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What is 2 metres apart social distancing? This BBC video shows how. It is as if you are holding a broom. Thats how far you should be from someone else. In buses or transport no one in front or back of you. In conference rooms a similar distance. In parks outside 2 benches long distance. Be sure to see this video as it is critical in the fight against coronavirus. Most people don't get it that a large number of people have it and are asymptomatic, (its not like the regular flu where everyone has symptoms) yet they are carriers of the virus and spreaders of it. That is how the problem got worse in Europe and America in congested areas where restrictions were relaxed for too long. This is why the 2 metres rule (6 feet) is a safety rule, just like not crossing a red traffic light.

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Alan Cullison's exceptional report from Ukraine in 2006, with contribution from Marc Champion, gives a background to the situation in Ukraine in 2014 with street protests leading to the ouster of Yanukovych. None of the hopes for Yanukovych mentioned by Cullison at the end of the article -rule of law, judiciary, corruption, and transforming Ukraine society- were realized. Yanukovych runs for president against Yuvschenko in 2008 and is accused of fraud. He wins in 2010. Tymoshenko spent 2 years in prison under charges from the Yanukovych government with the EU saying the government has been "selective" in its charges. She is released in Feb. 2014 after the ouster of Yanukovych. All the politicians appear to have failed Ukraine's hopes for better governance and national reconciliation to promote economic progress and a shift is needed to a younger generation.

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The Washington Post points out the damage to civil society and the rule of law in Egypt in 2014-2015. It cites the Working Group on Egypt's conclusions that repression only works to increase the extremism in the region. A bipartisan group of seven senators including John McCain and Marc Rubio, in a letter to Mr. Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, says the U.S. foreign policy must always support human rights, political reform and civil society. It calls these core principles.

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 President Trump says China is backing off in negotiations to address U.S. demands for a fair relationship on trade. He says the U.S. will increase tariffs from 10% imposed in September 2018 to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese goods starting May 10, 2019. China has put tariffs of 10% on $60 billion of American goods exported to China responding to the American tariffs in last September.  The U.S. says since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 with the approval of president Clinton it has unfairly benefited in trade with the U.S., leading to closure of factories and loss of jobs in the U.S. with state subsidized Chinese exports to the U.S. contrary to the spirit of the WTO and its rules. China has made promises to correct this and not kept them says the U.S. side in negotiations led by Robert Lighthizer. The tariffs moves are a tactic of president Trump to get China to relent and make fundamental changes in the way it exports to the U.S.  So far the Chinese response has been tit for tat. But this can change. As this report points out what is already known that China benefits far more and exports far more to the U.S. than the U.S. does to China. The $60 billion of American goods exports on which China placed tariffs represent two fifths of China's imports from U.S. With smaller exports from the U.S. to China, China has not much leverage in trade negotiations in this kind of tit for tat retaliation. It hurts China's exporters and economy much more than it does U.S. consumers. The increase in prices for U.S. consumers are also not expected to be significant, according to this report in the NYT, if China increase tariffs further. Aware of this and China's belief that past administrations have not responded is a guide to what the Trump administration can or will do, has convinced president Trump that there is no other way to get a fair trading relationship that respects U.S. interests, its jobs and workers. As Robert Lighthizer who leads the U.S. negotiating team faced this type of response from the Japanese when he negotiated with them (shoving off U.S. demands to reduce Japan's trade surplus in the eighties before accepting them), the U.S. thinks this strategy will work again. In any case it sees no alternatives to achieve its goal of a fair and balanced trading relationship. The U.S. international trade deficit in goods was up to $891 billion in February 2019 even after the tariffs on Chinese goods in September, showing that it will take a lot more to turn this as well as other trading relationships around.   ...

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A look at how Germany voted on a map of Germany gives a better idea of what really happened in the 2021 election. The narrow margin of about 2% of Social Democrats over Christian Democrats looks different from the map. The CDU black color region is mostly all of southern Germany, the region includes Bavaria with its capital Munich. And parts of West Germany around Cologne.

In Cologne and Berlin the Greens dominated.

The rest of Germany is all Social Democrats red. Only in parts of the  east in Saxony and Thuringia one finds AfD far right.

Geographically SPD red is all over Germany except for the southern region of Bavaria. A seat Merkel held for 30 years went to the Social Democrats SPD party,

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Aalborg, Denmark, is the third largest city after Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark. It is located in Jutland in the far north of the country. It is one of the cities in Europe best known for its transformation from an industrial city making cement, boilers and other products to one of the largest makers of wind turbines in the world. It is a university town with 20,000 students and prides itself on sustainable development projects. Utzon Center and the modern designed Concert Hall are key buildings in the city. Danish architect Utzon designed the Sydney Opera House. In this area it is still warm at 28 degrees centigrade in September. Old Viking settlements and churches from the Protestant Lutheran Reformation can be seen in the city and outskirts.

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One can only take note now how far in a matter of weeks the Canadian government's attitudes have changed. Fentanyl deaths per day 205 US 21 Canada comparable for population in 2025 says Le Monde. US population 325 million, Canada's population is a tenth of that, both have fentanyl deaths that are at the same level.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Dsavid McGuinty says- "On per capita population, we're losing more Canadians than Americans are losing Americans. We are connected with this crisis."

Trudeau said "we agree wholeheartedly with our American neighbors that fentanyl must be wiped from the face of the earth."

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Bundesbank President Axel Weber told German lawmakers that Greece may need as much as 80 billon euros to avoid default. He said Greece's situation is deteriorating and "the numbers are changing all the time." Weber is a member of the ECB's governing council and a leading candidate to succeed Trichet as ECB President. So far Greece has 30 billion euros approved by the eurozone countries and 15 billion euros expected from the IMF.

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US Naval Blockade Day 10- US stock markets up 4.1% for 4 months, oil price $95 a barrel, prices at pump $4.02 down from $3.94 a month back. If all the US seeks out of an agreement is getting nuclear material out of Iran to keep nuclear weapons out of the Middle East based on 5 decades of war in the Middle East- Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and now Iraq/ Lebanon- this is to protect the people of the world from nuclear weapons, including China, India, Brazil, Russia, EU and other nations. This was the goal of Democratic administrations also, only the Republican approach is to err on the side of safe and take zero chances on future nuclear escalation while the Democratic administrations were based on trust, trust which is not a sure thing in the Middle East political and cultural environment. Some of DJT comments were bluster, but the basic position is the same- against nuclear proliferation for a safer planet. In this light the Naval Blockade only seeks not to block Iran's path to a prosperous economy and a bright future for its people. Iran's economy is affected in the same way that India's and China's, Africa's is affected, for upwards of 4 billion people compared to 100 million for Iran. Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Indonesia, among the poorest in the world, poorer by far than Iran. The economic impact on this part of the world is not part of Iranian perceptions. The economic impact on Gulf kingdoms an adversary of Iran is by comparison only a small fraction of the impact on the poorest countries. In this situation US is working to support the poorest segments of the Chinese people ( the part of China in the hinterland that is the one third not urbanized) and the Indian people through its cooperation and direct or indirect support. In this perspective the US economy stands as a steadfast support for US policy of fairness and respect for all nations since 1900- US is not one of the colonial powers such as Britain and France who created some of the artificial states Syria, Iraq, out of the remains of the collapsed Ottoman Empire in the interest of their Empires by 1921, and setup regimes in Iran for its oil, that are the source of today's problems and wars. No Empire of Britain and France promised Iran $28 billion as this Nation does today if Iran ships nuclear material out of Iran for a 100 percent shift to a peaceful Middle East that works for the modernization and industrial development of its economies in the interests of the people. ...

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Questions China faces on AI- 17% high youth unemployment and 200 million young people in the gig economy in low wage demanding work. Chinese Communist party wants to see a stable China that can pursue industrial progress for decades like the European Union and the US. For this reason it is not going to let this level of dissatisfaction with high youth unemployment and low wage demanding work for young people to go to the next level. For this reason it will carefully make investments in AI -not the hyper investments in AI that are taking place in the US. The competition with China is going to take place on many fronts, and the industrial bloc created by the EU with India and Nordics has a 15 year plan during which it and the US are likely to far exceed anything China does at a slower rate of growth. As in the US choices will have to be made in China, investment in one area means disinvestment in other areas that have equal or more priority. Today's capital markets are in complete dysfunction in the US operated by a few banks and tech company leaders, similar to the situation prevailing in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Investment priorities and planning are needed. It is a major error to say US cannot plan that capitalism does not have planning, because it is absolutely true that planning goes on at every level in American companies with Xerox, IBM, Oil Companies and other large companies, all having a Long Range Plan as well as planning for individual projects and investments in plants. If a good infrastructure plan, project by project, state by state, and at the local level, is not put in place this will simply not take place. If no good reindustrialization plan, project by project, state by state, and at the local level, is not put in place, this will simply not take place. In that case the competition with China would surely be lost before it had begun. Yet that is surely not the case, as every good American company has a long term plan. And this plan looks at all the potential investments the Nation can and should make in priorities and in the interests of the Nation and the People. All have to compete for resources and AI surely would not get the lions share of resources in China, or in the US, in a fair and well run market system where planning rightly takes place, because it would displace the very basic structure of a fair and well balanced economy that serves the American people, or the people of European Union and India, or the people of China. ...

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The Musk View - the Open AI lawsuit case against Sam Altman was about looting a charity by the founders. Basically Musk is saying he gave OpenAI $38 million and became one of its founders because of its non-profit business, not because it was afor profit business which would have raised many questions about the risks of for profits doing the wrong things with AI just for profit. Then Sam Altman breaks the promise of staying non-profit for his personal for profit gain, turns it into a for profit without answering any of the questions raised about the dangers of AI without regulatory safeguards into something worse than social media apps that spread fake news endangering democracies, and endangering education of a young generation, mental health risks for girls and children. Competition with China- in China much of it is controlled by the state and the state imposed limits on social media, to protect China's children and young people's educational needs. Tim Higgins says Musk lost but proved his point anyway on X and in the media so much so that speakers at commencements in American universities are being regularly booed  when they bring up AI.  Public perceptions have still not been shaped by the real issue - the massive misallocation of funds, the dubious propositions, the lack of normal financial scrutiny for return on investment that is supposed to happen in well run financial markets, ( is it or is it not a market system in the US as oligopolies are not free market systems), the failure to prove that the investments are viable by a long shot. Banks and capital markets are distorted in lending trillions of dollars to AI companies that cannot justify the investments on financial grounds of return in investment. Returns to the Nation and the American people, as well as financial returns are far better in rebuilding the  broken down infrastructure that America needs rebuilt, in investing in the industries that create jobs and strengthen competing with China and EU. How can the huge misallocation to AI of trillions of dollars, putting a burden on utilities to supply electricity for AI, and the distortion in capital markets to direct that money to infrastructure building and industrial renewal, be corrected? WSJ reports that there is a huge skeptical public on this issue. It is shown in Pew Research and Pew has not asked the question about alternative investments that are being starved of capital in what America desperately needs for reindustrialization and job creation, income creation, competition with China and the EU.   ...

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The nation's cities with high homelessness and quality of life issues such as Portland are seeing a sharp drop in real estate prices. The fire sale of a downtown tower in Portland, Oregon, with it's experimentation in city planning having gone in the wrong direction, shows the consequences of poor management of cities.

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So far 40 Underground subway stations have closed in London and ridership is down 50%. Travel into and out of the capital continues as the number of cases shows a sharp increase. The government is taking measures as it monitors the situation.

By contrast Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea with more experience and capabilities because of past epidemics have acted proactively. The approach in Europe has been gradual. Because social distancing played a key role in countries in Asia, along with the better capabilities for tracing and isolating patients through early testing, much depends on how this is implemented.

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The Obama administration's $38.6 billon loan program using Stimulus funds was intended to create 65,000 jobs. Two years into this program, with half the money disbursed, the program has created a mere 3,545 new permanent jobs according to Energy Department figures. The Energy Department claims its $5.9 billion loan guarantees to Ford Motor Company to produce energy efficient vehicles by upgrading plants in 5 states saved 33,000 jobs. Brookings Institution analyst, Mark Muro, says the administration appears to be counting all the workers at these plants and not the jobs saved. 33,000 is close to half the Ford hourly and salaried U.S. employees. Harvard Business School professor, Josh Lerner, says there is a tendency to do a lot of fuzzy math in these figures. Muro points to the need to set large expectations for short term political calculations. The Energy Department's own figures show 20 "green tech"companies won loans so far under this project by negotiating with the Energy Department. If these companies hire the people they agreed to they would hire 8,050 new permanent workers. Only 10 of these companies have created or saved jobs so far. Of the other 10 some won loan approval only recently. The whole process is time consuming. Even if the Energy Department were to create the 60,000 jobs under the revised estimate, each job saved or created would come at a cost of 640,000 dollars in loan guarantees. Using the figure of $19.3 billion disbursed 2 years into this program (half of the $38.6 billion) and 8,050 jobs created, would give a cost of $2.4 million in loan guarantees for each job created- an astoundingly high figure. Other factors to consider are the additional jobs created downstream by suppliers to these companies as the administration states, and the cost of loans if as in the case of Solyndra a company goes bankrupt. Solyndra received a loan of over $500 million and represents 3% of loan guarantees. The administration and Congress assumed a failure rate of 5-10% for this program. ...

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The Biden administration's har ghar jal effort, clean drinking water in every home. The Modi administration has made its mark by har ghar jal, drinking water from taps for every home in a country of 1.3 billion people. The US Biden administration will be ensuring the same for clean drinking water free of harmful disease causing chemicals including PFAS contamination. PFAS chemicals are forever chemicals that take a long period to break down. Even lower levels of toxic chemicals can be seriously harmful, says the Biden administration.The head of the Environmental Protection Agency leads this effort by putting 1 billion dollars from last years approved spending into the plan for clean drinking water. 2021 approved spending for Workers and Families plan of Biden has $10 billion for preventing PFAS contamination. Of this the first $1 billion will be made available to affected and most hard hit communities for clean drinking water. Money would go to water quality testing, contractor training and new water treatment systems. In addition Food and Drug Administration agency will tackle testing for food and packaging, Agriculture Department for livestock contamination. Defense Department for checking contamination in military installations. It is a sort of Gati Shakti Master plan that brings in all agencies of government, an approach the Modi administration has adopted for India. One does not have to look far to understand the priorities of the world's two greatest democracies. This is the common struggle in the world's two great democracies to bring a better life for all the people.  "People on the frontline have suffered far too long. That is why Biden is taking aggressive action," says Biden/s man at the EPA Michael Regan.  Mr.Modi says the same thing for har ghar jal campaign for drinking water for 1.3 billion people. ...

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This BBC report shows how contact tracing works in Singapore to control the spread of coronavirus. On 4 February 20 Chinese tourists visited a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Singapore. Only 18 coronavirus cases had been recorded in Singapore on that date. That visit to the medicine shop created a new cluster for the disease to spread. Singapore's contact tracing units traced such locations through its well developed and extensive contact tracing programme, which follows the chain of the virus, identifying and isolating people before they can spread the virus further. For about 40% of the 243 cases so far on March 19 the first indication they had was a call from the Singapore Health Ministry.      About 6000 people have been contact traced so far, using a combination of CCTV footage, labor intensive detective work with phone calling. This includes an incident of a taxi ride of 6 minutes in which the person a yoga teacher was identified and contacted by the Health Ministry. Enforcement is done as the person was contacted at her home by three people who showed her a quarantine order, which said you could not go out or its fine time and jail time. With about 8000 people per square kilometre, Singapore is small and densely crowded. It could easily be overwhelmed with hospitals not able to cope and the health system collapsing if this was not done. Wuhan could have happened here, says infectious diseases specialist Dr. Leong at Mont Elizabeth Novena hospital, who advises the government.  Because the crime rate is low the police were given this task of tracing as a priority in addition to hospital units working on tracing. It also included the armed forces personnel helping with tracing so that it could be done quickly without delay. This provides a lesson on how countries that have faced the health crisis have used innovative methods to tackle it with good results. ...

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Dr. Muller, Emeritus professor of physics at University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Quay, founder of Atossa Therapeutics, point out why the presence of double CGG sequence  in the coronavirus genome is strong evidence of gene splicing done at the labs in research settings. The purpose of the research is to increase the lethal effect of existing virus and it goes under the harmless sounding term gain of function research when it is a risky and dangerous form of research. Other articles in the WSJ refer to the lifting of the ban on such research by NIH and HHS in 2018, in the face of fierce opposition from the scientific community at large, including the Cambridge community. Harvard's School of Public Health carried articles by epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch about the risks of "an accidental epidemic" which were ignored.

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For Deere 80% of production of farm tractors is in US and 75% of suppliers in US. It is working on ways to tackle tariffs impact which is about $500 million. Its plan is to raise prices 2-4%. Deere has to tackle the imports from Germany of midsize tractors and its exports to Europe which also face tariffs. Other production is in Mexico and China.

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Even Schlu,berger is suffering from the oil price decline. It had the slogan "stronger for longer". Its shares have dropped from their high July 1, 2008, by 52% this far. Halliburton, Baker Hughes, And Weatherford International have fared worse, As falling oil prices slows down the pace of drilling. Natural producers have been cutting drilling budgets. Depending on how far oil prices decline offshore drilling budget could also be affected.

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Non farm payrolls are up by 261,000 and the U..S. unemployment rate drops to 4.1% for October 2017, according to the Labor Department. A broader measure that takes into account Americans who are in part time work having difficulty finding full time work was at 7.9%. Yet wage growth remains sluggish. Inflation with food and energy cost inflation after the hurricanes taken out remains at less than 2% below the Fed target, to the surprise of Fed chairwoman Yellen and new chairman Powell.

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A Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile attack on Kviv is repelled with all missiles shot down on May 16, 2023. For the first time in the war the missile attacks are causing far less damage than in the early days of the war. A DW.com German reporter in Kviv on German television says the whole attack lasted only 15 minutes before things were back to quiet over Kviv with missiles exploding in the sky not on the ground.

This week Mr. Zelensky visited Berlin, then Aachen for the Charlemagne Prize as a symbolic acceptance of the Ukrainian people into the European community of nations with Zelensky speaking in Aachen in Ukrainian. He then went to Paris and London. Next week the G7 meet in Hiroshima, Japan. The war that followed a pandemic enters its 64th week in 2023.

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The CDC Africa says Africa has recorded over 100,000 confirmed cases for a continent of 1.3 billion people, but as the WSJ reports on May 23 there is a high degree of underreporting. The number of cases the CDC says is about the same this week on May 22, as the cases were last week.The most cases are in South Africa at 19,000. 

Three countries have an increase of 100%, making it a situation that will need vigilance. So far 1.3 million tests were conducted. This report in DW.com contrasts with the WSJ report on May 23 which sees major problems developing in hotspots in Africa from Tanzania to Cameroon, in South Sudan to the Cape town area in South Africa. Cape Town hospitals are expected to be overwhelmed in weeks.