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Sitharaman told parliament the situation created by 2013 had the effect of national security being compromised, Environment as a Ministry becoming a bottleneck, and the leadership failing the country. In the military there was a critical shortage of ammunition and equipment. She cites the Defense Minister at the time having the attitude that independent India has had a policy for many years not to develop the border areas, as an undeveloped border was better than a developed border. She also says Ministry stated that 92% of the Defense Budget was used up and major acquisitions have to wait for the military. Following this Sitharaman cited the scandals of that period and leakages of funds that weakend the country and failed its people. She compared defense capital expenditures today of 6.22 lakh crores in 2024 thre times the number in 2013 of 2.53 crores. HAL now makes Tejas jets and helicopters in Made in India production. At the Environment Ministry the delays that were 86 days reached a high of 316 days by 2013 for approval of development projects, with 355 projects pending, the nation brought to a standstill with the effects of the coal supplies to thermal power plants being wholly inadequate and Coal India in poor shape. The root of this was said Sitharaman- what everyone in Indian business knew, the term "genteel facts," as the cost of business going up. She cites the changes since then of aiming for Balance and Development- Transparency, Online Green Clearance, Standardized Environment Impact Studies, A new Department of Climate change, International Solar Alliance 2015, Mission Life 2022, Green Hydrogen, Namami Gange, Rooftop Solar. India set ambitious goals at the last Climate change Conference.    ...

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This analysis in The Times looks at the latest information on the omicron variant gathered in the UK and what it means for the capital London and the UK. It looks at the hospital admissions in January 2021 that could be expected in the UK compared to  January 2020. A big spike infections with a sharp fall is the scenario seen as expected based on experience in South Africa, with 2% of cases as hospital admissions as in the prior January, or in a "milder" scenario somewhat smaller percentage.

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Shocking decline in reading in UK- NLT Surveys research of 80,000 young people  in UK shows  of 8-11 years old children girls 36% and boys 26% read actively, 14-16 years girls down to 17% and boys down to 10%. Is a similar pattern evident in the US? This is the root of many of our problems. Reading competes with other activities and screen time leads to a severe loss in reading. Teenage reading is especially fragile. Reading ability and wide knowledge helps build working skills and income generation so that it means more people in this generation are poor than previous generations, a general increase in poverty and lower incomes across neighborhoods and families in the UK and US. This also has correlation with health and mental health so that this means the children and growing young adults are in a fragile group in advanced countries of US and Europe, especially fragile when it comes to knowledge, learning skills, health and incomes. A reverse situation in some Asian advanced countries with a hunger for knowledge means the gap is opening up between the US and Europe and these Asian countries. ...

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What would making a new vaccine for the Omicron South African variant look like? How long will it take and how does it happen? Adam Whipple, Science Editor of The Times, looks at the process in the 100 days it would take Pfizer to do this in this excellent article that anticipates and answers readers questions. New mutations are shown to be taking place in the virus, it is shown here that UK and world capabilities have also increased to tackle the problem in the last 18 months.

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Anne Lowrey looks at the situation facing the 7.4 million Americans working parttime in March 2014 because they cannot find full time jobs. She cites Alan Krueger, former chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, for research that shows only 1 of 10 workers who were counted as long-term jobless betwen 2008 and 2012 had a full time job a year later. In Nov 2013 7.2 million worked parttime because they could not find full time work showing an increase of 0.2 million by March 2014.

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US Senator Bernie Sanders and Shawn Fain of the United Auto Workers make the case for a 32 hour week.  No that's not right Sanders and Fain are calling for hours and wages that make for a healthy life after making significant contributions using technologies and higher productivity during a normal week more like 35 to 40 hours instead of 50-60 hours a reality today.  Even with this productive work effort they say workers have not benefitted as most of the gains have gone to the top with top managers and CEO's making hundreds of times more in compensation. In this years negotiations the UAW made long hours at work and its effect on worker health an issue. A 40 hour work week was established in 1940 under the Fair Labour Standards Act passed under president Franklin Roosevelt. Sanders and Fain point out that 28.5 million workers even today work over 60 hours a week and more than half of full time employees work more than 40 hours a week. It comes as a surprise that according to the authors US workers logged 204 hours a year more than employees in Japan, and 470 more hours than German workers. Sanders and Fain point out that today adjusted for inflation the average worker in America makes about $50 less a week than 50 years ago in 1974. There is definitely a need to consider the health of workers as the highest priority and wages that make it possible to raise families and educate children in decent living conditions. France and Denmark have a 35 and 37 hour work week. ...

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This report in BBC looks at how couples are using time apart to pursue interests that they are passionate about or put off for some time. In such situations it says the experiences can actually bring people closer as long as the other aspects of the relationship are on good ground.

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"Because of the pressure on public services that resentment (by public) is real"- Shabana Mohamed tears up old rules in asylums that put migrants before British neighborhoods. Under the old rules refugees were given 5 years of protection and allowed to bring their families, followed by possible permanent status. Now this is cut to 30 months and if the country is safe the person has to go back, Waiting time to be able to settle in Britain will be extended to 10 years. The system worked in Denmark cutting by 90% the flow of migrants. In 2025 100,000 claimed asylum inUK half of them coming in small boats.  The asylum people placed in hotels has resulted in an outcry from locals in many British towns who see a way of life of the British people being pressured by the migrants some from remote countries with different cultures and leading to lack of safety for women on the streets. In Denmark without these changes the labour working class party would have lost power to a movement like that of Nigel Farage Reform UK which wants to shut the door completely on migrants. Public patience appears to be gone. Similar situations have happened in Dutch politics and is happening in other countries including Germany and France. ...

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Debt markets and Analysts fear too much building of data centers will lead to construction taking more time for the AI data centers to come online, and by that time they fear aglut of data center capacity leading to losses. One AI data center company is asked to pay 3.75% more in interest rates, 70% more for loans. Other reports suggest caution because of the circular nature of data center investments where the same companies are coming up again and again in complex transactions and lack of transparency. Oracle took losses on it's stock price for its financial dealings.

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Most Americans pay less in taxes, including state, local and federal taxes, today than in 1980 in inflation adjusted dollars. The taxes have gone down by 2-3% for incomes in the range of $50,000 to $150,000, and gone down by 3-4% for incomes between $150,000 and $350,000. Taxes have gone down over 7% for incomes above $350,000. The main reason is the decline in federal income taxes.Tax rates increased in the period to 1990 and declined from 1990 to 2010. The Democratic party and president Obama are pushing for increase in taxes for incomes above $250,000. Republicans are resisting the changes citing disincentives to investment and growth for small business which generates a large proportion of new jobs created in the U.S. economy. The New York Times study shows the percent of the U.S. population that makes between $200,000 and $350,000 almost doubling in the period 1980-2010 and at the same time its share of the U.S. income remaining the same - many small business owners who hire employees would fall into this income category. Republican's response is for tax reforms that reduce loopholes, deductions and other tax expeditures that disproportionately help the wealthy. Democrats say this cannot create enough revenues to address the deficit, when mortgage deductions, charitable deductions are excluded. The back and forth is leading to stalemate but also opening up discussion for the first time on whether the mortgage and charitable deductions make sense in today's environment. A significant portion of revenues lost in the mortgage deduction goes to affluent households, subsidizing larger borrowings to build larger homes than otherwise, according to the Brookings Institution. Politicians have resisted changes that would go against powerful lobyying groups in the past, yet the impasse has opened up new thinking outside the box because of the pressing need to come up with a solution....

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All the pent up energy after the uncertainty of the last couple of weeks and the Democratic party held up, then the energy burst into the open, one adviser said it was going bonkers, it was intense- 250 million was raised in 36 hours, most of it from new donors, and 58,000 new volunteers to join in the campaign for Kamala Harris. Nothing like this has been seen in modern times.

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Photos on exercize and walking, gardening, birdwatching, during the time of coronavirus from DW.com- the importance of renewing body and mind during this time. Pictures of how gardening, birdwatching and other activities can push out anxiety and boost our spirits in different ways.

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Shorter work hours can provide time for yoga classes, time with children, travel overseas, and other activities for a healthier and more satisfying life. This report in WSJ shows people in different professions from medicine to environmental engineering taking a different approach to life. After the pandemic there is a rethink of what is a better way to work and combine work with attention to healthier living. Healthier living provides the concentration power that enables doing a lot more work in fewer hours creating a new way of working with time for healthy activities outside work. WSJ shows how this works in the lives of 5 workers and their families. For many workers it is possible to earn close to what they made with longer hours by utilizing the time more effectively, with all the added benefit of healthier lives- this adds up over the years reducing many of the health problems that come from neglecting healthy activities during prime work years. 

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A much smaller contraction of 7.5% in the third quarter after a drop of 24% in the second quarter is good news for the Indian economy, says this editorial in the Hindustan Times. The Indian government investment should be increased to sustain the recovery, as second generation reforms made by the Modi administration have increased the potential growth in the economy, it says.

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Jennifer Steinhauer of the NYT says the U.S. Congress is acting as a counter balance to  president Trump to maintain America's postwar policies common to both Republican and Democratic presidents and seen as part of core values- support for NATO and the mutual defense enshrined in Article 5 of NATO, support for the trans-Atlantic alliance. Senators in Congress are now voting overwhelmingly to support these values. This is seen in the manner the leading Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sees his job- to retake the important role Congress and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has historically played in making foreign policy. His view is that the committee he chairs had become a kind of debating society. It is also seen in the way Corker handled a Russia sanctions bill giving Secretary of State Tillerson time to seek improvement of relations, and when time had run out pulling together all members of the Senate to pass the Russia sanctions bill. That bill passed the Senate by 97 for and 2 against in an overwhelming show of support for Congress to make its own foreign policy moves.  ...

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It calls for balancing it, taking into account tradeoffs and people's lives in 2025 after the pandemic, cost of living, health and housing vs net zero and speed of net zero targets. Opinion in UK on Net Zero cutting emissions changed over 4 years to split 50-50 on other spending priorities social care immigration NHS, in a focus group of The Times of London. In 2025 40% want to spend less on cutting carbon emissions net zero, large numbers favor more for NHS, then social care, policing and education in equal importance, followed by social housing. 

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One Big Beautiful Act passed in US Senate with Vance casting tie breaking vote. It renews the tax cuts from DJT's first term in office in 2017 and provides tax cuts to seniors, middle class, and small business. It provides 100% expensing for business to increase investment. Mothers get child care credit that is doubled, senior citizens over 65 years get a $6000 deduction. The seniors deduction means 88% of seniors will now pay no taxes on social security benefits from 64%. Medicaid changes so that able bodied Americans will have to put in 80 hours of work to qualify.  Note that the Medicaid program was becoming unworkable and unsustainable- starting with the idea of helping people unable to work and transitioning those who could work, it jumped to $228 billion cost in 2000 from $28 billion in 1980, ten times over 20 years. Going up to $918 billion in 2024, 4 times the 2000 level. Medicaid is now 62% of what Social Security costs, $918 billion compared to $1480 billion for Social Security. ...

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45 million acres burned, large parts of the Canadian forest from the Northwest territories to British Columbia, area four times the size of California making up 10% of the world's forest devastated by wildfires. This is Canada in 2023 with unimaginable smoke and evacuations. David Wallace looks at the situation in this part of Canada, just north of the US and stretching to the Arctic Circle.

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The Times describes key points in the freedom struggle of South Africa and the part played by Desmond Tutu. Tutu as much as Mandela played a critical role in reconciliation between Afrikaaner people and black people in South Africa. He coined the word "rainbow nation," and resolutely pursued racial unity in the face of the most difficult situations and oppression using the methods Gandhi had used in 1900 in South Africa.

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Starmer and Yvette Cooper plan action on speeding up 32,000 asylum cases which cost $5.4 billion in 6 months of 2025 for migrants and asylum hotels. Yet speeding up and creating alternative ways to cut asylum cases may not be enough to address the problem which at its root goes to the fact that the British system of justice was not designed to handle people of other countries freely entering the country on boats. Already the Times of London repoirts that there are 111,000 asylum cases up from 7000 in 2022 by June 2025.  A clear warning that Labour's entire program of action on housing, on immigration, on the economy and cost of living, can be derailed by not recognizing the fact that illegal migrants are simply making a travesty of the British system of justice which was not designed for people of other countries freely entering the country. The simple question is can thousands of illegal migrants be placed ahead of the interests of 60 million people of England, Wales and Scotland.  ...

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Daniel Finkelstein of The Times of London says in this essay that DJT's world view is essentially the worldview that the US has held for much of the 20th century. He cautions Starmer and his Foreign Secretary David Lammy- the better to understand where this worldview comes from than to look ridiculous simply praising this worldview in 2025.  On McKinley as president DJT is more well read than others. Two Roosevelts backed the buildup of the US Navy, TR Teddy Roosevelt and his nephew Franklin Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy. The US Navy emerges for America's role in the Pacific from this time at the turn of the century. Francis Perkins in her book  "The Roosevelt I Knew" describes Roosevelt's advice to Perkins in 1934 about the League of Nations and how Woodrow Wilson's failure to get Congress to understand it on Senators own terms led to the US not becoming part of the League of Nations. The US was not automatically inclined to accept the world role or its role in Europe. Roosevelt tells Frances Perkins  who was closest to him in his presidency- on International Labor Organization membership FDR told Perkins he must get the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members on board. "Remember how Wilson lost the League of Nations, lost the opportunity for the United States to take part in the most important international undertaking ever conceived. He lost it by not getting Congress to participate. They have a sense of responsibility and can't have sincere convictions unless they are given a chance."   ...

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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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Tony Hall, who joined the BBC in 1973, worked there for 28 years, heading the News Section from 1996 to 2001, was selected to head the BBC. His selection comes after the recent ethics problems at the BBC. The BBC is a major British institution with a 90 year history of providing news on world affairs. It reaches an estimated 240 million people worldwide. His selection was well received in Britain, with the host of the TV show Question Time saying hearing the announcement felt similiar to what it would have sounded to men in the Royal Navy when they heard that Winston Churchill was back.

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Iran peace talks in Islamabad on April 12 and Iranian refusal on nuclear weapons development and ballistic missiles leading to collapse in 21 hours of talks. Vance leaves talks and US plans to impose a naval blockade of Iran. This report by the Guardian shows that media coverage has created a sense of delusion that the world including the poorest countries in the world in Asia, in Latin America and even in Europe, and the industrialized countries will somehow allow the free navigation for oil and other raw materials to be interrupted by any nation. There are protests all over the world about increase in fuel prices, some of this affects LPG supplies for cooking in countries with a population of 1.4 billion people (India) many times that of the entire Middle East. Tens of millions of migrant workers head back to their homes in poorest states in India as LPG cylinder prices quadruple and are in short supply April 13, 2026.It also affects China and Japan which are dependent on Hormuz,  not the US which exports oil and does not seek to gain from oil prices. Posturing by the media and European governments on this issue has created this delusion that this is about US actions, when the US is only acting in the interests of all nations to keep the planet safer from dangerous nuclear proliferation in the region most torn by repeated wars in the last 50 years. Some of the language used about attacks on power plants has become a reason to justify such reporting to present aggressive ballistic missile development and nuclear weapons development in Iran in a benign way, becoming oblivious of how it affects the lives of billions of people around the world, as the Middle Eastern region a small fraction of the world's population (less than 7%) and a small fraction of the planet's surface (less than 6%) continues to operate in a way that is destructive for the lives of people around the world.   ...

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The French team's Olivier Giroud works with Mbappe after the injury to Benzema meant France had to find a different style of play. Giroud 36 years brings experience and a rugged persistent approach to the game. Coach Deschamps says "Nothing has ever been handed to him,  He was put down and criticized a number of times, but he has this mental ability."