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The Japanese economy went through asevere contraction in the first quarter 2009, declining 15% on an annualized basis. But Japan's unemployment rate in April was 4.8%, compared with much higher rates in EUrope and even higher rates in the USA. France and Germany have social democratic states that protect workers jobs, and Germany even after the Harz reforms continues to help workers deal with unemployment making it least painful as possible with government help. Japan takes this astep further. The law in Japan requires that even though companies can cut worker's hours, they must pay at least 60% of their hourly wages during that time. THe government provides help. It has budgeted $624 million this year to reimburse companies for half of these payments. In March 48,000 companies got subsidies for 2.38 million employees according to government figures. This includes large companies like NEC Electronics and Nissan Motor. THey have to find things for the workers to do, community service like keeping the area clean, vegetable gardens, handicrafts shop, anything that helps the communities. A recent survey by the Nikkei financial daily, shows zero percent of large business owners said they had plans to layoff permanent staff members, compared with 39% in South Korea. WIthout this the unemployment rate, say experts, would be 2 percentage points higher....

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The Los Angeles fire is headed for the UCLA Brentwood area says this report in The Times, ever widening across the city. The cost is now put at $150 billion. Wind surges this weekend poses new risks.

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Germany's and the European Union's oil imports from Russia are undermining western sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air says Russia earned 63 billion from fossil fuel exports since Feb. 24. Germany paid 9.1 billion euros for fossil fuel deliveries in the two months since the Russian invasion. Italy is next at 6.9 billion euros in oil and gas imports from Russia. China is third with 6.7 billion euros of oil and gas imports from Russia. The European Union is the main importer accounting for 71% or 44 billion euros of Russian oil and gas. CREA has found that western oil companies continue to do high volumes of trade in fossil fuels with Russia. This includes Total. BP, Shell, and ExxonMobil.

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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.

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The great university of ancient Buddhist India is located at Rajgir, Bihar. Nalanda University was built in 5th century AD and was the largest center of Buddhist learning for all of Asia from India, China, Vietnam to Korea and Japan. It's new campus was opened by PM Modi on June 19, 2024. Near it is the Mahavihara Budhhist temple renovated from ruins at a UNESCO heritage site. Excavations were done in the British period by the 1860's bringing to light the ruins of Nalanda, the wonder that was Buddhist India. Buddha attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in Bihar and his last years were spent at Kusinagar in Bihar, all in the vicinity of Nalanda University, a center of ancient learning that is older than all European Universities, and is only now becoming known throughout the world.

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The dollars strengthed role with the world including countries like Korea clamoring for dollars.

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The weakness of South Korean political parties and political institutions is apparent in the way Yoon handled the presidency and his opponents try to remove him from office. South Korea needs to mature as a democratic country with less divisive politics.

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“Getting gas from America is always a good thing.” Alaska's governor Dunleavy tells Japanese and South Korean, Taiwanese investors. Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba says the LNG from Alaska is "wonderful for us." It takes just 7 days to get this LNG to South Korea or Japan.  Mike Dunleavy's plan, called Alaska LNG, is for a 800-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay that would feed gas to a to be built liquefied natural gas terminal at Nikiski near Anchorage. What was once just a hope as investors pulled out is now a reality with DJT telling Dunleavy, "lets get it done, let's not just talk about it." Note that something similar is likely to happen for car investments by Japanese and South Korean companies. Already Hyundia Kia has announced a $21 billion investment. For Alaska LNG pipeline South Korea has said this has "infinite possibilities for growth." US Navy is rebuilding for protecting the Asia-Pacific, Japan and South Korea know the importance of the actions of the new Republican administration for Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region, and tariffs can be a time to invest more in American manufacturing and show restraint in pricing. ...

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Surjit Bhalla, executive director for India at the IMF, looks at different trajectories of growth in India to 2030 and 2047. He looks at growth for per capital incomes that India can achieve over the next 2 decades to meet the aspirations of a young population of over 1 billion. With next generation technologies and acceleration in growth after certain parameters are met including logistics capabilities, manufacturing in advanced technologies, infrastructure improvements, rule of law in some states, federal and state governments working together, much of the work to achieve per capita incomes similar to Japan and South Korea can be achieved in the next decade by 2035.

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Remote work and transfer to other locations from San Francisco area mean salary changes of 10-20% for tech workers in Silicon Valley. Most tech workers in companies such as Google are now working remotely. This is leading to companies making plans for a future work force with decentralized staffs in many less costly locations. This should also reduce the pressure on living costs and the quality of life in northern California cities. The cost of living in other cities in the U.S. is 10-25% lower than that in San Francisco, Seattle or New York. Tech companies are following a policy of setting the wage based on location and local costs for housing and other costs.

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The lessons from Italy, the epicenter now of the coronavirus pandemic, are clear- act early and decisively, impose quarantines and lockdown quickly to prevent intermingling. These steps need to be put early, with absolute clarity, and strictly enforced. This report in the NYT shows how decisive action early is the only way to prevent the crisis from becoming a large one that threatens the health system and millions. German states such as Bavaria and others now have a $25,000 euro and some have jail time. Singapore has jail time and fines for violating the stay home quarantine orders which it imposes after contact tracing. Taiwan has similar measures. Enforcement and strict control are part of the tools that have worked in these places and in China, South Korea.  Britain has still to close flights from Iran, Italy, which The Times reports on March 20 are still landing at Heathrow. This is after the U.S. weeks earlier banned flights from China, Iran, Italy, and last week from Europe after EU nations failed to take action early.  ...

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About 570,000 Asians live in the Washington D.C. area, making it the area with the largest concentration of Asian people in the East coast of the U.S.. Chinese in the District and Montgomery County, especially in Rockville and Potomac. Filipinos in Prince George and Charles counties. Indians in Loudoun and Fairfax counties. Koreans in Centreville. The 2010 census shows a 60% increase in the Asian population for the Washington D.C. area. Washington D.C. now compares with New York, Northern California, and Boston in the number of Asians living there. Indians are the fastest growing group among Asian-Americans. In Loudoun county, near the high tech corridor surrounding Dulles International airport, the Indian population has gone up from 400 in 1990, 2300 in 2000, up to 20,000 in the 2010 census. They also make up the biggest group of Asians in Virginia.

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Strategic siting in renewable rich areas (Dallas center the largest is in renewable rich area) and fair cost allocation to not burden small businesses and households are major issues in Data Center building. Data centers for AI -rows and rows of servers 5000 in hyperscale data centers- used 4% of the US total electricity use in 2024. This is growing rapidly. By 2030 this is expected to grow by more than double, by 133%. About 60% of this to power the servers and 30% for cooling the servers. About a third of these servers are located in Virginia, Texas and California. How will this affect Cost of Living concerns, affect electricity prices? Carnegie Mellon working with North Carolina State University did the modeling on the energy and emissions implications of data center buildup in the US in their Open Outlook Initiative. A 8% annual increase in electricity prices is expected on average and as high as 25% in Virginia by 2030.  Total of about 40% increase over 5 years. Between 2014 and 2024 10 year period average cost for a home electricity use went up 25% from $114 a month to $142. This would now go up by 40% to about $200 by 2030 in just 5 years significantly impacting cost of living in the US. In which states will it strain electricity grids? In 2023 data centers consumed 26% of the total electricity supply in Virginia. In North Dakota 15%, Nebraska 12%, Iowa 11%, Oregon 11% according to Electric Power Research Institute. What are the energy types used? Natural gas is used for 40% of the data center electricity, wind and solar 25%, nuclear 20% and coal 15%.   ...

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China, Japan and South Korea routinely provide assistance to their companies and through this to the workforce.  Economists who lacked understanding of business stuck to an ideological idea that the capitalist system of Adam Smith was built on fair competition. What they did not understand was what was meant by fair and what capitalism prevailed since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 1750's and Adam Smith's days. Much of the British business was based on its own version of fairness and trade which meant whatever worked for British domination of trade, the oceans, and markets. These economists missed this completely. Now the US shows it is able to do what Britain of Smith's days and Japan, China in the post 1950's and 1990's have done to dominate world trade and world shipping and logistics, and has the funds to provide assistance to American companies for world markets. $550 Billion from standard 10-15% tariffs charge for all nations to access US market as a fund to finance US Manufacturing.  ...

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Some companies have raised prices by 5% on footwear and clothing. Out of the total tariffs of about $50 billion in the first half, the Census department numbers show that about $22 billion is from machinery and electronic, about $12 billion from automobiles and about $12 billion from items such as clothing, footwear.  The major manufacturers in Japan, South Korea and Europe of automobiles and electronics, machinery, make up $34 billion out of the $50 billion in tariffs. To maintain US market access  these large companies are absorbing most of the tariffs. It is only in clothing and footwear making up $12 billion that some of the tariff related price increases will be seen.  Overall this impact could be 5% of $12 billion or $600 million. The DJT administration will find ways to offset this for American buyers in 2025-2026 similar to the deduction of auto lease interest costs in the One Big Act 2025 to cut automobile expenses, using the new $100 billion Customs revenue.  ...

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A finding that could create a health revolution in America- unhealthy snacks shift our appetite away from healthy foods. Families who shift away from processed or ultra processed foods and experiment with it for a month find that their cravings for these unhealthy snacks diminish, and they can eat healthy home cooked foods with gusto. Children who simply poked at the home cooked food are shown to relish eating home cooked meals after an experiment turning off ultraprocessed foods and snacks, foods that have unthinkingly crept into our nutrition and our food habits. We are simply setting up ourselves and our children for trouble ahead as these ultra processed foods deteriorate our nutritional fulfillment and cause diseases that would in the absence of ultraprocessed foods not happen. These diseases have become so commonplace today that we owe it to ourselves and our children to take corrective action. People save up for retirement over many years yet create no savings and bank deposits in the area of better nutrition and health, so that when they get older that bank account of nutrition and health is empty and running out. ...

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Asylum hotel protests and illegal migrants in Britain filing for asylum at 111,000 cases in first 6 months costing $5.4 billion in first half 2025 alone. The Times of London says Starmer is cautious by nature, but strong action is needed going back to the source of the problem that illegal migrants do not belong in any European nation including Britain. The stark truth says Cowley in the Times of London is that having a battalion of British infantry on the coastline of France as it was during the Paris Olympics in France, is needed to keep the boats out of Britain with Britain moving out of the European Convention of Human Rights. That convention was not intended for this situation, just as the British system of justice was not intended for this situation for the people of other countries on other continents illegally migrating over oceans. Just as much as there is no Asian Convention of Human Rights for Europeans migrating over oceans to China, Japan or South Korea now industrialized nations with high standards of living and social protections for health care. ...

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Washington Post Analysis and details of Census Bureau trade information in September 2025 -showing the country by country and product tariffs by US and which tariffs are waiting for final trade agreements. China, India and Switzerland, Mexico face high tariffs. UK, EU, South Korea, Japan have made trade agreements with the US, China, India Swiss are still to finalize trade agreements leading to the uncertainty. The North American Trade Agreement is being renegotiated leading to uncertainty for Mexico and Canada which have both benefitted from trade with the US to detriment of US manufacturers.  China has huge surpluses that keep growing over time to $1 trillion ($992 billion) a year in 2024.  DJT Tariffs are designed as a bold step to remake the international trading system so that it does not work to the benefit of other nations gaming the system over decades as US administrations Clinton, Bush, Obama, paid no attention. Trade Deficits and the National Debt are a problem not just the National Debt. On the National Debt Republicans have pushed through cuts in parts of the budget where costs had escalated tremendously. ...

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Greg Ip of WSJ points out that DJT's tariffs are not fully understood. DJT did not use tariffs in the way he is doing now in his first term. Today Congress understands that it is a negotiating tactic when the US is at a disadvantage with other nations using non tariff and hidden barriers. Mostly all countries except China will accept the tariffs and it generates $240 billion a year to finance US resurgence. In the past US spent years of negotiating to get agreements with recalcitrant countries like Japan or China or the EU. The US just doesn't have that kind of time when it has lost its manufacturing, its shipbuilding, its shipping and ports. The average tariff under Biden was 3%. It now is about 13.4%. DJT strategy is to simply hit all imports with a 10-15% tariff across the board as price for access to the US market and for its defense and military protection- this means EU, Japan, South Korea,Taiwan, India cannot retaliate.  ...

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A country smaller than the US state of Connecticut will host the first World Cup Soccer games in the Arab world from November 21 to December 18. England will play US , the day after Thanksgiving.

Group A  Netherlands with Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal

Group B   England with Iran, US, Wales or Scotland/Ukraine

Group C.  Argentina with Saudi, Mexico, Poland

Group D   France with Peru, Australia/United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Tunisia

Group E  Spain, Germany, Japan with Costa Rica or New Zealand

Group F  Belgium with Canada, Morocco, Croatia

Group G.  Brazil with Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon

Group H   Portugal with Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea 

Defending champion France has it better in its group. 

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Tata Projects Limited is the lowest of two bidders at 860 crores for India's new parliament building. The old parliament building is considered inadequate today and was first opened in 1927 when the British first introduced local legislatures as a form of home rule in India. The time allowed for it to be built is a strict 21 months and will require putting a new face on the central Vista area that runs through the centre of New Delhi. It should generate jobs, and provide a fitting place for debating the many issues that face India in its drive for modernization, particularly today after the pandemic when many issues such as manufacturing, industrial development defense, agricultural modernization, infrastructure development are taking on new urgency. After almost three decades of slow progress India is now entering a new phase for speed and implementation of projects.

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Poliovirus could be present in New York wastewater as early as April 2022 evidence shows. In UK this could as early as February 2022. It shows the need for rigorous polio vaccination programs. Rockland and Orange counties in the New York City area have polio vaccination rates for eligible children as low as 60%, compared to a national rate of 93%. Decades of neglect of healthcare, and lack of investment in healthcare infrastructure and healthcare services, and in education for healthcare that was a major priority in the postwar years in the fifties and sixties have led to a situation where this is happening today. Vaccination rates are wholly inadequate and a 100% consensus that existed on key things such as vaccination needs to be recovered in the US, by changing the entire sense of priorities in society and the way it invests in its people.

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President Murmu addresses the first session at the new parliament building in New Delhi, India. In the tradition of British parliamentary democracy followed by India the opening speech of parliament is done by the president outlining the government's plans for the coming years. Murmu describes the achievements in providing basic infrastructure, water, cooking gas, rail and transport, food, healthcare to over 1 billion people in the last ten years, and controlling the cost of living. Making new investments in digital and other technologies, in infrastructure development to build an advanced economy under Vikshit Bharat by 2047, the 100th anniversary of independence from British rule. It also reflects women's empowerment and diversity in a democracy in Asia as Murmu was a schoolteacher in Orissa in the northeast and the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is a woman from the Chennai area in the south.