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Increased maritime and defense cooperation as Dominic Raab, UK Foreign Secretary visits India and has talks with Jaishankar, India's External Affairs minister. For the UK there is no stronger partner than India looking east, says Raab. India, UK and Australia form a core of the British Commonwealth of nations, an idea that brings together the English speaking world in Asia and Africa. After Brexit Britain is free to form its own relationships based on its history, and links of culture and language. Boris Johnson will visit India in January 2021.

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Prime minister Modi spends the morning of his birthday at the Kunho National Park in Madhya Pradesh, a region known for its tigers. The cheetah population had disappeared in India and in this park over years of poor park management. Cheetahs were flown in from Namibia in Africa to Gwalior by special plane to give the cheetahs a new chance in their old habitat. Biodiversity is considered a big part of climate change action, in restoring habitat for animals in national parks a similar goal is achieved for restoring national parks.

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British establishment Labour's Mandelson and Conservative's Prince Andrew -the Epstein connections in the Epstein files and the political fallout for Labour and the Conservatives. This happens as they approach local elections with the Greens, Liberals, and Reform UK already taking 50% of Labour's 2024 general election voters with disillusionment over results in the first 2 years of Labour. Labour assumed it had the immigration issue under control with some headline grabbing  stories of it taking tough action when it won in 2024. That has not deterred illegal migrant trafficking. Labour soon lost sight of the ball, and did not realize that the cultural issues around excessive tolerance of such migration itself had not been resolved such as ECHR rights which were completely misinformed when written to approve of such illegal migrants rights and ignore the citizens and women of the neighborhoods in which people had lived for generations. After decade and half of Conservative Cameron austerity Labour needed time to wrestle with the issues of levelling facing Britain's north and the Midlands. Instead Labour found itself on the backfoot and Farage was brought out of retirement after issues in towns like Epping and all across England, where migrants were put in hotels as women and locals loudly disapproved. Labour thought under Conservatives  that over 50,000 were in asylum hotels in 2023 and this has come down to 35,000 in 2025 under Labour, as a kind of improvement not realizing that the public mood questioned the whole idea of the migrants in hotels itself, of little tolerance for any illegal migrants in neighborhoods itself. It shows the political processes have great importance and a series of mediocre leaders from Blair, Brown, Cameron, Johnson, Sunak, Starmer and Farage over a period of 4 decades can change the trajectory for nations and region. A similar period for India in 1720-1760 with warring factions and regions inviting British East India Company troops to opposing sides fractured the country and led to losing its grip on itself. Gandhiji describes this for introspection in Hind Swaraj (1905) not taking the easy road most now discredited anticolonial writers after 1950 took in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Where does this leave Britain in 2026? It can only come to grips with it knowing that the quality of education, quality of leadership, honesty and introspection of the kind suggested by Teddy Roosevelt in Applied Idealism in his Autobiography, chapter 5, and in Gandhiji's Hind Swaraj are essential.  ...

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Food inflation is affecting a wide range of countries not just poor countries. Even in the US where on average only 7% of the income of households goes to food, for poor and lower income households this can go up to over 30%. In Turkey with a high inflation rate of 80% in June over prior year, the problems of food inflation are severe. Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries get most of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia through Black Sea ports. Across Asia the situation varies with less food inflation in countries that are self sufficient in food production such as China, India and Vietnam, to countries such as Sri Lanka where inflation is severe and takes up most of the budget for ordinary families. Lebanon is an extreme example with the collapse of its economy and 332% inflation with food inflation severe. Ethiopians spend about 45% of income on food. Somalia faces drought conditions and severe food shortages. This part of Africa is the most fragile and most prone to breakdown. Being self sufficient in food was an important goal for countries that faced famine in the past such as China and India- this has produced good results. Even in Europe small countries that make their own food with agriculture getting importance such as France and Switzerland the benefits are immense. Switzerland food inflation is as low as 1.5% lowest in the world. Where as in Africa this importance of agriculture has been neglected the consequences are seen today. In Latin America Argentina and Brazil are exporters of soyabeans and other food. This helps insulate them from the worst effects of the food crisis.     ...

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The head of ISRO, India's Space Agency, is an unassuming man of simple needs and simple living. He studied in the Tamil medium, doing his Bachelors in Science from Kanyakumari Hindu College. He comes from a farming family in a village of Kanyakumari.  Used to walking barefoot, wore a dhoti, and only wore slippers when he went to Engineering college. Even with modest rural means, helping his father in his fields, he got his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, pursued Aerospace Engineering at Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and PhD. from IIT, Bombay. He is meticulous about details, and would cancel a meeting till errors found were corrected. Behind the unassuming simple manner is a extremely diligent person who has worked in every phase of rocket design and technology for 36 years at India's Space Agency. India achieved a world record by sending 104 satellites into space with one flight of PSLV, a third generation satellite  launch vehicle with liquid stages, in February 2017- Sivan was a key scientist in this endeavor. He is in every sense a vindication of Gandhi's idea in Hind Swaraj written in a steamship coming back from London to South Africa in 1910 that India would have to go back to its own language, culture, bring opportunity to the mass of rural India, before adopting new technologies from all places. He is also a vindication of the idea that the most diligent and dedicated scientists and engineers willing to persevere over decades are the key to progress for Asia's developing nations, and similarly for a bright future in Africa and Latin America. ...

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What would making a new vaccine for the Omicron South African variant look like? How long will it take and how does it happen? Adam Whipple, Science Editor of The Times, looks at the process in the 100 days it would take Pfizer to do this in this excellent article that anticipates and answers readers questions. New mutations are shown to be taking place in the virus, it is shown here that UK and world capabilities have also increased to tackle the problem in the last 18 months.

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Stephanie Nolan reports from Kenya on the spread of mosquito borne diseases such as dengue and malaria as new insecticide resistant mosquitoes pose a serious threat in African countries. Malaria can now be found in cities in Africa in the dry season, and during the pandemic the threat of malaria has grown significantly. Public health systems in African countries are straining to cope with this. It now poses a threat in the US and the EU.

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This article in the WSJ remembers Prince Philip for his remarkable service during World War II, coming from a generation that sees the British struggle against Germany in World War II in almost mythological terms. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth navigated both that period and the transition of the British Empire into free nations in Asia and Africa. The significance of this achievement is understated in America. It can only be fully appreciated in the nations of the British Commonwealth, for no other colonial nation has been able to make that kind of transition, not the Dutch in Indonesia, not the French in Algeria without war. Another significant achievement of that period was the sense of duty that pervaded Britain not only for this generation in Britain, but the generations that preceded it going back to the conflict with Napoleonic France and the British Navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson. It is forgotten that much of the sense of duty to country and the people, and one's fellow citizens, helped Britain prevail against Napoleonic France in the period around 1800. This shaped Britain and Prince Philip, and is also part of what India and other free nations in Asia and Africa can learn from. It is also what makes Global Britain not just a slogan but a way to bring together a partnership with UK, US, Australia, and India, the largest democracies with a common history. ...

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A short video showing how the Sustainable Development Goal of Clean Water for every rural household brings Swaraj to India's villages. Clean safe and easily accessible through home tap water for all rural households is the goal of the Har Ghar Jal Mission with target date of 2024. India will have modernized by 2035 as a nation but never could one forget the humble beginnings with Har Ghar Jal and Swacch Bharat- of clean drinking water and sanitation as basic human rights. Setting the pace for all of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Japan has embraced the UN's 17 SDG's, so has India in its own way, both setting an example for the rest of the world.

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Food insecurity is a major issue for countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, as this DW.com report from Bogota, Colombia shows. A big problem is that the informal economy is a big part of the economies of these countries, and governments try as they do, have difficulty tackling the income and other issues facing workers in the informal economy- street vendors, migrant workers, and others.

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German arms exports went up by 65% in 2019 over the prior year, reaching $8.8 billion, according to the Economics Ministry. The previous record was set in 2015, followed by 3 years of declining sales. Exports to crisis region can destabilize, as in Yemen. In some situations such as Sahel Africa Chancellor Merkel sees a constructive role for German arms exports to allies.

The largest buyer is Hungary at 1.77 billion euros as Hungary is upgrading its military. Next is Egypt at 802 million euros, and the USA at 483 million euros.

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Latin America has made a huge turnaround through successful vaccination drives. Today more people are vaccinated as a percentage of the population in Latin America at 62% than in the US at 56% or Europe at 60%, according to Our World in Data project at Oxford University. There is little resistance to vaccines in Latin America after successful vaccine campaigns against yellow fever and other diseases. During the first year of the pandemic Latin America had one third of the deaths in the world with 8% of the population. Deaths after vaccination drives have dropped to 8%.  Brazil with 617,000 deaths from coronavirus was second only to the US with 800,000 deaths. Brazil is now back to normal after a successful vaccination drive that has 66% of the population fully vaccinated, and 80% with one dose, some of the highest rates in the world, according to Our World in Data at Oxford University. In Colombia with 50 million population about 50% of people are fully vaccinated. Cases have dropped from 30,000 in June to 2000 a day and deaths from 700 daily that month to 50 a day in December 2021. In Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, 83% of three million population are fully vaccinated, 14% have received a booster. Buenos Aires city health minister says Argentine society has an affinity for vaccination campaigns. "They rapidly accepted receiving them," he says. Yet from the point of view of new variants emerging there is a different situation in rural areas. In industrial states such as Sao Paulo 78% are fully vaccinated, yet less than 40% are fully vaccinated in poor Amazon state of Roraima.   We make it a point to honor the brave reporters in these countries who provide the reports in the WSJ, as we did earlier for NYT Stephanie Nolan's reports from South Africa and Zambia about frontline workers against Omicron in Africa.  Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo, Jenny Carolina Gonzalez in Bogota, and Sylvina Frydlewsky in Buenos Aires and Kejal Vyas writing this report from San Salvador. ...

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The contrast between lack of effective measures taken in the Lombardy region with the aggressive action in Veneto that has proved effective. Veneto followed the method of quarantining, mass testing for clusters and isolating the affected people.  The Italian government took the first steps to close off northern Italy Feb 22, and it was not till March 10 that a nationwide lockdown was done. The action taken in the Veneto region is shown here in this WSJ report with the town of Vo as an example of steps taken that worked. A microbiology professor and infectious diseases expert at the University of Padua, Dr Crisanti, developed a test for the coronavirus as early as mid-January using the information made public by Chinese doctors. Dr. Crisanti oversaw the testing of 95% of residents of Vo, a town of 3400 people in Veneto region. He found 3% of the population was infected, with half testing positive asymptomatic. Following the aggressive lockdown the tests were done two weeks later and the rate of infection had fallen to 0.1% with only 8 new infections. "The main lesson from VO is that when you have a cluster of infected people, you should do a very aggressive lockdown and then test as many people as possible," Dr Crisanti says. The results from Vo led to Veneto increasing testing in the rest of the region carrying out 80,000 tests, compared to 88,000 in Lombardy, with double the population and 5 times more infections. Lombardy followed government directives to test only those with symptoms. When it spreads it is harder to do the test isolate clusters, test isolate clusters, in a continual loop, yet this remains the method cited by Dr. Brx in the U.S. today as the right way to target clusters in a laser approach. In yesterday's briefing at the White House Dr Brx said this is a method the U.S. is familiar with and has used in Africa to tackle HIV, Ebola Virus. It is possible using GPS to target down to a specific clinic in a specific place, which is how it was successfully done in Africa. ...

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Muhammadu Buhari wins the March 2015 presidential election in Nigeria winning 54% of the vote compared to 45% for incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan. The peaceful transition is another first for Africa for the size of a country like Nigeria. Buhari was a military ruler for 20 months following a 1983 coup. This is his fourth try running for president. This time he campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, and anti-terrorism campaign as Boko Haram insurgency is affecting the northeast of the country. He also campaigned for economic development and jobs, as Nigeria is sorely lacking infrastructure development such as road, water, electricity, especially in the Muslim north of the country where Buhari is from. Incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan failed to tackle the problems, and the situation deteriorated in 2014-2015 with the lack of security in the country, as the Boko Haram insurgency affected the northeast. In 2015 oil prices collapsed leading to a sharp depreciation in the value of the Naira, Nigeria's currency, and lower oil revenues, a significant setback....

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The advantages of millet, pearl millet and teff, Africa grown grains that can grow in dry conditions of little rain. The advantages of these grains in a diverse diet. 

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As a civil rights campaigner Harry Belafonte's efforts were legendary. NYT gives these black and white pictures of Belafonte in an anti Apartheid protest outside the South African embassy in 1964, addressing a civil rights rally in New York in 1960, with Sidney Poitier at a civil rights rally (he studied theater at the American Negro Theatre with Poitier), and checking on free primary education in Kenya in 2004 for UNICEF.

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Areas for growth for the Indian drug Industry include the large growing domestic market, the outsourcing by US drug manufacturers, and sales in other developing countries of Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Analyst estimates are that India will spend $30 billion a year on drugs to improve care for its people in the next 10 years up from $8 billion today. And the distribution network is being developed by drug companies insdie India to reach more people. Also companies like Pfizer plan to double outsourcing of manufacturing drugs from 10% today to 20%.

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Coalition Against Climate Disinformation at the COP30 Belem Brazil Summit. CAAD says about the state of disinformation-

"Big Carbon's spending and Big Tech's algorithms are preventing us from seeing and hearing one another online. Instead, we're exposed to one lie after another."

The frequent fires and floods all over the world which happen suddenly and quickly show the effects and costs of climate change are real. Actions need to be taken on climate change even as the cost of living crisis and struggles of people in China,India and Africa and in the US and EU have to be considered for access to electricity and for cost of living concerns. Fossil only provides a short term transition to a long term plan for the future based on renewable energy, and the fight for climate change action to be renewed by EU, China, Brazil and India as the US sorts out its own problems with the transition.