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How has the nation's capital fared after the pandemic? Some answers- population decline by 25,000, tourism is back up to 1.6 million, businesses coming back, more room in Metro trains with remote work, and businesses coming back in the city.

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The shooting of a young Australian woman Justine Diamond, after she called 911 for help upon seeing a sexual assault, is mourned in Australia. The shooting took place in Minneapolis. Minneapolis police have revealed little about what happened.

 

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Making some territorial concessions appears to be the only way for peace talks to succeed. For a long time there was insistence on territorial sovereignty of Ukraine by EU and NATO leaders. This appears to have prolonged the war- with needless loss of life on both sides, and costly damage to Ukraine infrastructure, a population that had to face additional winters and hardship in war ravaged areas. NATO's Stoltenberg from Norway, leaders of northern Nordic and Baltic countries, the UK, could take that position without having to face the hardship of the war. NATO had to be re-formed under a new name and new structure  following the collapse of the Soviet Union, with wariness about the possibility of centuries old since 1700 UK and Nordic historical adversarial relationship with Russia casting a shadow over that organization, and embroiling the US in conflicts not of its own choice or of wise leadership. This is the root cause of the Ukraine war. It would have been best to completely restructure NATO and give it a new name without Northern European nations leading it. Principles matter once soviet communism was no longer there NATO formed for its expansionism in 1950's had served it's purpose. Rasmussen from Denmark and Stoltenberg from Norway led the organization for the last decade and half from 2009-2014 and 2014 to 2025, with backing from Obama/Merkel for most of the period of the war in Ukraine. Also most of the period NATO expanded to Russian borders happened under Northern European leaders from Spain, Britain and Nordics (Solana, Robertson, Scheffer, Rasmussen and Stoltenberg) and the organization NATO getting the northern European slant based on historical adversarial relationship of Britain and Russia since 1700- for no other reason than the British wanting to protect its large Empire and commerce in India which in the 18th and 19th century included most of Asia. Under Robertson the UK Defense Secretary much of this transformation into turning NATO into something anti-Russian happened which was primarily because of British and Nordic perceptions of Russia as an adversary. Robertson added the following countries at the Prague Summit in 2002 to NATO- the Baltics, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Russia faced internal upheaval in those years and Yeltsin in resigned in 1999, Putin was elected in 2000. It is clear that Russia had suffered severe economic hardship in that period and Putin's first goal in 2002 was to stabilize the economy.  It could be said that this turning NATO over to UK and Nordics was a huge mistake considering that Russia was still the largest nuclear power after the US, and British policy was now determining US policy. And Britain's Robertson/NATO should not have involved itself in the Afghanistan war using Article 5, as the US could have handled this alone and limited that engagement. It got US involved in another conflict, conflict with Russia that was to come in Ukraine on the side of the Baltics and Ukraine, without US clearly understanding what the roots of that war was about and implied confrontation with Russia 20 years after the Prague Summit in 2002 under George Bush junior. The incompetence of Bush and Obama/Merkel laid the seeds of the Ukraine war in 2022 following Robertson, Rasmussen, Stoltenberg, small Nordic nations and Britain creating a conflict that did not need to happen, with loss of hundreds of thousands of lives of Russian speaking fraternal peoples of both Russia and Ukraine. The Republican sentiment under DJT of the tragedy of such huge losses of young people, and desire to end this loss of life, can nowhere be seen in bellicose talk in northern European nations, that take the US for granted to fight their wars.  The wisdom of Washington, Lincoln and TR/FDR clearly caution in getting involved in European centuries old animosities. For the US it meant in practical terms that it could no longer carry out the Monroe Doctrine essential for peace and good governance in the western hemisphere as only a Russia desperate to make its views known about NATO would interfere in the western hemisphere against US assertion of the Monroe Doctrine with the US Navy. Instead drug trafficking gangs took over Latin American countries and created a flow of fentanyl and millions of people through migrant traffickers across the US southern border. As America has expressed its concern for loss of Russian and Ukrainian men in the war for the first time under DJT Russia has distanced itself from Venezuela, Mexico and Latin America. The loss of hundreds of thousands of young Americans to fentanyl is a shared tragedy with the loss of hundreds of thousands of young Russians and Ukrainians in the last decade. How reliable are Northern European countries when it comes to protecting the eastern seaboard of the US with the acquisition of Greenland? It is a policy pursued by presidents since the Alaska Acquisition from Russia. By Seward, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman and DJT. Denmark the land where NATO secretary general Rasmussen was from followed by Stoltenberg from Norway  (for 15 of the years of the war in Ukraine 2010-2025) the US efforts to protect its eastern seaboard are rebuffed by both Denmark and Norway, and the US presented in a negative light as an imperialist power in the face of Danish East India Company's  colonial attitude since 1700 clearly imitating the colonial British East India company.  It shows Northern European nations looking out for themselves not for the US, and embroiling the US in their wars at the cost of the entire western hemisphere being destabilized. The population of UK, Denmark and Norway, Baltics is far less than the Mumbai, Shanghai, Sao Paulo , Berlin and Tokyo regions. Should the views of a small population in northern Europe of 2% of the total determine the future of US, Europe, China, India, Brazil, and other parts of the world with 5 billion people the 98%, when issues of war and nuclear conflict, nuclear buildup, the western hemisphere destabilized with drug trafficking gangs running rampant in countries, divide the world in opposing blocs, when the wellbeing of most of the world's people in Asia and Latin America, Africa is at stake by establishing a essential degree of cooperation by all sides. The US under DJT has chosen a wise policy of cooperation over conflict -with China, with Russia, with all the major powers, and with smaller powers. Reading the wisdom contained in the writings of Washington, Lincoln, TR/FDR confirms it is clearly the wise choice. ...

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Theo Lubke was head of the Financial Infrastructure Department in the Banking Supervision Group, and was a key member working for reforms in the derivatives market. He oversaw efforts at the Fed to have Wall Street centrally clear trades in credit default swaps, which helps control the risk of a firm's failure. Lubke will join Goldman Sachs as a managing director in the securities division, and will help Goldman implement the facets of regulatory reform legislation. Prior to his 15 years at the New York Fed, Lubke worked on the staff of the National Economic Council under President Clinton, and worked as an investment-banking analyst at Lehman Brothers.

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Friedman reviews Acemoglu and Robinson's new book, "Why Nations Fail." Acemoglu says that nations fail when wealth and opportunities are concentrated in the hands of few people, that a condition for societies to succeed is to create opportunities for more people. For this to happen it is important to create inclusive political and economic institutions. This is an important insight, but for Western society this is an insight as old as Adam Smith when he pointed out the importance of this aspect of western societies after the feudal period in his "Wealth of Nations." For Smith it was the failure to create inclusive societies that led to the gradual unravelling of societies in the river valleys of the Yangste and the Ganges, in China and India, of increasing poverty and the gradual disappearance of what constituted the middle class in India and China. Chapter 8 titled "Of Wages and Labor" in the "Wealth of Nations" makes specific reference to this.

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The day and routine of a stocker at Kroger grocery supermarket. He has added 20 hours to a 40 hour workweek. He starts at 4 am, three hours earlier than the typical time. Paper products, bottled water, canned food are moving fast. Customers appear stressed, but some come in more than one per cart as a way to get out. He spends a third of the day stocking online orders.

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With China's automobile market declining for the fifth month in a row, and trade tensions rising, it now appears that carmakers such as Ford expanded too quickly in the Chinese market. Ford, Peugeot, and Hyundai appear to have poorly times their expansion in China, expanding at the tail end of the Chinese boom just ahead of the new Trump administration's efforts to challenge China's lopsided trade balance.  It has become so bad that this report shows workers at a Peugeot factory in China spending their days washing floors and attending Communist political study sessions at work. At a Ford plant workers shifts are reduced to a couple of days a month. Sales grew 3% in 2017 and declined 2% in the first 11 months of 2018, after increases of 14% in previous years taking the market to 28 million in a dizzying ride as it surpassed the U.S. sales of 17.5 million. Overcapacity is a problem in China with the aggressive expansion. There is capacity to make 43 million cars, but will produce 29 million in 2018, according to PwC, consulting firm. Ford meanwhile put in a new plant in Harbin in 2017, expanding its capacity to 1.6 million a year, but sales peaked at 1.27 million in 2016, and are down 6% in 2017, and 34% in 2018 to about 700,000. While there are no layoffs some workers are making only $220 monthly, forcing them to take second jobs as cab drivers or couriers. Suzuki decided to quit in 2018 exiting China entirely just so it would not pile up losses in what is now a market that is way overblown from the boom years. Electric vehicle production in the pipeline of about 7.5 million vehicles will compound this problem further with 32 new plants planned by 26 firms.   ...

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Liz Truss's 45 days in office as British prime minister is the shortest of any leader in British history. William Henry Harrison in 1847 was US president for 32 days, before he died of pneumonia. George Canning was  prime minister for 119 days before dying of tuberculosis. Alec Douglas-Home for 363 days more recently when he was replaced by Labour's Harold Wilson.  Douglas-Home in 1964 was seen as out of touch with Britain as an aristocrat in the House of Lords. Harold Wilson of Labour asked at the time how he could lead Britain for the technological revolution needed when he was "a scion (descendent)  of an effete (overrefined and ineffectual) establishment." Truss was seen as out of touch with post covid  Britain with one of seven people missing a meal in Britain and a cost of living crisis for most Britons when she announced a mini budget that did not provide assistance to struggling working families, as other Euroepan leaders were doing and instead cut taxes for higher income people. Douglas-Home abolished resale price maintenance program that prevented sharp price increases by food producers. He lost the 1964 election to Labour's Harold Wilson. Labour under Keir Starmer is in the same position today as it was in 1964 under Harold Wilson as it looks at the decline of the Conservatives. ...

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WSJ looks at how the relationship between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris evolved. From the faltering start when Harris was contesting for the presidential nomination and made sharp debate comments on segregationist senators and Biden, to her entry into the White House as Vice President dissolving her political action committees and not bringing her election people to the White House. The first assignment was on immigration and the White House asking Harris to tell Central Americans not to come to the US border did not exactly work out. Guatemala was in the middle of a drought affecting its agriculture and sending more people from the affected regions to the US Border. That message did not work and Harris came under criticism. There was less contact with Biden during the years 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.   Gradually though the president came to listen to Harris and set up a weekly lunch meeting. When Supreme Court nominations were to be made Biden relied on Harris's advice. Ketanji Jackson nomination to the Supreme Court came out of these talks with Harris. Then came Roe and Wade and the president who was not outspoken on this issue realized that Harris was better at communicating a common vision of what America stood for and the importance of reproductive freedoms. When Hamas attacked Israel, the response of Netanyahu was leading to an humanitarian disaster. President Biden listened to Harris describe the need for a Palestinian state and it building peace with Israel as the only real solution to the crisis. Biden sent Harris three times to the Munich Security Conference, and each year she met Mr. Zelensky and discussed the Ukraine issues with European leaders. Then came the debate performance and Democrats questioning Biden's health. Harris remained steadfast in her support till the end and on July 23 after announcing his withdrawal the previous day Biden told Kamala as he addressed Wilmington headquarters staff- "I'm watching you kid. I love ya." And Harris said "I love you." ...

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The last West Indies captain to lead a formidable West Indies team was Richie RIchardson. Sandip G of the Indian Express writes from Antigua about Richardson's early batting experiences at school and how he evolved facing fast bowlers. RIchardson started out idolizing legendary batsmen like Rohan Kanhai who were steady batsmen and batted in Test matches for days.    It was an early experience with his coach who put on fast bowlers at school to Richardson at bat, that got Richardson started on his trademark cut shot. Fearing for his life Richardson closed his eyes and hit one out of the field that was lost forever. Soon he became known as "the fastest blade in the Caribbean," for the way he could strike at fast bowling. Richardson says its not like he became good at the cut stroke overnight. He would practice the shot 1000 times a day.  It was Rohan Kanhai from Guyana who once said that you have to put every poor delivery away to the boundary and some good ones too, making the bowlers think. Flashing blade and canny, were words used for Kanhai. This was true for Richardson too with his cut shot. Today as he is perfecting his golf game or when his motivation dips he has only to look back over his shoulder to the high walls of his house, to his backyard where he practiced the cut shot, and all that drive and energy from that time would come back to him. ...

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Problems of finding a job in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy for younger people. A sense of a lost generation, as more people are fighting for fewer job opportunities. The situation is worsened by austerity measures and the deepening economic crisis in these countries. Many young people have moved in with their parents, and others are emigrating to northern European countries. A former Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, tells the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra, that youth protests against university reform in Italy are also about the general lack of opportunities- "against the general situation in which the older generations have eaten the future of the younger ones." Here the NYT tells the story of Francesca Esposito, 29, the daughter of a fireman and a school teacher, the first generation of her family to attend college. She has an Italian law degree and a master's from Germany, and has fluency in five languages. She worked for some time as an unpaid trainee at Italy's social security adminsitration, till she quit. She has found it extremely difficult to find a paying job. Coral Gomez, 33, of Madrid, who has a PhD. in humanities lives with her parents because no steady jobs can be found. Coral earns 600 euros as a children's drama teacher. She says she will be going to Costa Rica to teach at a university....

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Samson's 89 in 42 balls and partnerships with Ishan and Dube, the batting of Pandya take India to a formidable total of 253 runs for 7 wickets. Archer gives away about 20 runs in one over at the end with 3 sixes in one over. This is the most boundaries in any T20 game.