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Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida  holds talks with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Japan has pledged to increase trade with India with $42 billion in investment in India over 5 years. In the 20 years 2000-2019 when Japan invested heavily in China, Japan invested only $32 billion in India. The US and Germany also invested heavily in China, compared to the investment in India.  Business in the US, Germany, the EU, and Japan integrated their economies with China over two decades. The Trump administration brought attention to the US working class and the effects of trade and investment that hurt workers in the domestic economy. The election of Biden in the US, Scholz in Germany and Kishida in Japan have shifted focus to the working class, inequality, lack of infrastructure investment in the domestic economy, and the effects of business decisions that cost jobs in the domestic economy. It is in this context that foreign investment is being shifted to India, Vietnam, and other manufacturing locations in Asia as the entire world supply chain is being reinvented to protect workers in the domestic economy, and the local economies. The pandemic and the war in Europe are now accelerating the reinvention of world supply chains. Indi abstained from the vote in the United Nations on Ukraine yet it maintains that all disputes be settled through peaceful resolution under international law. The joint Kishida Modi statement says- "We confirm that any unilateral change in the status quo cannot be forgiven in any region, and it is necessary to seek peaceful resolution of disputes under international law." ...

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The struggle for the Donbas region is now centred around the town of Bakhmut with about 50-70 casualties a day and an effort by Russian infantry to advance to the once tree lined town of 70,000. The Ukraine war drags on into the cold winter of 2022.

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US attack on Kharg Island but only military targets on March 13 2026. 1 to 1.5 million barrels a day flow through Kharg island amounting to 90% of Iran exports of oil. The terminal at Kharg Island can lad up to 7 million barrels a day and has storage for 30 million barrels. Three pipelines connect the oil fields on the mainland to the Kharg island about 20 miles away in the sea. US president says he wants the Straits of Hormuz opened for shipping.

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This analysis in the NYT looks at the successor administration to chancellor Merkel in Germany as elections approach. It shows that that the three main parties Christian Democrats, the Greens, and the Social Democrats have come so close to the mainstream ideas of modernizing the state, acting on climate change, managing migration, and strengthening the European Union, that they now look similar in their views and have toned down their speeches. This is seen as Armin Laschet for CDU, Ms Baerbock for the Greens, and Scholz for the SPD, conduct a dull campaign that is much on autopilot. Polls show CDU leading the Greens by a nine point margin, yet there is not much enthusiasm for Armin Laschet, CDU's candidate, or for Ms Baerbock. The SPD has lagged behind. The likely outcome in this situation is a coalition of the Greens with either the CDU or the SPD, more likely with CDU, for a future administration to succeed Merkel.    ...

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Reform gets 26% of the vote for 30% of the seats, Greens 16% of the vote in 2026 Local elections in Britain. Labor losses and Conservative party losses were significant. The Liberal party lost slightly in seats.

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On Greenland German chancellor Merz takes a different view from that of the Nordic countries.  Merz is looking at it with an open mind and has left it to the German spokesperson to address it.

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Ban on sale of smoking products for 17 year olds (those born before 2009) in a new law for Britain. Smoking cost -64,000 deaths a year, 500,000 people living in poverty, $29 billion ocst to Britain and higher costs for the National Health Service. 5.3 million or 10% of UK adults are smokers most want to quit and wish thay never took up smoking.

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The NYT's look at the televised debate between Macron and Le Pen for the presidential election. Macron has this to say in closing about Le Pen's shelving her plans for exit from the European Union compared to her position in the last election. "It's a project that doesn't say its name but entails leaving the European Union. I'm not lying about the goods, you are lying about the goods." Macron says Le Pen is being disingenuous about this, arguing that by reducing French contributions to the Eu budget and by ignoring fundamental rules of the EU such as freedom of movement and the single market, that would lead to a de facto exit from the European Union for France. Lyrarc has shown today on this page how the debate was covered in FR24, DW.com, The Guardian, BBC News, WSJ, and NYT. One of the key questions is what would she or some other candidate such as Mr. Melenchon done differently than Mr. Macron- For the once in a century pandemic? Macron is not faulted by any one for the work done by two prime ministers he appointed for the task. What would she or some other candidate done differently for today's surging inflation, considering that it is happening worldwide? Are their aspects of France's welfare state, and her economy and the currency that are better protected under the European Union than in a situation of de facto exit. The absolute power in the French presidency is something that happened after a weak system of prime ministers and coalition governments in the period between the two wars, and that power used wisely enabled De Gaulle to take decisive steps  over a decade for France in the post war modernization of France. This was a problem for Melenchon with his calls for a new Republic and a new constitution. Yet many of todays problems of decaying communities and once prosperous industrial towns in decay in the north, northeast and the south require a next generation industrial revolution to bring manufacturing back to France and back to the European Union, and large scale investment in France, as is happening today in the US which is confronting the same problem.    ...

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Ringo Starr of the Beatles says he wrote the song "Hard Day's Night." He never has tried pizza or curry. His attitude to music is always play with someone in a group. He is indifferent to titles and knighthood. He feels at home in Nashville and LA.