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A relatively minor situation, a mobile phone she reported stolen that was found in 2013, led to her being removed as the youngest cabinet member Minister for Transport in just 4 months in 2024. Before that she was Shadow Minister for Transport under Starmer. In those 4 months she ended a train drivers strike with a 14% pay raise over 3 years. She was elected as MP for Sheffield in 2015 at the age of 27 years having worked under senior MP Lisa Nandy. Educated at a private school in Sheffield, and studying at London School of Economics before switching to Nottingham University to study politics, there is something unusual about Louise Haigh in the way she handled the firing in just 4 months, for what was something inconsequential like reporting a mobile as lost, without any additional information from Starmer's administration. She did not let it affect her in the least, moving to work in the Labour parliamentary backbenches and rebuilding the Tribune Group to discuss ideas for solving problems in UK transport, health, inequalities, lack of investment. She had already come to know Metro mayors in UK as Shadow Transport Minister, including Burnham at Manchester. From that time in 2024 to 2026 may be considered one of the most transformative period of any English MP in modern history. Louise Haigh, and Lucy Powell MP and deputy leader of the Labour party who was also demoted by Starmer, worked together in the backbenches in a revolt against the welfare cuts made by chancellor Rachel Reeves that gradually destroyed the credibility of Starmer with the backbenches of the Labour party and the British working class. By the time of the controversy surrounding Starmer's chief of staff, a young man Morgan McSweeney, who had little experience except in organizing Labour primarily against Jeremy Corbyn to bring back Blair's diluted version of Labour -which had lost relevance after Conservatives failed to deliver much beyond decades of austerity years for Britain. Labour had to find a good voice and a plan, and quickly as the 2 years of Starmer led to Reform UK coming back to challenge Labour, winning big in local elections. This is where Louise Haigh and Lucy Powell come in. Louise Haigh was going to have none of it. She realized that Andy Burnham was the leader who could take Labour to heights that it had not seen since in post war period after 1945. That conviction led her to run the Makerfield election campaign for Burnham to get a seat in parliament and challenge Starmer for leadership of Labour. Without Louise Haigh and Lucy Powell, who is now Education Secretary and Deputy leader of Labour Party, Burnham may well not be the Prime Minister today. Haigh, says this BBC Report, wrote 2 Essays articulating the fight against a stagnant economy.  Where Rachel Reeves stuck to no longer relevant debt rules for a bold plan out of the economic mess, Haigh called for a significant loosening of Labour's debt rules, with the rolling five-year debt target extended to over 10 years as a start, bold investments, and a call to "re-examine the mandate" of the Bank of England so that the focus would be on growth and reviving Britain. Haigh supported Burnham for a new tax on the value of land to replace stamp duty on house purchases. "The status quo is not sustainable. We cannot afford to wait any longer before we change the system we inherited." It is this boldness that has led to Louise Haigh being put in charge of the newly created Office of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, "the main driver for the British economy." ...

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Samsung stock price up 144% Intel up 255% in 5 months of 2026, as the S&P makes eight weeks of consecutive gains May 23 2026. Companies in the S&P 500 trade at 21 times their expected earnings over the next 12 months, the 10 year average is about 19 times their expected earnings. The war in Iran, the war in Ukraine, and the massive misallocation of investment to AI are risks for the US economy, yet the US stock market continues to be robust.

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The unexplainable situation of Peter Murrell's embezzlement of 400,000 pounds, when he was chief executive of the Scottish National party while wife Nicola Sturgeon was head of Scottish government. The loss of reputation and honor in Britain as Scotland struggled with 14 years of austerity, Brexit policies, and from the failed leaders from Labour that brought deindustrialization and the 2009 financial crisis. The loss of credibility that Scotland could better manage its own affairs as an independent state than it could as an autonomous part of Britain that it has been for centuries, in an arrangement that made Scotland and integral part of the idea of Britain in the world from the British Empire to the Brtish Commonwealth. Scotland's population of 5 million people with main industrial hubs of Glasgow and Edinburgh is relatively small compared to the population of England with 59 million people and industrial hubs in Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and London. Since the Act of Union tht brought Scotland into union with England as Great Britain in 1707, Scotland has depended on the industrial strength of England and its significantly larger financial and people resources. The autonomous arrangement preserves Scottish culture and identity inside the region, yet gives Scotland a better relationship, more access to benefits with the world as part of Great Britain's much larger presence.  ...

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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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It would take 60 days for Iran to generate $10 billion in revenues. It seeks to charge tolls for the Hormuz channel to generate $40 billon a year. The US strategy- now that US knows there is a power struggle between the- elected president Pezeshkian and the militay IRGC- is to restrict Iran from gaining the funds to fund a nuclear weapons program. The most likely and low cost option is to reinstate the naval blockade. The next action is to work with China, Japan, India and the European Union to find other sources of oil to replace the 20 million barrels lost from Homruz- by using the unused capacity of 5 million barrels a day in UAE, Saudi pipelines. China learning to do without the 4 million barrels a day it got through Hormuz, supplying India through added oil supplies from Venezuela and the US, accelerating renewable energy and EV's hybrids could generate about a third of the 20 billion barrels lost from Hormuz or 6 million barrels a day. The better management of supplies in inventories could generate the additional energy to replace 4 million barrels a day. The result would be to reduce or eliminate the need for Hormuz and reduce its impact on the world's need for oil and energy use. ...

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Migrants and Jihadist tendencies in Europe in the years 2016-2026 a period in which Europe put up with attacks on crowds across European cities. Laurent Raviot was the judge of the Paris Criminal Court for the Nice Attack by a Tunisian migrant on July 14 2016 ramming a truck into crowds in Nice killing 86 people, injuring 458 people gathered on the English Promenade on Bastille Day celebrations. On the 10th anniversary of that attack and after many such attacks across Europe Le Monde interviews Judge Raviot, who describes his own emotions while judging this case. A minute silence for the people killed to honor those who died that day was held before the Spain France soccer World Cup game today. Judge Raviot says he hasn't completely recovered from judging such a huge case, he says- "I want to go to the Promenade des Anglais, to see it in the sunshine, filled with joy, telling myself that it's over, that we've moved on and that life is regaining its colors, its light." This is something that the whole of France, the whole of Europe, needs to recover from, this mindless exercise in letting in so many migrants and others who radicalized from remote parts of the world. ...

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Federal Judge voids $1.8 billion settlement of DJT with the IRS. US Districgt Court Judge Kathleen Williams said  the DJT $10 billion suit against the IRS was filed for an improper purpose and refereed the DJT lawyer to state authorites to see if ethics rules had been violated. Many Republicans opposed this kind of settlement in which the president DJT was doing the settlement by being on both sides as being highly unusual. Using the $1.8 billion for helping the protestors at the Capitol against the election in 2020 made this a partisan infighting affair, and even more controversial. In fact this was one of the most unusual parts of what has been a bitter battle between Democrats determined to oppose DJT in every way possible and DJT Republicans responding to these attacks since 2016. Ten years later fatigue is setting in in the Nation with this behaviour of Democrats and DJT Republicans alike. "The DJT lawsuit was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute." Judge Williams described the $1.8 billion settlement as a bid to "provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law." ...

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Interesting and quite useful from a sociological and psychological point of view, that people believe what they want to believe. Even today writes Slackman, the Arabs and Muslims from Dubai malls to people one meets in a park in Algiers, cafes in Riyadh, and in shops and places all over Cairo, say the USA organized 9/11 so that they could attack 2 Muslim states, Iraq and Afghanistan. If we changed it a bit and said Rumsfeld and Cheney got the perfect excuse to attack Afghanistan's Taliban government from 9/11. It created the kind of fears in the US public about terrorists, individual, or state sponsored terrorism like Iraq's against the Marsh Shiites after the Kuwait war (which was a personal affront to both Rumsfeld and Cheney as they let it happen right under their eyes), then one can extend that to say Rumsfeld and Cheney felt they now had the opportunity to get Saddam out. So once you have the US even for good moral reason eager to intervene, this eagerness may not require too much of a stretch to be seen as the US administration engineering this atmosphere by organizing 9/11, or by letting it happen. This is true for an Arab public that feels humiliated and sees a loss of respect from all the setbacks they have suffered, including in Egypt where a President has maintained himself in power for thirty long years and has American support. And most of these people haven't left their surroundings, so they haven't seen the world outside. What they beleieve is only what is possible from what they can see possible from their immediate surroundings. From a -sociological and psychological perspective this is certainly possible and even realistic. When Friedman in the New York Times says its shameless that the 2 Republican candidates can speak of being change agents when Republicans have been in power for 8 years, and still the Republican faithful and some independents believe this, they have not lost their wits but may see this in terms of their gut feel and in terms of their own personal experiences and surroundings. Even when Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal sees little hope from either candidate when it comes to lobbyists influencing them and proof of this from lobbyists for Fannie and Freddie as their senior advisors. Then its still possible for Republican faithful, however weird it may appear to an informed observer,to see McCain and Palin as agents of change. Same is true for Obama. ...

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A 1 month study of 2 modified Pfizer vaccines, one targeted specifically for new Omicron variants, and the other targeted at earlier coronavirus and current Omicron variants show increases in anitbodies much higher than what current vaccines do. For Omicron specifically at 13 to 19 times more than what current vaccines increase antibodies, and for earlier variants and Omicron at 9 to 11 times more.

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The British Energy Institute shows how countries are doing in fighting climate change by reducing fossil fuel use. 

Poland is poor at 88% fossil fuels in energy mix. Algeria, Singapore, Bangladesh, Oman at 98%.

In Europe Norway leads at 72% for renewqble energy in the mix. Brazil at 50% keads SOuth America, Nw Zealand 43% and Vietnam at 23% in Asia Pacific. 

Of 6525 coal fired power plants China has 3168, India 845 plants and US 408. Older plants are being retired.

Planned construction of new coal power plants 707 in China, 165 in India, 2 in the US, 23 in eastern Europe, 0 in Northern Europe and 4 in Southern Europe, 0 in Western Europe, Latin America is 6.

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Norwegian cross country skiing athlete Johannes Klaebo at the Milan Cortina Olympics 1986- for 10 races in 6 events for 115 kilometers over 14 days. Including the 50 kms race.

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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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Gas at pump costs about $8 in Germany and France, $7 in UK and $4.50 in Canada- in the US $4 for March 2026. As far back as 2011-2014 gasoline prices averaged about $3.50 a gallon in the US. Today's $3.92 average in 2026 is only 12% higher than $3.50 of 10-15 years back in the US for gas prices at the pump. Gas pries before the war in Ukraine in 2017 were $5.67 a gallon ($1.50 a litre) with a price increase in 2026 10 years later to $8 an increase of 41%. By any comparison with European nations Americans are way better off in 2026 and also in comparison with 15 years back considering the 12% increase and the much higher wages today. The average annual wage salary was $43,000 back in 2010 compared to $65,000- $75,000 today. Much of this was achieved by increased shale production to make US oil self sufficient. Americans are clearly so much better off today with oil at an average price of $3.92 a gallon.  The higher price of oil also acts to increase incentives for accelerating renewable energy production which will make it possible to achieve a future free of fossil fuels while at the same time giving average wage Americans a chance for a better life during the transition. ...

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IEA launches 400 million barrels release from Strategic Petroleum Reserves March 11, 2026 to control oil prices and to make up for the loss of 10 million b/d with Straits of Hormuz shut down by war.

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US actions to conduct investigations on 18 countries under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 - March 12 2026 after the Supreme Court asks DJT to use another law for tariffs. A key focus of the investigation is to show how industrial overcapacity is deliberately built through subsidies to push product into US markets and destroy American competition. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said March 11- "Our view is that key trading partners have developed production capacity that is really untethered from the market incentives of domestic and global demand." The US and DJT have repeatedly shown how this has been done over two decades to destroy the US industrial base. Another focus is on the used of forced or underpaid labor working in substandard working conditions and excessive hours. Greer says he will have the investigations results ready by mid-July when the presidents new tariff of 15% (after the SC ruling) expires. Other probes or investigations will also be conducted. All trade agreements signed with Germany, EU, Japan, UK, India, China, and other countries will remain in place. These countries have expressed a desire to keep them in place as that offers key benefit of removing uncertainty in making business decisions. ...

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Average refund was $3642 for 100 million households in the US, above the $3116 in 2024 tax year by 10 percent. The IRS had sent out $241 billion by April 15, 2026, 14% higher than the $211 billion by April 15 2025. For people in the low wage restaurant industry it makes a big difference. One couple, a chef and a waitress took the no tax on tips and the car loan deductions from the "Big Beautiful Bill" of DJT, and instead of owing $12,000 as in 2024 got a tax refund of $26,000 for 2025 tax year. This family an immigrant from Spain says- “They’re not able to pay us a livable wage. ... If we were only taxed on our wage, not tips, that makes so much more sense for the cost of living here in New York.” 23 million households took the overtime tax deduction. Seniors qualifying got a $6000 deduction to get an additional $1320 in refunds.

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George Will contrasts the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in the U.S. with much media attention to the one paragraph mention on the front page of the New York Times in 1951 of the 10th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The negotiations to end the Korean War were covered on the front page of the Washington Post. With the crises in postwar Europe and Asia, the devastation of the war and the tasks of recovery ahead of Europe and Asia, there was little time for indulging in self-analysis.

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LA City and County  tax increases- increasing hotel tax from 14 to 16% and increasing sales tax to over 10% in 2026.

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The remarkable story of coronavirus vaccine given at 14,000 feet in the Himalayas of Arunachal Pradesh in India. A team trekked for 9 hours to reach a village in Tawang district so that 16 yak grazers could be given the vaccine. These grazers were away from home grazing their yaks and had missed an earlier vaccination camp. The village is aerially 30 miles from the Tibet border. The trek took them through dense forests, swampy stretches, and the Luguthang river, crossing two mountain peaks.