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This report by David Sanger in the NYT cites insiders in the Obama administration suggesting that the Saudis never really considered the peace talks in the region organized by Secretary of State Kerry as a serious effort with the escalation in the bombing by Russia, and other events including Iran's two ballistic missile tests. Turkey was drawn into the conflict with Russian bombing of ethnic Turkish groups at the border with Syria. By ignoring these events affecting Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other countries, the Obama administration appeared to be calling for a peace effort that seemed to have little prospect of succeeding. As Trofimov suggests in a separate report in the WSJ the Saudis were more focussed on winning domestic support from conservative Sunnis, seeing the Obama administration as ineffective on the issue of refugees from Syria and the conditions for the civilian population.

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Washington Post Editorial Board says DJT policy of "trade not aid," hand up not handout, is right for Africa- good example the $3 billion US puts in railroad from Congo/Zambia to Lobito port Angola on Atlantic coastline to get critical minerals in exchange for infrastructure building. A loan of $533 million from US IDFC (International Development Finance Corporation) is the right thing says the Washington Post for US to build infrastructure in the Lobito Corridor in Angola that will extend from Congo and Zambia with large critical mineral deposits to the port of Lobito on the Angola coast. Overall investment is $3 billion. This will loosen China's critical minerals control through its investments in Africa on the eastern coastline. The new railroad will take critical minerals of cobalt and copper, other critical minerals needed for electric car batteries and energy infrastructure, from the center of Africa to its western coastline in Angola at Lobito port. Angola will not need to take on ruinous -debt in this kind of deal as other African and Asian nations have in deals with China. Its win-win Africa gets infrastructure and supplies key commodities metals to the US. The interesting thing about this is that for a long time US policy was stuck with USAID and other agencies and needed to change. US government under DJT took much criticism for reducing that funding of bureaucracy and old ways. The Washington Post now says it is the right approach- it is not as presented a US withdrawal from Africa, but in the Posts' words an "overdue upgrade" to a mutually profitable relationship with Africa. For Africa to move to next level as Asia has done as Hong Kong did from the 1950's and 1960's  to trade and investment.  For a long time Republicans were not associated with infrastructure development in Africa or in the US. Under DJT the situation has changed and Democrats like Biden have taken up DJT's approach so that the US now regardless of administration is rebuilding infrastructure. Doing this in Africa makes sense. Investment in infrastructure at home makes sense. The Post is right to say this. ...

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Out of the rubble of failed policies, lack of far sighted leadership, and the failure of Middle Eastern elites and leaders, must arise the right way forward.

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Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority, says when you consider that London gets 7 times the infrastructure spending per person than West Midlands, "its not bloody surprising" that his region is not growing fast. West Midlands covers a large part of central England, including Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Coventry. Even life expectancy is lower by 8 years in Blackpool, and disposable income can be quarter in Camden compared to North London. Labor's Corbyn and Conservative's Thatcher in the British general election are both campaigning for reviving the regions outside London, that have seen investment in people and technology lag substantially behind London. Regional revival is the big issue in this election. Consider that London which accounted for about 15% of economic output in the 1980's now accounts for nearly 25% of economic output of Britain. Berlin is about 4% of Germany's economy, and Paris 10% of France's economy. A word of caution on Brexit is sounded by experts at the University of Birmingham, who say the whole process of Brexit is so complicated that it may detract from the task of reviving this region. Even though the political upheaval had origins in this discontent, was it more about shifting government attention to the gap between London and the rest of the country, and less about a complex process of withdrawal from the European Union. ...

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Elise Stefanik is the new UN ambassador in 2024.

Elise Stefanik is the youngest person elected to the US Congress. She was elected for the 21st District of New York in 2014. Her background is working for her father's firm Premium Plywood Products, attending Albany Academy for high school, and Harvard University- its Institute for Politics for undergraduate degree. She was impressed by Ted Sorenson, assistant to John Kennedy, in his lectures at that Institute and went on to participate in several campaigns after being assistant in domestic policy for George W. Bush. She helped Paul Ryan in his vice presidential campaign in 2012 with Mitt Romney.  And joined the Trump maga group later by 2019 similar to JD Vance and other younger Republicans.

In 2021 she was made chair of the Republican conference- replacing Liz Cheney. Reelected in 2024 by a large margin from 21st District of upstate New York.

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Misallocation of huge amounts of US capital (trillions of dollars) away from healthcare, seniors and retirees, childcare and education into AI in the US is becoming an issue in the midterm elections of 2026.

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The Washington Post is critical of the military's arrangements for the transition to democracy in Egypt. It calls on the Obama administration to make the military in Egypt accountable for a return to democratic government in Egypt, including suspension of aid. The military's role in ousting an elected government which would have been tested in coming legislative elections is seen as a serious mistake.

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The Philippines president Aquino visits Washington and requests military aid, especially surveillance military aircraft and land based radar. This comes as relations between China and the Philippines are strained by disputes over territory in the South China Sea. Aquino meets with editors of the Washington Post and describes his concerns.

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Indian finance minister Sitharaman discusses Gati Shakti master plan for India's infrastructure development with CEO's of American companies including IBM's Arvind Krishna, and the head of Fedex, after discussions at the IMF, World Bank meetings in the US.

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The shift of offshore manufacturing jobs from China to Mexico in 2014-2015.

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The new minimum wage of $15 effective Nov. 1, 2018, applies to 250,000 current employees at Amazon, 40% of its global  workforce. An additional 100,000 seasonal workers also get the $15 wage. California's minimum wage is set to go to $15 an hour in 2022. The Amazon move helps it attract and retain workers in competition with other retailers such as Target, UPS and Fedex. In doing this Amazon is removing certain incentive pay and stock compensation for these hourly employees. Target has set 2020 as the date for $15 per hour wage, currently it is $12 at Target. Walmart with 1.5 million employees set $11 per hour as the starting hourly pay for workers in 2018. Overall median salary annually for Amazon workers worldwide was $28,446 in 2017, which works out to about $13.68 an hour, but this includes software engineers and lower wage workers overseas. That figure is lower than the poverty level set by the U.S. government for a family of four. Much of the criticism has focused on wages at companies such as Amazon, as lack of upward mobility is a major issue in the U.S. - growing worse over two decades of tech advances, also carrying with it literacy levels for children which have also deteriorated. ...

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The BBC's security correspondent looks at the cyber espionage being conducted from Russia during the U.S. presidential election. The U.S. director of national intelligence has pointed to the Russian government as the source of hacking into U.S. databases. U.S. intelligence officials say this is intended to interfere with the U.S. election process in some way. It follows hacking into the DNC database of the Democratic Party.