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Key points emerging from Xi's 20th Party Congress for the Chinese Communist Party are shown here in the Indian Express including its attitude to India. The Jiang Zemin and Youth League factions are shown to have lost influence and Xi has his people in the Political Bureau and the Central Military Commission. GDP growth is no longer the priority to be replaced with more balanced development and reducing the wide disparity in wealth that developed in China over 3 decades of hyper growth. State control over  development becomes the preferred model.

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Runners have turned to cycling and rowing as low impact exercize after injuries. Here a cardiologist, 55 years old,  takes up rowing after taking a lesson. He calls rowing a technical sport which requires technique as you push through the legs to start the power in the stroke. He says rowing is a rare full body exercize that one can do without impact on the joints for older people. Kayaking, or rowing can be outdoors, and works well indoors on a machine. Dr Zarate from Pensacola, Florida, also does cycling, yoga and other exercise for fitness.

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Dissatisfaction with what they get at local supermarkets leads young people to try farming in the US using tech, new approaches and experimenting on a small scale. There is a new awareness during the pandemic of the importance of getting fresh locally produced vegetables and fruits to improve immunity and health. Many do not have a family background in farming and are open to trying new methods and software. Here one of these young farmers says that if you are frustrated by what you find in the local supermarket you have the chance to change that, which is so cool.

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The coronavirus variant surge has led to burnout for frontline medical workers in the US. It has been calamitous for the mental health of public health workers in the US. These are the data analysts, policy advisors and other workers in public health departments. Many have quit their job as reported here in The Guardian. A CDC survey of 26,000 public health workers in the US shows about half have problems of mental health. Public health workers have to face problems with elected officials as well as public resentment on issues such as vaccination.

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China's battery company CATL's efforts to license its technology to American companies in the EV vehicle business. Contemporary Amperex Technologies China's largest maker of battery technology sees geopolitical tensions in a different way- business lasts for decades and governments are here for 4-5 years. It sees opportunity in the US and is using a model where American EV makers license technologies from CATL and own the factory in the US that makes the electric batteries. It has done this with Ford Motor which has its own factory and uses a technology licensed from CATL.

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Of Julia Chavez Rodriguez Biden says she is the organizer. "It is a little bit in her blood, Cesar Chavez is her grandfather." Julia Chavez Rodriguez is a softspoken Latina who heads the Biden Campaign with the support of the Biden team, O'Malley, Donilon, and Ricchetti. Here she recalls being in the back of meetings, going to rides in Los Angeles, getting arrested at age 9 for leafletting in New Jersey. Julia Chavez 45 years, has worked for a Colorado senator, the Obama administration, Kamal Harris campaign, and now Biden.

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Google AI tools Gemini is shown as failing when it comes to civics and democratic form of government. It is in these vital issues for a democracy that widely used tools can fail particularly in AI, and which makes them hazardous. Ai tools shown here are not able to differentiate between good leaders and bad leaders who caused major wars in the 20th century. Humans and human thinking process and sentiment are essential for democracies to function, for people to exercize their rights and fulfill their responsibilities so that a good state can serve its citizens.

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Monika Staab, a German coach, heads the women's soccer training in Saudi Arabia. She trained Qatari women soccer players before going to Saudi Arabia. Here she is shown training Saudi players. The entry of Morocco into the world soccer semifinals has created new enthusiasm in the Arab world that women's soccer is next big thing in soccer. Qatar is also emerging as a destination for European soccer teams to train during the winter including Bayern Munich. There is Paris St Germain Academy in Qatar which also trains female soccer players. 

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Mr. Alter's "His Very Best," shows Jimmy Carter much more than a one term president, a president who brought compassion, decency and transparency to the presidency. Here a critical care physician describes Jimmy Carter's decision for "hospice" care and what it means to spend the last months not just a few days in the company of family at home. Carter had foresight to put solar panels on the White House, and started initiatives in housing and health, and maintained an active healthy lifestyle that is a role model for all Americans.

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The Burning Glass Institute Tech Cities rankings are based on Cutting Edge Skill workers in the area and on Momentum rankings. Both are shown here in this WSJ report. Seattle Tacoma ranks at the top in the cutting edge skill workers in the US. Cutting edge skills are related to cloud and serverless computing, machine learning, AI architecture and cybersecurity operations. In midsize cities Pro-Urem Utah and Salt Lake City, Ann Arbor Michigan, Rochester New York, Pittsburgh and Kansas City. Seattle has the largest concentration of tech workers about 13% of the US total.

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Civility and civic responsibilities to get work done for constituents that motivates California Republican Doug LaMalfa  is shown here in his three minute conversation with Biden after the State of the Union address late Thursday night. La Malfa is head of the House Agriculture forestry subcommittee. His task to get the US Frrest Service to speed up permits for harvesting timber. "We gotta cut some trees," he told Biden says this report in the Washington Post. Soon Interior Department officials were reaching out to La Malfa's aides. And another American tradition was set to work.

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It never made sense to make soap 13,000 miles away in China and ship it to the US, and reflected everything that had gone wrong in a once thriving America and how business had lost common sense. Bath and Body Works is correcting that, as shown here in the WSJ. Yet this is 2023, and so many opportunities for doing this were missed already. It took the pandemic to bring some common sense.

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The concerns that China was going to overtake the US and become the largest economy is a misconception of how countries have developed through industry and technology. Britain and the other countries of Europe, Germany and France, went through rapid development in the 1930's and 1960's then at some point after saturation were relatively stagnant. China for the first time in 250 years of the Industrial revolution began to develop rapidly and urbanize in the 1990's. China is at that same point of saturation and it's economy moving to relative stagnation with 4% annual growth in 2026-2030 and 2-3% annual growth beyond to 2047. India is taking place of China as parts of India (large states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra with population 500 million) can achieve 15-22% annual growth in 2026-2030. A quick idea of this can be seen here in the WSJ. China as a percentage of the global economy was 18.5% in 2021 and has since declined to 16.5% of the global economy in 2025. China was three fourth of the US economy when it peaked in 2021 and has since declined in 2025 to two thirds of the size of the US economy. As a percentage of the global economy China will go down to 12% over the next 5 years as India advances, and the population of US, Canada, Australia with their continental spaces continues to grow and with it GDP growth. This is validated from the Japanese experience of peaking at becoming 18% of the world economy by 1996 and then dropping by 2006 to about 11%, 2016 to 6% and 2025 to 4%. The combined effect is to reduce the size of China's economy as a percentage of the overall global economy at a point of time in the future 2030, 2040, 2050. Japan is a good example. There are other factors in play including technology and capital access as technology and capital shifts to other parts of the world where it can be better deployed and conditions are suited for rapid development as in India/Indonesia and in the US/Canada/Australia regions of 1.6 billion people and 450 million people from China (saturation overbuilding), the Middle East (wars and mismanagement). ...

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Cost of living, of housing and healthcare, with the option of working remotely, is leading to more Americans leaving America for the first time since the 1930's than coming in. It is not just immigration policy discouraging immigration to the US. Middle class and younger Americans are seeing advantages in moving overseas if it costs much less for a better life and you can work remotely. In 2008 Gallup found 1 in 10 Americans wanted to leave, in 2026 1 in 5 want to leave for overseas locations.In 2025 more Americans left the US than came into the US. Estimates vary but one estimate is that in 2025 180,000 natural born Americans chose to leave the US. It is younger families, young people, from the southern US , from the midwest, all over the US, who are choosing to go to Europe or some other country to live and work. The State Department has no idea and does not keep track- it could be between 4 millon and 7 million Americans live overseas. Architects, engineers, professional people, are working out of small towns in teh French Pyrenees, or other parts of Europe.. Portugal - 365 increase inAmeicans in 2025. In a decade Americans living in Czech Republic, Nethelands, Spain, Germany has doubled. One couple profiled here moved to Portugal after preparing for 4 years. Portugal offers visas to stay if one can support himself, herself and family, which is the minimum wage or $27,000., which this couple could show as investment income. They could not find places to stay near good schools in LA because of the cost. Now in central Lisbon they can with $100,000 budget live a richer, fuller life, reduce hours of work, send kids to private school, no need for 2 cars as subways are nearby, and no need to put a ton of money aside every year for college. They have more time to themselves, more relaxed, and kids private school is close by. Today in the US setting aside a ton of money for college makes it difficult on $200,000 a year  in the managerial ranks as shown in reports in the WSJ. College can cost $100,000 a year for 4 years, 2 children $800,000, thats too much.  ...

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Coal is making a comeback as many countries in Asia are bringing back coal units following LNG shortages. Impact of Hormuz shutdown- 40% increased use of coal in Korea, coal units reactivated in India, and put on standby in Italy. Italy delays phaseout of coal to 2038. Coal is a reliable fuel in this period of Hormuz Straits shutdown. Much of Asia's LNG comes through Hormuz. Use of coal in the US shown here in graphs which in a second explain why the DJT administration and Republicans say it makes so little difference what the US does in coal for climate change when China and India make up 90% of the use of coal. Consider what these charts show- use of coal in 2027 in the US is 331 million metric tons vs 1422 million metric tons for India, almost 5 times the US coal use happening in India. EU is 244 million metric tons. But wait the Chinese number is much much larger than India's - 5005 million metric tons used in China in 2027. India's coal use alone is 3 times that of the EU and the US combined.  China's coal use is about 10 times the coal used in the US and EU combined. And when one compares US+EU use of coal to India + China coal use - India and China used in 2027 13 times as much as the US and European Union.  Which is why because cutting coal use also impacts communities hit hardest by the Elites of America (Bush+ Obama) shipping out its whole manufacturing base to China. These communities get some relief from these same Elites policies that shut down all coal plants, instead of using a carefully structured wind down that allows some selective use of coal plants which are cleaned up for emissions, and pushes China to do more. Small cuts in coal use in China which has benefitted from our Elites shipping out the national manufacturing base of the US to China, would make a bigger difference than large cuts or total shutdown of coal plants in the US, where the communities impacted are in the rural parts of America that have lost factories and jobs such as in Pennsylvania due to Bush and Obama policies of looking the other way to deindustrialization of America. ...

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Guardiam Oped by Keir Starmer for Britain and Mette Frederiksen of Denmark  December 9, 2025. Both leaders of socialist parties in Northern Europe, and Starmer now keen on following the example of fighting illegal migration set by Mette Frederiksen in Denmark. "When trust in government to confront the challenges of today falters, our sense of shared belonging can begin to crack. As the prime ministers of two great European nations, we will not let this happen." "That’s why we are both taking practical action to fix the asylum system. Denmark has led the way here, with tough but fair reforms which have delivered results. Last year, the number of people being granted asylum in Denmark was the lowest in 40 years, excluding the Covid year of 2020. The UK has taken similar steps. After years of gimmicks and failed policies, we are going further than ever before with action at home – surging removals of those with no right to be here and making settlement reliant on integration and contribution, while pushing for coordinated international action too." This addresses the problem of illegal migration to Britain that is threatening to create further divisions in Britain as if Austerity, Brexit divisions, followed by Covid have not rocked Britain enough already. Starmer says he will protect Britain's borders to protects its democracy, and that responsible progressive governments can and will deliver on the change people are crying out for- Britain will follow Denmark's example. They will join Italy, Germany, Austria and other nations that are moving in this direction. ...

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Though she is not popular with Angela Merkel's wing of the CDU as shown in comments here in DW.com, Annalena Baerbock through her experience as Foreign Minister and her unconventional style, her habit of respect for the dignity of the many nation states in the UN, her natural empathy, may actually be a better choice today for the UN than a German career foreign service diplomat. Different issues are faced by the United Nations than the domestic and European centric issues faced in Berlin and in the approach to government in the Federal Republic. She has often been a keen listener and an eager student of international affairs in her interactions with other countries and cultures, and Baerbock may be an underappreciated asset of the Federal Republic of Germany in the early decades of the 21st century.

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A tandem 3900 bike ride from the Pacific coast of northern California to the Atlantic coast of Florida, as part of the first 3 months after retirement is shown here in the WSJ. An effort to clear the mind for retirement- the effects of cycling through the saguaros in Arizona, cresting a peak in New Mexico, and up coastal areas on the Atlantic coast. The scenery takes away many of the worries of retirement.

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How global travel and ultra cheap flights in Europe have seeded this pandemic is the subject of this report in NYT. The Austrian resort here is one of many such ski resorts. An earlier report showed how 21 million tourists visiting beach resorts in Croatia on the Adriatic are spreading the coronavirus in a second wave in Europe in September. From Europe it is a short step to the U.S. and other countries. See in Links.

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A state wide ban on single use plastic bags goes into effect in New York state March 1, 2020. This is part of a global push to get rid of single use plastic bags that pollute the environment, end up in waterways, rivers, on trees and landfills. Some clues are offered here on why store owners still used plastic bags, and why large grocery chains still use plastic. The plastic bags cost much less than paper bags. Here one small store owner says 100,000 plastic bags cost him $2000, the same number of paper bags $15,000. New York state uses 23 million single use plastic bags a year. A public education campaign is underway. New York city requires stores to charge 5 cents per paper bag, with 3 cents going to an environmental fund and 2 cents to a the local government. Astonishingly for a large city in a developed country this report shows a Moroccan immigrant saying that it is already popular in her home country Morocco where the ban on single use plastic bags has reduced litter. Americans are not used to carrying reusable bags to the grocery store in the way Germans or people in other countries are. ...

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Germany has performed poorly in banking by copying practices of American banks. Deutsche Bank is a notable example. After years of government scrutiny and investigations into faulty practices, efforts to merge it with other German bank by the government, and losses plus penalties, legal liabilities, the bank's management is now retrenching by cutting down the size of the bank. Tens of thousands of jobs will be cut and the bank returning to a more traditional role of what a bank should be before the faulty practices and mismanagement of the bank resulted in this mess. 

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This report in the BBC on the nuclear threat in the Ukraine war looks at the subject of nuclear conflict and what this means. It points out that China has no first use nuclear doctrine and Russia being dependent on China's support in the Ukraine conflict as a deterrent. It also sees the inner circle of a Russian and American president internally in conflict over nuclear weapons use in any situation.

The occasion of the discussion in the US and Europe on this issue and internally in other countries including China and India this week show the need for a complete rethinking of where we are and how we have come here. Much of the world- billions of people in Asia and Latin America, Africa, North America has little to do with the conflict in one small part of the world- which makes such talk irresponsible and reckless behaviour. 

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The Quad meeting of the US, Australia, Japan and India took place in Hiroshima, as shown here. The leaders expressed their deep concern over the economic effects of the Ukraine war, including "food, fuel and energy security, critical supply chains. The meeting was to take place in Sydney, Australia, but was cancelled due to debt talks taking place between Biden and Republicans in the US Congress. The next Quad meeting is in India in 2024. Biden will meet pm Modi in the US June 22. PM Modi also meets Macron on Bastille Day in Paris on 14 July as a special guest of France.

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In less than 3 weeks World Central Kitchen has found a way to serve 300,000 hot meals a day in Poland. In this WSJ report an American volunteer in Poland describes his experience meeting people from England, Portugal and other parts of Europe and North America who have volunteered to help refugees from Ukraine in Eastern European countries. Child care for transient families, most refugees being women and children, temporary housing and clothing are pressing needs. People from as far away as Lawrence, Kansas, are out here helping in a stunning display of support for the women and children who are refugees.

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Rafael Nadal makes a remarkable comeback to beat Medvedev after losing the first two sets in the 2022 Australian Open tennis tournament. The match lasted 5 hours till 1 am the next day. Nadal says "Being honest one month and a half ago, I did not know if I will be back on the tour plying tennis again... you don't know how much I fought to be here." Nadal is one of the of the most resilient players in sports having comeback from difficult situations repeatedly, as he gives his all down to the last point regardless of the score.