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As he assumes the presidency for the second time, Putin is under pressure from insiders in industry and others in government who have benefitted from the Putin regime to take a tougher stand against the democracy activists. At the same time progressive members of his government are urging him to let the democracy activists vent their anger at flawed elections.

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Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, wants to see stricter requirements than Basel III on capital reserves for U.K. banks. The Bank of England has expressed its strong disapproval of UK banks lobbying activities in Brussels to push for a dilution in Basel III standards. The British government and the Bank of England want to have the flexibility to set their own stricter standards and not to be bound by a relaxed standard set by the EU. The risk to British taxpayers is a principal concern. In the U.S. Fed governor Daniel Tarullo is pushing for capital reserve requirements stricter than Basel III's 7% requirement- calling for a requirement of 10-14%.

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Ed Miliband's victory over his brother David for the Labor party leadership. The unions support Ed Miliband. He tries to move labor to the centre by saying he supports cuts and Labor woulld have made cuts also, only differing on the manner and the size of the cuts.

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Charges of embezzlement filed against democracy activist Alexei Navalnyi by the government of President Putin. This is part of a government crackdown on activists in Russia.

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Vladimir Putin presents his views on democracy in Russia, on prevalent corruption, and ways to introduce democratic processes through internet referendums on legislative initiatives, the election of governors and local officials. He says democracy cannot be built overnight, that sovereignty of the people of Russia is the true basis of democracy and this was achieved through the fight with the oligrachy and anarchy of the 1990's. Rights that Russians want to see democracy ensure are: right to work, free medical care and education for children. In addition with the development of civil society and the advance of the middle class in Russia democratic processes have to keep pace. But he doesn't see democratic processes working with what he calls " a circus of candidates making unrealistic promises" with "spin doctors and image makers controlling politicians." And he does not see modern democracy limited to casting votes, and calls for internet based democracy and referendum based democracy to be integrated into the overall development of institutions, particularly at municipal and regional levels. He calls for a change in the mindset of Russians away from corruption in public service, saying that as long as the mindset is there one set of thieves are unmasked only to be replaced by another set of thieves. And cites polls that show teenagers aspire to be public servants because of the easy money to be made in public service. To correct this he proposes salaries that are high enough and at the same time have absolute transparency, declaration of expenses and family purchases, residences, vacations etc. Other steps include separating executive power and property and separating executive power from the system of checks over it....

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Official results show Putin wins the Russian presidential election with 64.6% of the vote with 90% of precincts counted. Exit polls showed a result of Putin winning by 58-59% of the vote over 4 other candidates. Putin's presidential term will be for 6 years after a constitutional amendment increased the term from 4 years to 6 years. Putin relied on voters outside Moscow and in the provinces for support.

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Gerald Seib points out that the choice between the Islamists and the military has always been a false one. The young people who are a large part of the population in the Middle East and their hopes for a better future are left out in this choice. The young protesters were the main force behind the ouster of Mubarak. These young people have to be brought into the political process for Egypt to move forward.

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Fox News leads in total viewers in 2015 with an average of 1.8 million viewers in prime time. It also leads in the 25-54 year demographic. By comparison CNN had average of 490,000 viewers, MSNBC had average of 352,000 viewers. A major problem for cable news channels is an aging demographic. The median age for most channels is over 60 years, for CNN 61, for MSNBC 63 and Fox News even older at 67 years of age. In the the crucial 25-54 year old demographic FOx News does poorly with 207,000 total day viewers, CNN does badly with 149,000 and MSNBC at 89,000, posing some serious questions for all the cable news channels in the U.S. Among news shows "O'Reilly Factor" with 2.8 million viewers was first, followed by "The Kelly File" by Megyn Kelly. News stories about Pope Francis, terrorism in France and in the U.S., provided added momentum to news channels in 2015.

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Jim Lehrer of PBS deserves a lot of credit for the remarkable way in which he handled the new format of 15 minute segments designed to draw out the distinctions between the candidates in the first 2012 U.S. presidential television debate.

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By June 10, 2010, the Democratic Party of Japan has recovered in poll ratings with 60% ratings for the new premier Naoto Kan and the DPJ. Ratings for Mr Hatoyama had dropped to 20% by the time he resigned. Hatoyama resigned June 2, 2010.

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Pier Luigi Bersani from the northern Emilio Romagna region, head of the centre-left Democratic party, is the leading candidate for prime minister in Italy's 2013 elections. His party has 37.8% support in a recent poll. The Democratic party has an electoral alliance with the SEL Left, Ecology and Freedom party, which has 5.1% in the poll. Berlusconi's People of Freedom party has 18.2% support and the antiestablishment party of Beppe Grillo, the Five Star Movement has 20% support. Prime minister Mario Monti is being encouraged to run by business and centrist parties. Bersani said in an interview, he will continue Monti's policies if elected. He says he supports greater flexibility so that policies do not focus only on austerity, at the same time he will respect the committments Italy has gven to the EU and move forward with pro-competition actions.