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After the disaster of the Japanese Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 following a tsunami and earthquake chancellor Merkel made the decision to close nuclear plants. Germany will close 3 nuclear plants in December 2021. Decommissioning will take 20 years and 1.1 billion euros per plant. In 2022 Germany will have only 3 nuclear plants in Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, and Lower Saxony, equivalent to power of 4 gigawatts from 1000 wind turbines. Gas prices are up 10 fold in 2021 as Germany makes the shift to wind and solar. Economy and Climate Protection Minister Habeck of the Greens party in the new German government sees a continuation of the policy removing nuclear plants and shifting to wind and solar.

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The Spanish election produced a better than expected result for the Sanchez government. This report in CSIS shows that after a brief period Spain is returning to dominance of the Party Popular or the Socialist Party, the two governing parties in Spain, with smaller parties doing poorly. Both the PP and the Socialist Party are vying for support of a majority of 176 seats with the help of smaller parties. The VOX did not do as well as expected and a PP VOX party government looks less likely says this report. Even if a government with Partido Popular is formed it will continue most of Spain's foreign policy of supporting NATO and the EU. Mr. Sanchez formed a new government in 2020.

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Trump's Attorney General William Barr was Attorney General of George Bush in 1992-1994 and brings extensive experience, which may have helped him stand his ground on December 1, 2020 rejecting claims of presidential election fraud at a meeting on Dec. 1 with Mr. Trump. In his book 'One Damn Thing After Another," Barr describes what happened on December 1, when he had lunch with Mike Balsamo of the Associated Press. Mike asked him what Barr was finding about election fraud claims. Barr's answer was that to date he had not found fraud on a scale that would have affected the outcome of the election. Within a short time this information was all over the country.

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Biden as president for 2024 and the matter of age is the subject of this report in WSJ. For too long the press has looked at president Biden's age as drawback ignoring his vast experience, and not Trump's only 3 years younger with poor food and exercise habits and overweight, as pointed out by Duke University Prof. Frank Bruni in the NYT. Here the WSJ at last shows that half of Americans born in 1942 are alive, with many of them about 650,000 working, 18% more than a decade earlier, according to Census Bureau. The saying is that 80 years is the new 60, because of advances in medicine, given healthy habits and exercise. 

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Rishi Sunak's approval rating drops by 5 percentage points in just one week, and this after the Conservative Conference in Manchester where he announced plans on relaxing net zero plans and other policy. Sunak's approval rating drops to 20%. A poll taken after Starmer's speech at the Labor conference in Liverpool shows the Conservatives dropping to 24% and Liberal Democrats dropping to 9%. Labor has the support of just under half of voters in Britain today at 47%. 32% now feel Starmer would be the best prime minister compared to 20% for Sunak. After the Liverpool Labor Conference the percentage of people who thought Labor had a clear plan for the country increased by 6 percentage points.

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Tesla at $24 per hour faces a challenge when Toyota which increased wages by 9% for non unionized labor pays $34 per hour for assembly line workers. Toyota did this after the new settlement with the UAW for 146,000 workers at Ford, GM and Stellantis. What it means is that instead of setting the wage standard Tesla will be a less attractive option for workers as other foreign automakers Nissan, VW and BMW increase their wages. The UAW union does not have to organize at Tesla for fair wages as Tesla's 20,000 workers would become the lowest paid, and least attractive option for workers. And Tesla would become an exception to fair wages in a cost of living crisis.

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German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock says a few rich fossil fuel states and emitters have "ripped" off the countries most affected by climate change.

Baerbock said of the COP29 talks at Baku, Azerbaijan-

"As the EU, we strongly oppose abandoning the path set in Dubai. What we need now is a coalition across continents for the climate."

"We are in the midst of a geopolitical power play by a few fossil fuel states."

"We Europeans will not allow the most vulnerable states in the world, especially the small island states, to be ripped off by some of the new [rich fossil-fuel] emitters."

 

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NYT's Keith Bradsher points out that weak sales in interior of China, and construction industry no longer supporting the economy, is leading to the new policy of pushing solar/EV's exports and sales overseas. These industries are state promoted with hidden subsidies of land, energy, and labor pool that the US lacks in similar subsidies- subsidies treated with theory arrogance in the US by economists who lack a grasp of the realities of manufacturing and trade. President Biden is freeing US industry from this stranglehold of weak economic theory that has too long beset US industry, by supporting American industry in every way possible, protecting and enlarging American manufacturing, and CHIPS technology scientific endeavors.

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In the closing days of the Harris vs Trump election campaign in October 2024, Trump attends a rally in Madison Square Garden in New York city. Harris visits a Baptist church in Philadelphia, and talks to young black men at a barber shop, visits a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philly. The visit to the Puerto Rican restaurant comes as a comedian at the Trump Madison Square Garden rally makes racist remarks about Latinos, Blacks and Jews, and calls Puerto Rico an "island of garbage." About 579,000 Latinos and Puerto Ricans make up the voting public in Pennsylvania. Latino stars put up video clips of the comments on Latinos on social media expressing their disapproval.

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France and Germany agreed to begin talks on a common nuclear umbrella in Jan 1997 as reported here in The Washington Post on Jan 25, 1997. 

The post cites Le Monde- "Our two countries see themselves exposed to the same risks. We are ready to open a dialogue on the role of nuclear deterrence in the context of European defense policy." Says the document signed by Germany's Helmut Kohl and Frances Jacques Chirac on Dec. 9, 1996. France had clashed with the US under De Gaule and De Gaulle had pursued an independent nuclear deterrent. Chirac took up this stance in 1996 with nuclear tests in French Polynesia and offered to share its nuclear deterrent with Germany.

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The Times of London offers this Analysis of Chinese president Xi's visit to Russia for a Victory Day Parade to be attended by 20 countries including Serbia, Venezuela's Maduro, and Brazil's Inacio Lula Da Silva. Soldiers from China will March in the Red Army Parade. Other countries attending are Indonesia, Egypt, Iraq.

XI and Putin have a new common view of the war as aginst the Nazis and Japanese Imperialism. The role of US Gen. Joe Stilwell in uniting Chinese forces to fight the Japanese is not mentioned in history books in China as the focus under Xi has shifted to increase the importance of the common fight in Russia and China aginst Germany and Japan.

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South Korea prepares for new elections with about a third or quarter of the people strongly supporting Yoon whose impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court April 4, 2025. Adjoining BBC Special Report shows how Yoon went astray. The gist also shows how South Korean democracy is only since 1988 compared to India's 1948, and how India's democratic traditions were formed under the Birtish with representation in parliament, first British then Indian, and in state assemblies in the 1930's, under Nehru in 1950's.

Today with the US imposing 25% tariffs on South Korea there is no government to make a response or strategy to deal with this.

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Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order of 2012, a group of immigrants brought to the country as children can have temporary status to stay and work in the U.S. In 2012 this was restricted to children brought in under the age of 16, with a maximum age of 30. The program was called "Dreamers." Under president Obama's executive order this will be changed to children brought in under the age of 18, with no maximum age. The number of immigrants goes up from 1.2 million in 2012 to 1.9 million with this particular change in 2014. A new group of parents of children who are citizens or legal residents residing in the U.S. for more than 5 years adds another 3.3 million to this number, with an additional 100,000 for parents of Dreamers. The total 1.9 million children and 3.4 million parents would be 5.3 million given new status to stay and work in the U.S. The 5.3 million will not be eligible for subsidies and for the Affordable Healthcare Act assistance. All will be required to pass security checks. This leaves about 6 million, including farm workers and other undocumented or illegal immigrants not touched by the new executive order. President Obama is expected to make the announcement of the executive order on Nov. 20, 2014, in Nevada, a state with a large Hispanic population. On the question of legal authority for the executive order, Prof. Stephen Yale-Loehr, an expert on immigration law at Cornell says the U.S. president does have broad authority to decide which group should get a reprieve from deportations. The decision to exclude benefits of government subsidies and subsidized healthcare was made to appeal to increased support of the American public for the executive order. ...

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Italy's bank UniCredit is making a rights issue of 7.5 billion euros in Jan 2012, to meet new reserve capital requirements set by regulators in Europe. Existing shareholders have the right to subscribe to the rights issue to new stock at a discount, a way of raising funds used in Europe.

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This New York Times editorial says Obama has no new plans for reviving negotiations after Israeli prime minister Netanyahu's rejection of peace negotiations based on a return to pre-1967 borders with land swaps. The Palestinians also have stepped back from further negotiations. Time is running out says the editorial.

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Ways in which Britain's Tory chancellor Mr. Javid, who himself attended further education schools, is addressing inequality in Britain, and issues such as low teenage literacy, low skill levels and education in working class areas. These are issues Labour had promised to tackle. Mr. Javid brings new ways and ideas. Action is also taken to nationalize poorly performing rail such as Northern Rail.  

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Polls show support for the two main parties in Germany, the CDU and the SDU, Christian Democrats and Social Democrats at new lows. Part of the reason is that the Social Democrats have not reflected their working class base, and the Christian Democrats have dissensions going forward with the CSU. The AfD is stronger in east Germany as the situation evolves with smaller parties having more support.

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Callum Borchers of the Washington Post summarizes the three angles of the investigation by Special Counsel Mueller into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election. This report points out that it was not until the firing of FBI director Comey that the investigation took a new turn by looking into the possible obstruction of justice in the case of National Security Adviser Flynn.

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Under new rules the whole of Italy is under restricted travel, with people required not to travel outside the area where they live. This is similar to steps taken in China that have helped control the spread in China and reduced the severity of the crisis. Quarantine and restricted travel is seen by health authorites worldwide as the most practical option and required to be taken early.

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Seattle is now the first U.S. city experiencing what it is like in a lockdown with streets empty. Seattle metro area is a city of 4 million with growing economy - at 6.9% growth, and 50% increase in jobs since 2010. New rules in Washington state are to wash your hands leaving the house and re-entering, no one going to anyone else's house. 

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Davey and Walsh tell the story of years of mismanagement in a city that lacked proper record keeping to keep track of costs. A municipal auditor brought in a financial consultant as far back as 2005. He found an additional $7.2 billion in retiree health costs that had never been taken into account. That warning was ignored. All the time the city was losing jobs with mismanagement at the auto companies and lack of labor-management cooperation. The Kilpatrick years as Mayor were largely wasted as problems piled up. The city was unable to borrow, and its revenue base was continually shrinking. Under Mayor Bing the city had a hard time meeting payroll. Other cities had faced financial crisis before, New York in 1975. Detroit was different in that two of the three major auto companies went into bankruptcy followed by the city itself facing bankruptcy, with mismanagement of finances and lack of a good plan for the city and the auto industry that brought everyone together behind a single goal of regeneration. ...

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Krauthammer cites Congressional Budget Office numbers that show the Obama U.S. health care law continues the spiralling costs of health care with new government mandates at a time of severe budget cuts in education and other areas- for 2013-2022 the costs come to $1.76 trillion. The initial Obama administration figures of 10 year costs of $938 billion announced in 2010 reflected the fact that the new U.S. health care law would take 4 years to fully go into effect. Costs after 2021 are shown to be $250 billion each year in the CBO figures. The law is now before the Supreme Court in 2012, which has to decide on the basis of the limits of the Commerce Clause.

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The inflation rate of 8% in India limits the new Modi government's ability to increase the growth rate without creating price pressures. The current account deficit was brought down to 1.7% in the last fiscal year from 4.7% for the prior year, by curbing imports of gold and reducing imports of manufactured goods. It is being financed by uncertain portfolio inflows in the second quarter for 2014.

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One of the severe problems noted in the recall disaster of 2010 was that practically all important quality and safety decisions are made in Japan. Without key American decisionmakers in the process this leaves Toyota exposed to all sorts of errors like the errors that ocurred in stalling the National Highway and Traffic Safety investigations into acceleration and braking accidents in Toyota vehicles. To compound theses errors managment at Toyota focussed on the $100 million in savings that avoiding or minimizing the recalls would generate, as revealed in internal documents. Early warning signs of similiar problems in Europe were not linked to problems in the U.S.. All this was ocurring against the backdrop of a change in management at Toyota- with the Toyota family once again regaining control of the company- and the failure of the management under Watanabe and previous CEO's to put quality before rapid expansion. The new changes are to have 2 new senior executive positions in the U.S. to focus on quality and safety. A chief safety executive will focus on safety and recalls, and a chief quality officer coming from the top ranks of the American operation will now sit on a special committee for Global Quality led by CEO Akio Toyoda. The commitee for Global Quality will address the global quality issues around one table with the highest ranking executives at Toyota right at the table to talk things out. ...

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In the third Democratic presidential debate in Dec. 2013 Hillary Clinton came out looking much stronger than Sanders and Malloy. She described the Sanders government programs to make helath care and college free as too expensive requiring a 40% increase in federal spending, or $18 trillion-$20 trillion. Clinton said "we have to be really thoughtful about how we're going to afford what we propose." And said she would not increase taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year. On foreign policy issues she differed with Sanders and Malloy on the Assad regime and civilian deaths in Syria, saying Sanders had supported the removal of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. She used her long experience as Secretary of State to display a better command of the issues. On Hillary Clinton's comment about Donald Trump's statement for barring Muslims from entry into the U.S., that it was becoming a recruiting tool for ISIS videos, a NYT fact check shows no proof of this. Clinton said she preferred not to turn the issue of terrorism into a clash of civilizations with Islam, as her Republican opponents have done....