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This exceptional report from rural areas in France by Roger Cohen shows why the support is growing for the far right and the far left in rural areas and smaller towns outside the large cities which have suffered from high unemployment and neglected as technology and capital moved to other areas. Cohen talks to Nicholas Bay, secretary general of the National Front, who says this election is about patriotism, the nation state vs globalization, as the National Front tries to portray its opposition as being less pro-France, and less pro French culture. The centrist candidate Macron stands in front of a statue of Alexandre Dumas in Picardy, an hour northeast of Paris, and says he is for an "open patriotism" that embraces people of different origins and embraces refugees. Cohen attends a Le Pen rally in Metz, Lorraine, talks to a National Front mayor in Picardy and left party supporters in the town, talks to foreigners in the banlieu of Sevran. Cohen says a National Front victory is possible if enough voters who support the far left party of Melenchon do not vote for centrist candidate Macron, and enough voters of centre right Fillon supporting French culture and nationalism drift to Le Pen. As in the Dutch election with Moroccans derided by the far right the immigrant issue is a factor. Against this background is how events play out in the last weeks of the election. In March and April the events in the U.S. show a Trump administration moving to the centre, adopting a quieter and more constructive tone towards Mexico and immigrants. Relations with Russia have worsened after the U.S. response to the chemical attack in Syria, and the French public may now see this as a common threat to NATO and the European Union. As in the Dutch election a lot depends on the last weeks of the election and how well the centrist parties, the centre right and the centre left get their message across about what is to be gained by building anew on the foundations of the past without risking a lot on an uncertain path of referendums and exit from the European Union.   ...

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Britain staged a rehearsal for a pandemic called Cygnus in 2016. Till that time the preparations for a pandemic that started years earlier during the SARS crisis were conducted vigorously. Yet the by this time Britain was becoming immersed in the Brexit struggles in the ruling Conservative Party. Prime minister Cameron resigned on July 13, 2016  and was replaced by Theresa May. From that time on the struggles with pro Brexit factions led by Boris Johnson consumed the COnservative Party and sucked the life out of the pandemic planning that Britain had conducted for years before. The recommendations to correct deficiencies from the pandemic rehearsal exercize were ignored. The second failure happened as the crisis approached. Again the Brexit date of January 31 intervened and the months long struggle to get Brexit had taken so much energy and tired out most of the British public including new prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party Boris Johnson. Johnson did not attend the first Cobra meeting of the highest level ministers and military, convened on January 25, 2020, as reported in the Times. Such meeting are convened only for a national threat. Only 5 weeks later on March 2 did the prime minister attend a Cobra meeting. During this time the situation was grave in Italy with rising cases and infections. The entire process was conducted during this time by the Health minister Mr. Hancock who had assured the public that the situation was under control. Britain now has the highest number of infections in Europe exceeding that in Italy- at 240,000 on May 15, 2020. The prime minister and his adviser Mr. Cummings, were also infected by the virus, and Mr. Johnson spent time in ICU before recovering. Queen Elizabeth addressed the nation on Easter day, the first such address since 1940, to boost Briain's spirits. Never had Britain been less prepared as in 2020 when earlier preparations were ditched for austerity plans and events such as Brexit fatigue conspired to strip the nation of the crucial 5-6 weeks of preparation since the first January 25 Cobra meeting of the highest people in government.  Never had such preparation even for 6 weeks been more crucial than in February and March as the infectivity ratio was determined by infectious disease specialists at the best British universities and scientific institutions to be between 2.6 and 3.4 compared to the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 which was somewhere between 2.0 and 3.0. This means every one person infects another 3 persons, compared to about 1 person in a regular flu season. This reproduction ratio and the nature of coronavirus remain a threat today as Britain, Europe, the U.S. and the world reopens.  As reported in the Times the infectivity ratio was also the reason for the mindset that refused to believe that the virus was real because at 3.0 infectivity the only way to tackle it was a "lockdown," and this was itself an "apocalypse" scenario for many in the pro-Brexit Conservative party that won the election, which badly wanted to get back to economic activity after Brexit. ...

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Ed Finn, president of Barron's for 19 years from 1998 has observed the economy for decades and comes to the conclusion that the 2007-2008 banking crisis from Reagan style deregulation was the one principal factor the US economy and the people suffered from a lost decade that was extended to 15 years by the pandemic. This has ended under president Biden says Finn, with he says about 10% growth in S&P 500 every year since 2020 and expects growth at that rate for another 4 years under president Biden. What this says about ultra low interest rates is that it was bad for America and a result of the need for tackling the 2009 financial crisis. Interest rates need to be at the moderate level of about 4-5%, the level today, where savers are rewarded, retirees are rewarded, bondholders are rewarded, and excessive risk taking is penalized, says Finn. Moderate interest rates help mortgage holders and new companies start businesses. In short says Finn- this is the way a economy should be run. We were sold the idea of ultra low interest rates because no one wanted to talk about the bad effects of Reagan style deregulation that inevitably lead to lack of the financial oversight of regulatory authorites. Financial oversight by regulatory authorites needed for modern economies to run, whether this is the US, India, China, or any large European economy, it is an essential condition for stable long term growth that serves the needs of the people of every major economy in the world. The idea must be cast aside that economic policy must be determined by the swings in sentiment  every few decades in one direction to too little government from to too much government or reverse, and be determined by essential truths of how a sound and good economy is run. As the US enters 2024 what Powell a Republican, and Biden a Democrat, and the bipartisan group of Senators in the US Congress are saying is that we get it, and are with single minded determination making it happen. ...

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Even as Britain's testing has reached 436,000 September many people who need a test with symptoms are not able to get one. Here the leader of the House of Commons says he has to isolate after one of his children had symptoms but after his own test had to wait several days for the result. The British Health Minister, Mr. Hancock, says people who have no symptoms are going ahead to take a test causing the problem. He says he does not want to create a barrier for those needing a test to be able to get one without eligibility tests, but some form of prioritization may be needed.

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The situation of ad cluttered mailboxes is a problem not just in the US, as shown in this report from Germany in DW.com. The Environmental Action Group DUH called for a new law in Germany to combat the flood of advertising trash in mailboxes. It estimates that 28 billion sheets of advertising material every year in Germany alone is printed by companies with the sole aim of putting it unsolicited in people's mailboxes. Currently people can opt out of junk mail in Germany by putting a sticker " No advertisements please," though this can be ignored by delivery people. An opt-in method differs by only people aho put stickers saying they are ok with ads being put in their mailbox. It is used in Amsterdam, Netherlands. An opt in method would save 6000 tons of paper and waste disposal trips, as well as save the air quality by half a million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

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China is well positioned to cope with the cutoff of supplies of oil from the Middle East after decades of focus on building up its stocks of oil. China has made self sufficiency in energy a key goal for the economy. China uses 16 million barrels a day of oil, of which 12 million is imported, and production inside China is a little over 4 million barrels a day. It normally adds 1 million barrels a day to its stockpile inventory. This inventory stockpile is 1.2 billion barrels and is good for 100 days. China is able to make up for oil supplies by importing more from Russia. The Power of Siberia 2 pipeline for natural gas is being pushed forward for natural gas supplies from Russia to China. China has large supplies of coal for electricity. It also is increasing its capacity to make renewable energy, solar panels and wind turbines.

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Louis Gallois, CEO of EADS gives his views about reviving European industrial competitiveness.

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Gerard Baker in The Times of London looks at California as some kind of dystopia, a malfunctioning place with rolling blackouts from PG&E the electricity company, drought and water shortages, housing costs soaring making it affordable only to the few at the top, and high taxes. He cites an expert from Chapman University who compares it to some sort of medieval feudal place run by nobility at the top, the investors, lawyers and people in entertainment, with the academy and the media as a kind of clerisy who propagate the ideas that this nobility supports, a small middle and the rest as serfs or minimum wage workers in logistics, retail and farms. Median costs of housing are about $613,000, and the affordability index of people who can afford housing is 32% compared to 56% in the country. Hispanic immigrants now prefer Texas, though with a loss of 6 million people in the last decade and gain of five million, it sees increase in population with high birthrates from the existing population to about 40 million. Half the population of homeless in the U.S. are now in California though it has only one eighth the population of the country. High housing costs and high cost of living hurt people at the low end, the lower middle and the retired the most. With low wages at the bottom and extremes of wealth, homeless, housing zone restrictions, drought and rolling electricity blackouts, this is not what the future should look like.  ...

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Coronavirus will add $2.5 billion to the cost of the Tokyo Olympics mostly for rebooking facilities, and paying additional wages for staff, as well as virus testing and cost for preventing spread of the virus. As is typical of these games going back to the disaster in spending at the Montreal Olympics that took the city years to recover, costs can double or more than double earlier estimates. Someone has to bear the extra costs and the national government will take on $1 billion of these extra costs.  The official budget estimate was $12.6 billion. An estimate from Japan Board of Audit in 2019 came up with figure of $20 billion. The pandemic would bring this closer to $22.5 billion or close to double. This cost to the Japanese taxpayer is leading one third of people to sour on the games saying they should be canceled in mid-Nov. TV Ashai poll, with one third saying delay it, only one third for it to go ahead. Except for $5.6 billion from a privately organized committee its all coming from the City of Tokyo with some help from the Japanese government. When it comes to financing it the IOC is not taking part. ...

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The Hindu data team looks at the Indian vaccination drive with graphs by state and progress by dates. During the first 10 days of June the vaccination drive has been stepped up. It is now over 3 million a day and at this rate should reach 400 million vaccinated by the end of July, 100 million below target. For the remainder of the year vaccine supplies have to be pushed up so that 8 million doses can be given each day. This would get India to where everyone in the country of 1.2 billion has been vaccinated by Dec 31, 2021. This would make it possible for India to then use its technology and large manufacturing capacity to help other nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America in 2022. This is the first time in history that India has taken on a challenge of this size and complexity. The vaccine strategy has changed to where the federal government is taking over the overall responsibility of coordinating the production of vaccines in the country and providing access to vaccines from other countries. Federal government is also taking on overall responsibility for distribution of vaccines and setting up the logistical effort. Vaccine supply is being opened up by opening India to multiple vaccines including Pfizer, Moderna, and other vaccines. Production of Covaxin is being stepped up. This strategy is designed to get India to somewhere closer to the 8 million doses a day needed and to ensure distribution and logistical efforts are in place. More resources are put into the effort. The speed of economic recovery also depends on the vaccination drive. Lessons were learned during the second wave in May 2021 and the government is better prepared for the hard work ahead. ...

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The surprise is the DJT Senate bill cuts to about 75% of the solar and wind subsidies in the Biden 2022 IRA Act for $843 billion in investments that were going to Republican districts. New rules in the Senate version of 3B Tax Cuts Bill require US renewable solar to disentangle supply chain from China by 2027 or face an excise import tax. All renewable subsidies will also be phased out earlier by 2027 instead of 2032 set by the Biden administration in the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 with subsidies, tax credits for renewables solar and wind led to $843 billion in planned solar and wind investments. Suddenly much of this is placed in doubt. Instead of 2032 phase out the date is moved up to end of 2027 for 30% subsidies and to end of 2028. The result is confusion in the renewables industry and opposition to the excise tax for not disentangling from China supply chain by end of 2027 spreading to the US Chamber of Commerce. ...

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Trump rally for 100 Days in Warren, Michigan, at a community college gymnasium, April 29, 2025. DJT also visits Selfridge Air Force Base and says it will get 15 new F-16 jets to replace old jets.  DJT says we're "getting woke lunacy and transgender ideology the hell out of our government." Border crossings of 8400 in February 2025 and 7200 in March 2025 are the lowest since the 1960's, one of the lowest ever, compared to 140,000 in March 2024 under Biden. DJT says he is protecting the middle class and Main Street. The millions of jobs lost to China, DJT says he is bringing them back. He talks about creating manufacturing jobs and restoring the industrial base of America that was lost in the last 30 years.  Trump lists the cost of everything from eggs to gasoline at the pump. He says there are three states where gas at the pump is below $2.00 a gallon. He cites the 345,000 jobs created in 100 days and the lowering of inflation.   ...

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The choice of new Federal Trade commission chairperson shows that president Biden is making a complete break from the Obama era White House and the favor Tech in Silicon Valley had under Obama, says this report in the WSJ. Antitrust probes by Justice Department and FTC are expected to limit power of tech companies. Ms. Lina Khan is new head of the FTC. Biden says "its just wrong" that Amazon pays little in federal taxes. This report says Mr. Obama feted Silicon Valley at a White House festival called "South by South Lawn."  And that 80% of the 334 people registered to lobby for Apple, Amazon, Google last year previously worked on Capitol Hill or the White House. 

Mr. Biden's Families plan and Jill Biden's commitment to education are more in line with the heritage of FDR and Harry Truman, even Eisenhower, presidents who fought on behalf of the working men and women of America.

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Extreme German dependence on Russian oil and gas that happened under the administration of Angela Merkel and the high oil prices today from a a lack of development of alternative renewable energy resources created the situation that provided the financing for Russia's war in Ukraine. This is now unwinding as the European Union and the US set a price cap of $60 for Russian oil. This cap will in future reflect the cost of production of oil in Russia among other factors, and the lower demand for fossil fuels as renewable energy production is accelerated quickly, and the inflation fighting efforts of the US central bank. Gradually the mechanisms and environment is being created for an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

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US sending signals of 'very strong talks'  with Iran delaying attack for 5 days March 23 2026.