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The second time around European leaders are more adept at handling a new DJT administration in the US. Scholz meets with Orban in Budapest. All European leaders meet in Budapest to assert a combined approach to Ukraine, to the US tariffs plans. European Union leaders feel confident they can come up with solutions acceptable to Europe, and assert Europe's interests without being dependent on the US.

Even the collapse of the Scholz German coalition government with the FDP party and Lindner defecting is taken in stride by saying that a new coalition will take its place. The loss of the FDP is not seen as critical as it is down to less than 4% in popular support in Germany. Orban and Hungary are also brought into the discussion to present a united Europe.

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Francois Bayrou the new PM of France speaks a dialect of the Pyrenees mountains, is mayor of Pau, and was a school teacher before entering politics. He has a disdain for extreme positions on both sides left and right, including polarizing politics of Sarkozy. He gave key support to Macron at the right time when he needed it to run for president. He gets along well with Le Pen and has helped Marie Le Pen run for president in the past when she needed support because he felt this was essential for the democratic process. He was not the first choice of Macron and insisted on taking the job over other choices.

Pau is located 31 miles from the Spanish border with a clear view of the Pyrenees mountains. It is an ancient city with a University at Bearns, and a medieval heritage.

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Mr Biden's bold vision for the US in infrastructure, in health and education, in competing in the world is outlined in this video in the NYT of his address to the joint session of the US Congress in April 2021. Biden is determined to move quickly and this comes across in the first 100 days. He says he "has never been more optimistic and confident about America."

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Dependency on wealthy Arab countries for help is common for some countries including Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. Now there is reconstruction help needed in Lebanon, and in Syria and Gaza with years of bombing and conflict. Egypt is the largest country with 120 million people and it faces a strain on its budget and strain on its finances. Egypt will have to reschedule large debt borrowings and payments. Syria and Lebanon will get less help for reconstruction. The wars of the Middle East hurt the US and Russia and were an unneeded distraction for Europe. Now they are coming back to hurt the very countries and people who in pursuit of different ideologies and religious beliefs engaged in incessant wars and conflicts.

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A lot has been written about inflation in car pricing. This is true also of airlines and hotels this summer. Dawn Gilbertson in the WSJ says the 2023 travel rush continues, hotels and airlines have pricing power, and inflation is squeezing budgets. The solution is to have Plan B destinations, shorter trips, and plan airline reservations in advance looking at different alternatives based on airline and alternative destination choices. Average daily hotel rates have jumped to $180 this year in the US, up 10% since 2022 and 15% since 2019.

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It took 110 days to reach 100,000 cases in India. It took only 39 days to reach 500,000 cases. Medical experts say it is the increase in testing. It is also the speed with which this virus has spread and the reason it remains a great danger.

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The effects of the Modiji development guarantee and "Sab Ka VIkas, Sab Ka Saath," in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhatisgarh. In the Hindi speaking heartland and the northwest and west including Gujarat and Maharashtra it gives a new momentum to development efforts for the modernization of India. This helps set the roadmap for development  through 2024 and the years ahead. Compared to China the problems in India are how to integrate scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in a complex social fabric into the economic development efforts.

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India's new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Dipak Misra, comes from the state of Orissa in eastern India. He was on the bench on several important cases included a Dec 16, 2016 gang rape case in New Delhi, and reflected popular sentiment in that case about the dangers to civilized society in the decision.

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Startling fact seen in this chart of Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis in the adjoining article next to this one- that in 2026 we are seeing 1929-1937 levels of military spending to GDP ratio of 2-3% just before it jumped to 45% in 1940. It is a cautionary tale not to spend too little (2-4% is a danger point) as lack of military modernization means a lot more spending soon after, almost 10 times that- 10 times 4% or 40% in World War II.  Message to the US is not what Starmer and company are saying in Europe- it is that don't invite the existential crisis of 1940 again for western (US, EU, Canada, UK) and eastern democracies (India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia) by not doing military modernization. And 2-4% of GDP for military spending is not going to be enough to do this.

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Jordan's King Abdullah II met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood. He emphasized the importance of working with the Muslim Brotherhood to go ahead with political reforms. The Muslim Brotherhood said it had asked the king for changes to the constitution and the electoral laws. It said the king showed a great deal of understanding on these issues.

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The WSJ Dollar Index tracks the U.S. dollar's performance against 16 other currencies. It surged by 12% in 2014 with a strengthening U.S. dollar. The rise in the dollar is likely to adversely affect the 15% of U.S. GNP that comes from exports and the $200 billion plus tourism industry in the U.S.

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Is a Win-Win possible for the US/Israel and Iran possible with the US/Israel strikes and operations started March 1, 2026. Not just for the American and Israeli people, but for the people of the Arab countries and for the people of Iran, and for the people of Russia. Greg Ip in the WSJ, Marc Thiessen in the NYT, and Bret Stephens of the NYT have looked at this in this way and offer an alternative view of what might happen, even though the tendency of the WSJ and the Washington Post is to be skeptical and the NYT with an opposition to all things DJT offering pessimistic version. First, all the anticolonial writings that were read by Khamanei in Moshaad are no longer the case as the US is no longer acting to secure some benefit to itself as the British and French colonial powers did for themselves or their oil companies in pre1960's Iran. Second the US truly wants to learn the lessons of 30 years of troubles in the region at every level of the DJT administration which is to extend a true olive branch to the subdued foe as it did to Germany and Japan under generals Eisenhower and McArthur. Third moderates in Iran could emerge as in Germany ( Adenauer) and in Japan Shigeru Yoshida who worked to adopt the 1947 Japanese Constitution under Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Behind the student protests and now national protests there is a realization in Iran that living perpetually under sanctions is not the way to live, that it can increase oil production, get investment in its industry, and raise standards of living, by doing something different. That nuclear weapons development, supporting movements overseas, perpetual conflicts with Arab states, these things have been tried and are not working. That this is the last chance to build a prosperous Iran before fossil fuels are replaced by renewable energy over 10-15 years and which will make it that much harder to modernize and develop Iran for the benefit of Iran's future 110 million people. The gap with India will only widen as India catches up with China, the way China caught up with Japan. It is better to accept that these anticolonial writings that emerged from decolonizing Arab North Africa applied to the British and the French, and that the world is a different place today as the Indians and the Chinese have realized modernizing ancient societies with ancient religions is possible with the help of the Americans and the Europeans, working with the Americans and the Europeans. Theodore Roosevelt says in his Autobiography that one should be careful to judge people as the best have some negative aspects and the worst have some positive aspects, an experience he described in his dealings with progressives and those who opposed changes. Adenauer and Yoshida had contacts and dealings with earlier governments defeated in the war, but wanted to search for an entirely different path for rebuilding their countries having learned from experience. A thoughtful moderate Iranian outcome is possible as happened in Germany and Japan and which is beginning to develop in Venezuela.   ...

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Scholz of Germany and Xi of China meet for private talks at the G-20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2024. Efforts are made to avoid tit for tat tariffs on EV's and settle Ukraine war.

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A useful look at all demographic groups age, race and gender in 2024 compared to 2020 and 2016 offered by DW.com. There is higher participation today in the process of choosing candidates than ever before even as mediums including the internet have become increasingly fragmented. Candidates in 2024 have to reach many smaller groups of demographics by race, gender, education, ages groups over television and radio than ever before. 

244 million people over the age of 18 will participate in choosing between Harris and Trump in 2024 and for the US Congress.

71% of white voters voted compared to 59% for non white voters. Only 54% of Latinos voted in 2020. Youngest voters 18 years to 29 years participation in 2016 was very low just 39%, it increased to 50% in 2020.