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Norway 2-1 against Brazil World Cup Soccer to enter round of 16 with 2 Haaland goals. Brazil failed to impress as Norway had most of the ball possession. Norway's goalkeeper Hyland made 4 brilliant saves to make it difficult for Brazil to score. Brazil's one goal came in the 98th minute when a Norwegian player was given a yellow card for elbowing a Brazilian player and Neymar made a penalty kick. Without that Brazil would have lost 2-0 after Haaland scored twice. Brazilian player Vinicius Jr. was hailed in the media but could do little, and Carlo Ancelotti as coach could not come up with any ideas to change the game. The entire World Cup in 2026 is different because of the way smaller nations have played. Nations such as Cabo Verde have held firm, Germany was defeated by Paraguay, Italy did not even make it to the round of 32 losing to Bosnia. The loss of Brazil leaves only France with Mbappe, Argentina with Messi, and England with Kane standing. US faces Belgium on Monday July 6, 2026. Argentina barely stayed on when Messi scored in overtime against Cabo Verde, nearly losing. Only the French team has played consistently. Spain meets Portugal on Monday. No one knows how it will turn out. ...

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US Strategic Petroleum Reserves in July 2026 with half the capacity 352 million barrels released under Biden and DJT to tamp down oil prices.  Much of the reserve capacity is in caverns on the Gulf Coast with problems of leaks, wear and tear, equipment breakdowns, lack of investment. The massive underground salt caversna re located in Winnie and Freeport on Texas Gulf Coast, in Baton Rouge and Hackberry on Louisiana Gulf Coast. President Gerald Ford set up the Strategic Reserves in 1975, making these facilities 50 years old.

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Yale endowment grows by $4.5 billion to $44.1 billion at 11% return in 2025. For 1000 students  offered no cost tution for undergrads this was about a $72 million cost in 2025 when tution is set at Yale at $72,000 a year for undergrads. Of 6800 undergrad students about 15% of students offered no cost tution at the cutoff income level of $75,000. This year the cutoff is set at $200,000. Even if this adds 1000 more students this will in 2026 cost Yale a mere $72 million, a tiny fraction of  1.6% of the total endowment gain of $4.5 billion in 2025. What this shows is that these top tier schools are still wanting to look good but are not really changing a highly flawed system. It is only in 2026 that a new law the Big Beautiful Bill of DJT increased tax on university endowments from 1.4% to 8%. Better that government can address the flawed education system with tax money than let the universities in the higher tiers make education less and less affordable, destroying a pillar of the democratic system of government by giving education to only a privileged few. ...

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BBC view of Starmer - a top lawyer whose "rules approach" did not connect with British public- coming after 14 years of austerity Starmer's style of governing, the actions of his chancellor at the finance ministry, and the messaging, all seemed totally out of place. Starmer spent most of his carreer as a human rights lawyer for the Crown. He was head of the crown Prosecution Service for 2008 to 2013, which did not prepare him well for the post austerity disaffection of the British public- he ended up with the worst ratings of any prime minister.

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Germany's top goal scorer Deniz Undav in World Cup Soccer 2026- started work at 4.00 am job at a laser machine factory then training for soccer later joins English team Albion, then the Stuttgart team. He was considered to be small and scrawny as a young boy playing in preparatory soccer team at Werder Bremen, leading to his taking this unconventional route to the top in world soccer. He scored 9 goals in 12 games surpassing Haaland, Messi, and Mbappe, in the time he took to get a goal in this World Cup- 50 minutes.

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Russian economy growth slowed to 1% in 2025 growth slows to 0.8% in 2026 following 4% growth in 2023 and 2024. The Economy Minister Reshetnikov says Russia is on the brink of recession. Consumer spending growth was zero in Feb 2026, new car sales dropped 38% in 2025 and continue to drop. Le Monde cites the example of the Mashenka bakery which is facing high costs and increase in value added tax to 22% and was near bankruptcy. Small businesses are suffering in this economic situation. Interest rates are kept at 20% lowered to 15% to keep inflation in check. This shows the Russian economy and people are in a difficult situation to finance the Ukraine war with 40% of public spending going to the defense budget for 2025-2027.

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Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni has a strong confident team for World Cup 2026 says The Guardian. This includes Messi, Julian Alvarez, Thiago Almada, Lautaro Martinez and youngster Nico Paz in 4-3-3 formation. Scaloni knows it is difficult to replicate past success from 2022.  “It will be a very complex and difficult World Cup. We have to prepare the players because what’s coming is going to be tough; you can’t always win.” See all the details about the Argentine team in The Guardian.

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China's export dependent economy with 4% decline in fixed investment Jan-May 2026 and 27% jump in exports.1 million car exports per month in June. Exports make up 20% of China's GDP. China is challenging German companies in their home markets in Europe. Domestic sales of cars are down 16% in June. What this means is that China's growth now depends on exports alone, with construction slowdown, and weak consumer spending. How does this tie into China's posture in trade with the US? It negotiated from a position of strength on rare earths not to give in to DJT tariffs yet knows the importance of trade for the Chinese economic model, importance of US and EU markets, markets worldwide. China's strategy is to shift some of the lost US sales due to tariffs to other countries in Latin America and Asia. A top priority is to keep trade with the US and European Union on a good footing, so that its exports can be absorbed. How does it affect Hormuz? For China Hormuz as an oil source is much lower in importance and China can do without Iran, it absolutely cannot do without the US and European Union to take a big part of its exports. It also does not openly say this but it also shares concerns similar to the US, on nuclear weapons in Iran. India, Japan and the EU have similar concerns. As shown in the articles on this page China has large unused oil in reserves and coal supplies, has lower oil demand at 4% growth, and is accelerating renewable energy, so that it is now importing 8.5 million barrels a day down from 12.5 million barrels a day. By doing this China puts this oil back into the world supply leading to lower oil prices. This means the world can do without the supplies from Hormuz, keep lower oil prices, and go on as before if Hormuz remains closed. The US can focus on domestic issues and its involvement in the Middle East can be limited to naval blockade which the US Navy is capable of doing. This is good for China, good for the US, and good for the World. Local governments in China, provincial authorites, pushed growth in building road, bridges, factories during the 30 year growth phase 1990-2020. In 2026 local governments with debt loads and lack of good projects for investment are a bottleneck to growth. This is the first time fixed investment is in decline, except for the years in 1961 and in 1967. The year 1961 is a result of many mistakes made by chairman of CCP, Mao, by shifting 2 million in farm labour to work in iron foundries, and the shift from private farm plots to soviet style commune farms, coupled with floods leading to 43-46 million famine deaths (1994, Chen Yizi, top advisor to CCP General Secretary Zhao Zhiyang). 1967 is the chaotic situation of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution launched by Mao. What it shows is that the China Miracle like the Japan Miracle and the German Miracle of recovery after World War II, is based on certain conditions and will enter a phase of lower growth closer to 3% like other industrialized nations over time. India and Indonesia are larger than China and will be the next growth story, which is also shown on these pages this week, with the address to the Indonesian parliament by Modi, and Indonesian president Prabovo's saying that he has studied Modi's economic changes and is copying them as there is no copyright. ...

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Colorado primary results in July 2026- challenges to establishment candidates succeed as the Nation looks for solutions to healthcare costs and neglect of health and nutrition with high obesity and related illnessses. Dr. Oz and RFK Jr have aroused awareness on this issue and have come with solutions within the DJT administration. The Middle East has been brought into the elections yet it is a remote issue for most voters concerned about rising cost of living, and the both the DJT and Biden adminstrations want to focus on strengthening the economy and understand the dangers of involvement in the Middle East.

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China high speed rail- how it was done with help of Kawasaki  of Japan, Alstom/Siemens of France/Germany over 2008 to 2025, with borrowed technologies, the largest network of high speed  trains built in 17 years. India is starting the same journey with Japanese assistance and capital. The first leg is the Mumbai to Ahmedabad high speed rail. In a decade a similar rail high speed network will connect all major cities in India. India is working with the same speed as China and will have a new generation technologies high speed rail network by 2035 using Japan's latest technological advances.

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Bill Frauenhofer the chips Czar in DJT administration, Commerce Secretary Luttnick and Intel CEO Tan, his Finance VP, all work together to put Intel back on top- shares quadrupled in price in 2026 . US gets Apple and Space X other companies to buy from Intel. Intel gets AI orders from Nvidia as CPU demand rises. The US has converted $5 billion in federal grants into stock for a 10% stake in Intel. This is state capitalism in many ways,  imitates China as it rapidly modernized, and this helped  China get a large foothold in chips and EV's.

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Hiring rebounds in the US in January 2026 after slow hiring in 2025.

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A very basic EV pickup truck at $25,000 financed by Amazon- with AC Cruise Control and 2 person seating that can be converted into 5 seating using a special kit. The company named Slate based in Troy, Michigan, does not depend on government incentives, bypasses dealerships altogether. It is built using robotic machinery not metal stamping machines and does not use paint but uses $500 customizable vinyl wraps. This way it avoids having paint shops and metal stamping plants like the major car makers, which are major parts of the cost. It will be made at a factory in Warsaw, Indiana in 2027. The Slate pickup truck is shorter than a Toyota Corolla. It can be driven on one EV charge for 205 miles and can use Tesla's charging network.

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In Smucker's failed acquisition of Hostess Twinkies for $5 billion business analysis but no mention of RFK Jr MAHA from WSJ. How on earth could Smucker's think that foods like Twinkies would be growing in size, because by 2020 the dangers of such junk food were already evident from the Nation's obesity problem. It isnt' the failure of distribution channels for Twinkies merged into Smucker's jams products slower distribution that is the problem (the 65 days shelf life for Twinkies). It is the Nation's gradual recognition of and awareness of how obesity happens and how it destroys people's health and well being. 

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Russia's takes on a tough negotiating position in the winter of 2025-26, just when the Russian economy suffers decline in oil revenues. Opaque loans in the defense sector that make up 25% of loans or $202 billion could be a problem. Cost of the war in 2025 are over $200 billion. Other problems are the finances of Lukoil and Rosneft, the increasing amount of sanctioned oil that is sitting on tankers in the sea with no buyers. Gazprom has a loss of $12.9 billion in 2025, with cash reserves depleted from $22 billion in 2022 to $6-8 billion in Jan 2026, with $20 billion of additional debt taken on. Rosneft profit dropped 70% in 2025 to $3.6 billion. Consumer spending is down by about 9% in December 2025 compared to 2024. Yet this is unlikely to lead to social or political problems in Russia. It will make it more difficult to finance the war compared to previous years. The Ukraine economy needs $135 billion for the next 2 years for funding the budget which now depoends on laons from the EU. Both Russia and Ukraine are fighting an exhausting war as it enters the fifth year of the war, exhausting their economies and their population, as the leaders of Russia and Ukraine fail to reach an agreement. ...

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US naval base at Bahrain and the damage from missiles in the war  June 2026 as shown by the WSJ. Bahrain is located only 150 miles from the Iranian coastline and was targeted along with other sites including Kuwait and UAE. A new route along the Omani coastline protected by US naval power in the region that then goes along the UAE coastline is now the route opened up by the US for shipping oil through Hormuz. This route is key to reducing oil prices and the recent visit by Marco Rubio of the US to the Gulf Cooperation Council being held in Bahrain June 25,  and the meetings held there, affirmed the open navigation of the seas on international waterways as being under international law. This has led to the fall of oil prices to prewar levels of around $70 per barrel. The US will redo the naval forces and bases in the region with less in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, smaller footprint in Bahrain, and move some naval forces to the west closer to or inside Israel. The administration has asked Congress for $40 billion for the naval and military effort to restore open navigation of the seas for the world's energy of which $5 billion will go to repair of damaged naval facilities. One of the effects of the war that is constructive is ther is now an awareness to manage oil consumption in India, China and Japan major users of oil coming through Hormuz. China has figured out ways to do without the 3 million barrels a day from Hormuz, India has setup alternative oil supplies from Venezuela, and Japan is both cutting oil use and looking at alternative sources. Oil companies are also working on alternative supplies in other regions of the world. Both China, India, and European Union are accelerating their renewable energy sources to meet energy requirements. This means after 2026 the world may not be dependent on Hormuz for energy supplies, Hormuz becoming one of multiple sources and alternative supplies than in the past. This will also keep oil prices in the $50-$70 range that is consistent with cost of living and economic growth. ...

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French appellate court says 15 month sentence adequate and  letting Marie Le Pen run for president in 2026. The judges said that- "disregarding this would undermine the principle of freedom of candidacy, an essential condition for the democratic exercise of universal suffrage.” This happens as French elections show France divided between the urban areas such as Paris and major city centers from the rural areas and small towns across the country who favor Le Pen's party. The socialist parties have split with Melenchon leading his own party. Macron has failed to win support and is highly unpopular as president. This has led to failure to have a prime minister in office with a clear program. It also has created much uncertainty in French politics, similar to what is happening in Britain and also in Spain with Starmer out, and Pedro facing problems in Spain.

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Retirement in America 2026- what to watch out for- $6500 per month full time home health aide. There is  $45.8 trillion in US IRA's 401 (K)  in 2026. It was half that in 2015. People are saving more 8-12% of income. A lot of it invested in arget dated mutual funds. Yet older Americans, seniors are facing poverty- 15% in 2025 compared to 10.7% of older Americans living in poverty in 2021. cost of living has hit this group the hardest. Removing the tax on Social Security could be prescient, popular and fair for these Americans, as suggested by DJT. If invested well this $45 trillion could give the US leadership in investment for decades to come as it grows with good management of investments raising living standards and financing the Nation's rebuilding of infrastructure in all areas.

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JAPAN PM SANAE TAKAICHI VISIT TO INDIA JULY 3, 2026. Deepening of ties between Asia's 2 leading democracies and largest top 5 economies of the world with a combined population of 1.5 billon and a combined purchasing parity GDP of 27 trillion dollars about 60% of China's purchasing power GDP. With the acceleration of the Indian economy to about 8% growth and complementing Japanese capital and Indian ambition the effort will be made to close the gap with China, to establish independent resilient supply chains, and set the new course for Asia as a whole. Once the gap is closed over the next 10 years just Japan India partnership will be the size of the Chinese economy. The American and European Union economies would be the size of the Asian economies also complementing the Japan India partnership, to set a clear course for the world of nations based on the rule of law, open navigation, and peaceful cooperation for development of Africa, Asia and Latin American nations.

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The Guardian's Guide to 1248 players in World Cup Soccer 2026- looks at all 1248 players in their respective teams.

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One example of how the appearance of divisiveness in the media may be misleading is how all sides are coming together on the toughest problems. On housing supply a genuine change has happened. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act biggest bipartisan legislation before the midterm elections is passed in Congress. The most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation in a century as the president DJT calls it, passes both Houses of US Congress by big majorities, in the House by 358 to 32 and in the Senate by 85 to 5. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott from both parties worked together to get it done. It addresses both rural and urban needs for small towns and large cities, creates more funding, cuts approval time, and provides incentives for builders. It also limnits institutional investors in how much of housing they control as this worsened the supply of housing and housing prices in recent years. The extent of the housing supply crisis can be seen by the 54% climb in housing prices since 2020, costing 5 times the median income far above historical standards, according Harvard Center for Housing Studies. ...

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German economic growth drops in 2026 to below 1%. What is happening?Germany manufacturing jobs drop to 6.6 million lowest in 10 years in 2026 as China makes same products for less and better. China is shipping more of its products to the German market and displacing German products in world markets. The same problems affecting the US in loss of manufacturing jobs is affecting Germany. This is happening as China uses long range plans coordinated with industry and state owned companies to deliver superior results in world markets to American and German companies competing on their own without coordination with the government in a long range plan and effort. The American and German companies face greater uncertainty in markets and are slow to invest in critical areas and technologies as a result leaving them exposed to Chinese competition. China has used the Japanese style subsidizing its industries and has another advantage in doing this in that many are state owned companies or heavily subsidized and supported by the state. After 1990 the fall of the Soviet system led to a sense that free markets in their purest form were better. This was not really true as the soviet system of state planning failed because it did not use the best features of the market economy that work. Japan adapted the market system to its needs and used state partnership with private industry to produce good results. The US did not learn from Japan's example. China learned from both the failure of soviet style planning and the success of the Japanese system to adapt its state plannning system by including aspects of the market economy. The US and Germany can only learn from these examples and adapt US market economy by including aspects of what worked for China and Japan of state plannning and long range plans of industry and government. Look back to how FDR won the war- within 5 years 1940-1945 he combined the best aspects of the planning and coordination of government and industry to achieve goals not thought possible. Britain did the same which shows such planning and coordination is not only a part of the US system of business and industry, it is just that these lessons and the lessons of other nations like Japan and China after 1950 were forgotten. India is now adapting its system for business and industry, and government for five year plans borrowing and learning from the examples of the US, Japan, China and the EU. ...

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Milan Cortina Olympics 2026 Medals table  Norway and Italy on top US France Germany Sweden France Switzerland and Austria Japan in top 10 for gold medals. Britain with 1 was surpassed by Australia with 2 gold medals.

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The Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government Mr. Anantha Nageswaran, makes these comments on the economy of India before the presentation of the new Budget for April 2023 to March 2024. The Economic Survey of India states that "India is prepared to grow at its potential once the one-off shocks of the Covid pandemic and of the supply chain recede." He sees the sweeping effects of the reforms across multiple dimensions taken from 2016 to 2022 having a lag effect and now making their impact. This means that potential growth can go up to 7 or 8% with macroeconomic improvement, fiscal improvement, infrastructure efforts, women's employment, and getting rid of LIC (License, Inspect and Compliance) across local, state and central levels. He says the central bank estimate of 6.8% retail inflation for 2022-2023 is outside its target range but yet not high enough to deter private consumption, and no low enough to weaken the inducement to invest. He says slower growth in the world including the US will bring two advantages for India- low oil prices and a better current account deficit situation.  ...