emphasizing reading and use of multiple choice questions to test reading skills. This was followed by the Common Core standards now implemented in schools for 6 years that shift the focus to writing. Yet the results are still the same, showing little progress. Goodman cites as examples of disagreement, the Writing Revolution project which focusses on grammar and other writing skills, and the Long Island Writing Project that focusses on students finding their own voice by freewriting. A student in the freewriting class which encourages finding your own voice, expresses her frustration by saying she doesn't hear a voice- what voice, she asks.  One of the problems is that teachers themselves lack writing skills. A look at 2400 teacher preparation programs shows little attention paid to teaching writing. The head of the Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University's Teachers College, says Common Core failed in implementation of massive teacher training, which is required to address the problem. As a result remediation programs are needed badly in colleges to fix literacy skills, when better teaching would have prevented the problem in the first place. Little understood or debated is that every generation has to learn about the country's democratic institutions, every generation has to make its own effort to gain civic literacy- it is not something that can be taken for granted or handed down from one generation to the next. Without reading and learning about how these institutions function, young people lack the skills for participating in our democracy and in the global economy. ...

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Former president Trump's idea of a loan provision was included in the final bill that passed for Ukraine aid in the US Congress. 

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The US is set to begin a humanitarian airdrop campaign to get aid to residents of Gaza. This did not happen earlier because airdrops would be less than what 250 trucks could bring into Gaza a day from neighboring countries. This happens a day after an incident yesterday of chaotic situations in Gaza involving convoys of aid trucks and civilians. A Jordanian airdrop has dropped tons of aid supplies. 

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The mandatory social distancing required to overcome the coronavirus epidemic is leading to more parents working from home. With about half the schools in the U.S. closed and entirely closed in other countries, kids are also at home. Traditional options of child care provided by grandparents, family friends are now not acceptable with the required social distancing. This report looks at how parents are coping by setting time aside when kids are asleep for work. Advice to parents offered here is to accept that the day will be broken by interruptions, to take a break at these times and relax rather than try to follow the organized routine of a workday when things were normal.

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The Indian government has received bids of Rs. 1.49 lakh crores for 5G spectrum auction from companies led by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Adani. The 700 megahertz band important for coverage for distant and remote locations also received strong bids which is seen as a positive development. Previous auction in 2015 raised 1.09 lakh crore rupees making the 1.49 lakh crore rupees auction in 2022 a significant advance.

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The US Congress passes $13.6 billion in aid to Eastern Europe as part of a larger package.

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The French government negotiates an end to farmer protests and blockade of highways near Paris by easing some regulations on pesticides and by offering aid to farmers.

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Republican Speaker Johnson is setting Saturday April 20, 2024 votes in the US Congress for Ukraine-Israel aid in a weekend vote, as Israel and Ukraine face growing threats. Basically the bill Democrats passed in the Senate gets split up into 3 parts for that $95 billion in aid bill to be voted on individually for each part separately for Ukraine, for Israel, for Taiwan. A fourth bill would be for Ukraine aid as a loan, and a measure leading to national ban on TikTok.

"We're not the world's policeman, but we are going to do the right thing. And I think Congress is going to take an important stand."

"We have improved the process and policy. Every member of Congress gets to vote his conscience."

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Following the pandemic France is boosting aid to Africa increasing foreign aid and combining development agencies to target funding to create value for the people of Africa. The aid to all parts of the world increased from 10.9 billion euros to 12.8 billion euros in 2020, By 2022 the target for Macron and France is 0.55% of GDP for world aid.

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Release of 50 hostages and 4 day ceasefire required extraordinary efforts from president Biden and a special group of aides working for the president, says Shear in this NYT report. Biden put pressure on Israel and on Hamas through the emir of Qatar to get agreement on hostage release and ceasefire. As part of the ceasefire 150 Palestinian prisoners will be released. Biden does not want to stop there- he wants to end these wars for good, see his article in The Washington Post.

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It is a moment in the Senate that Majority leader Schumer says will be remembered years from now. A total of 65 Senators vote to support an aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, and humanitarian aid, all Democrats and 18 Republicans as a group led by Senator Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader. The Republican Senators include Senator WIcker the senior member on the Armed Services Committee, military veterans, and centrists. Voicing strong support were Senator Tillis of North Carolina and Moran of Kansas on the Senate floor. Tillis said "there is a common conviction that if we fail on this vote, if we don't support Ukraine, this is not bluster, not hyperbole- bad things will happen." Tillis also said that after the earlier vote to break a filibuster by Republican colleagues -"I slept like a baby last night." The list includes senior Republican leaders Cronyn of Texas, both senators from Iowa including Grassley, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mullin of Oklahoma, Rounds of South Dakota, Thune of South Dakota, Todd Young of Indiana. In terms of age and experience this may be the most senior and most experienced Republican leaders from over half of the traditionally Republican states. ...

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At a time when the Ukraine war has hurt poor countries Germany plans to cut its development aid by 12% in its draft budget. The budget is expected to shrink to 10.8 billion euros at a time when defense budget is increased to 50 billion euros. The boost to defense is a result of the war in Ukraine. Germany is also set to cut its contribution to the World Food Programme by 50% to 28 million euros. Russia and Ukraine supply wheat, cereals to poor countries. High energy prices also affect these countries.

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President Biden is moving forward a plan to setup a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza and a pier where commercial ships can drop off humnitarian aid and food. The trip would take 28 hours from Cyprus and would be able to get in 200 trucks of aid supplies each day. The Qataris and UAE will also help with this plan and Israelis will cooperate. On the diplomatic front both the European nations, Britain and the US are working together to get Israeli cooperation. British Foreign Secretary Cameron met Benny Gantz. Earlier Gantz met with Kamala Harris in Washington D.C. Gantz is part of the wartime cabinet in Israel. The US and EU, Britain all now have serious differences with Mr. Netanyahu on putting the humanitarian situation first and foremost considering the situation in Gaza.

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US aid to Ukraine shifts to the long term. Republicans ask the president and Democrats to leave Ukraine aid on a stand alone basis and not mixed with other health or budget requests where there are differences. Republicans want to move quickly on aid to Ukraine as the invasion on the east of Ukraine builds up. In comments earlier this week Mr. Biden told a national audience in a televised speech that he wants to make Ukraine aid to be ongoing as this could be a long effort to resist the Russian invasion. Ramstein now has a new symbolism - US Joint Chiefs head Gen. Mark Milley was clear about it- "The outcome of this battle, right here today, depends on the people in this room." The battle is one in eastern Ukraine. Defense Secretary Austin was clear about also clear- "the war had galvanized the world." About 40 countries were represented at Ramstein base, some virtually. There was a sense that the previous symbolism with Anglela Merkel and Mr. Steinmeier and Mr. Schroeder may have emboldened Russia into invasion of Ukraine. ...

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International aid arrives from the UK, France, US, and the European Union, as India faces a surge of the coronavirus in April 2021. A flight with oxygen and ventilators arrives from the UK. The EU is pooling resources, France is preparing flights with equipment. The United States Biden administration says it will release some of the 60 million doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine to India that remain unused in the US to address vaccine shortages.

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A whole series of efforts will come together to cut logistics cost for businesses from 14% to a small percentage. PM Modi says the policy aims to expedite last mile delivery to save time and money. Gati Shakti Plan will address some of the infrastructure gaps. "National Logistics Policy helps in making the support system modern," says Modi. The government is using technology to support logistics in new ways, Faceless assessment has started in customs and e-way bills and FASTag are bringing efficiency to the logistics sector. Drones are being used.  Sagarmala Project to connect ports and dedicated freight corridors is starting to improve logistics connectivity and systematic infrastructure development work. Modi said the world has accepted the production linked incentive scheme PLI announced by the government for boosting domestic manufacturing. Put together this puts India in a position to become one of the top three economies in the world from the situation today of being in the top five. ...

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The new plan to aid small business in the second stimulus of $908 billion being discussed in the U.S. Congress, is expected to be targeted to needy businesses. Lonas will go only to  businesses with less than 300 employees which can show they are hurting having a loss of 30% in revenue in any quarter of 2020.

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The aid package in August 2022 from US to Ukraine includes much needed air defense systems and radars that would help protect the cities and towns of Ukraine under constant bombardment leading to endless stream of refugees and displaced women and children. This and the damage to buildings and homes is the worst aspect of the war.

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Without government aid about 12 million more people would have fallen into poverty in the US during the pandemic in 2020-2021. This is evident from census figures analyzed in the WSJ and NYT. The Supplemental Poverty Measure -which takes into account a broader range of income and expenses including hundreds of billions of dollars of pandemic aid -shows that poverty actually declined, dropping by 2.9% to 9.1%, as a result of government taking action in the US under the Trump and Biden administrations. The $400 billion  dollars of stimulus checks and aid during the Trump and Biden administrations in 2021 have made a real difference in the lives of not just poor Americans but Americans in the middle class and all sections of society. Similar aid was delivered in the European Union and Britain. In India government aid was distributed by depositing money directly into hundreds of millions of bank accounts of poor and marginal income people. Aid included food aid in grains, lentils and vegetables directly provided at subsidized prices or free by the government. Right wing or left wing government designations were meaningless as governments of different persuasions acted decisively to provide direct and timely help in US, Europe, and India. ...

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How does one ensure social justice and fairness in a society, US society, where two thirds of kids in the 4th grade can't read with proficiency? A section of society is handicapped for life when it can't read and is excluded from its benefits and discourse. This weakens democracy. It also means the quality of manpower in manufacturing and other essential occupations suffers, putting the country at a disadvantage in competition with other nations.

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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. ...