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This report in WSJ by Thomas, Hughes and Wise says despite the concerns about Biden he is tied with Trump at 46% in a recent Ipsos Wash Post survey of voters. Lyrarc.com's Analysis of readers comments of WSJ, NYT and Wash Post reports on Biden for the last week show that most readers support Biden and see the media overreaching and lacking balance and good judgement in reporting. This report also shows 42% of Democrats support Biden continuing his candidacy. There is clearly misinformation with 4 specific examples of gross distortion of images of the president spread online, cited in reports. A true grass roots assessment would show a large majority of Democrats support the president once the dust has cleared. Lyrarc's assessment of the President at the NATO press conference Q and A gives the president a 9 out of 10 for the sharpness and ability to handle a huge number of details and complex policy issues, and for his delivery and viewer comprehension. Biden explained complex issues in simple plain English which also stands out. On the same day India's Modi said he was glad to be welcomed by Australia when he was in Vienna, Austria, with its chancellor, correcting it immediately. No one mentioned it even though it happened twice for Modi. Media made it their headline for Biden for similar mixing up and immediate correction. Going over complex issues for 60 minutes with 9 reporters in A+ fashion- no mention at all by the Media. In Movement for Global Literacy we cited the low degree of confidence and trust in media- only 20% of the American people trust the media such as the TV news shows and the newspapers. To know the true picture go directly to the grassroots and find out in every part of the Union. Lincoln,TR, FSR and Truman all in their own way faced the twisted rhetoric of politicians and the media in their time, yet retained the confidence of Ameica. ...

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Slavery was banned by the 19th century in Britain and its Empire, it took the US till 1861 to do this and till 1961 to end racial segregation. By contrast Britain followed a policy in China throughout the nineteenth century that brought enormous pain and suffering to the Chinese people through the Opium wars and opening up of ports for opium trade in China. And the US under presidents Wilson, Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, and the American people followed a policy of respect for the Chinese people during this period with the idea fervently America believed of a modern nation emerging from the chaotic period of Manchu monarchy's decline by 1900 and warlords civil war + Japanese invasion from 1900-1945. For Britain and the European colonizers Chinese and Indian people were for the most part "coolies." Joe Stilwell, FDR's Supreme Commander of American Forces in China was the ultimate free of racism. A order from the Republican Coolidge administration in the 1920's was for any American soldier to be courtmartialed for so much as laying a hand on a Chinese coolie. A modern nation did emerge as the American people hoped and fought for in China, and in India over the 25 year period in the 21st century, with Britain having failed to bring the same level of understanding that America had for the Asian people.  Britain's monarch Charles tells Commonwealth leaders his government is not paying reparations for slavery yet is determined to create anew understanding to work with other nations in the future, to discuss issues with openness and respect. There are 56 nations in the British led Commonwealth, the largest of which is India. It includes South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania in East Africa and Nigeria, Ghana in West Africa.    ...

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Timeline in NYT on DJT-Jamieson USTR  Tariffs to March 13, 2025. Reciprocal tariffs to go into effect April 2, 2025 on Mexico and Canada. Reciprocal tariffs are seen as based on fairness- "we charge them what they charge us."  Why is this action necessary?  Because Canada, Mexico, EU, South Korea, Japan, China gained unfair advantages due to the inaction of administrations dating back to Clinton, Bush, Obama which were never reversed. Other nations have no incentive to trade on the principle of fairness inducing the US to take action to open discussions on fair trade and on what the tariffs should be going forward from 2025. US Trade Representative Lighthizer under DJT first term was Deputy Trade Representative under Reagan when he negotiated fair trade with the Japanese in the 1980's who he says stalled and stalled till finally agreeing to real discussions. So this is nothing new China, Canada and Mexico have taken the place of Japan. In this second term of DJT Lighthizer's Deputy Trade Representative is now the US Trade Representative. This means the discussions are in the hands of seasoned American trade officials with a keen grasp of details supported by Scott Bessent at Treasury and Luttnick at Commerce Department. What it is NOT is an effort to coerce other nations by the US. Like Japan in the 1980's with Reagan and Lighthizer as USTR, in 2025 China, Canada, Mexico, South Korea Taiwan and other nations would like to slow this return to fair trade by stalling and stalling, and presenting a different picture of the facts. But will that work? As it did not with Japan in the 1980's when Lighthizer got them to sit down to have real discussions on fair trade. ...

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Simon Jenkins of The Guardian says it is time to clear some of the myths around migrants, tariffs, and NATO and in this way action by the current Republican administration can be a positive step. Jenkins says DJT is moving quickly in the first 100 Days because most presidents get only 2 years to make changes before losing the House or the Senate making legislation difficult to pass. If it appears that things are happening on many fronts too quickly that is just the nature of things under a democratic process where checks and balances mean all three parts of government- executive powers of the president are balanced by powers of Congress and of the Supreme Court. Jenkins points out that action on migrants with the unease about millions of migrants coming in illegally, putting tariff barriers to bring manufacturing back and rebuilding America's forgotten middle class, cutting the bureaucracy and misuse of funds, sending education back to the states, and rethinking NATO bringing Russia back into the community of nations, will have long term positive effects long after the chaotic nature that they appear in the news cycle and the media presentation has passed. He cites China being invited back into the community of nations under Nixon. And today disarmament possible only by working with Russia, when China is moving in the direction of increasing nuclear missiles with trouble spots in Taiwan. He does not mention the sending back of about 1 million people back to Mexico under President Eisenhower in Operation Wetback in 1954, Harry Truman a senator from Missouri who led the effort to cut waste and fraud in government spending in the Second World War, the ED Hirsch graph showing reading comprehension scores of American K-12 headed one way - straight down since the 1960's showing education is failing in the US and needs parents and states to come up with new solutions.   ...

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This report in ProPublica on October 13, 2020, by Lydia DePillis was written near the end of Robert Lighhizer's term as US Trade Representative.  Bottom Line: It is human behaviour that no country, no kingdom or group will give up its money advantages secured when the opposition was weak or disorganized till the last fight is fought. The British were not giving up India, a source of financing the war against Napoleon in 1800's and then the Industrial Revolution in 1850's, the Dutch were not giving up the financial advantages of their Spices Empire in Batavia (Indonesia). History has shown this. Once gained under a state capitalism Japan was not going to give up its financial advantages gained by the 1980's when the US was weak or disorganized, till the last battle was fought.  Lighthizer who for the relentless Japanese was equally relentless till the goal of fair and level playing field for America was secured. This is true for China today on Liberation Day. This entire report by De Pillis in 2020 shows the Chinese would be relentless in 2020 like the Japanese in the 1980's, the Dutch in Indonesia  in the 18th and 19th century and the British in India in the 19th century and 20th century. China turned Mexico and Vietnam into supply routes into the US market. It continued its efforts to gain US technology in other ways. USTR older officials from the Bush Obama years of failed negotiations with China and endless hours putting together minute details of agreements including the TransPacific Agreement of Obama were not going to like the new approach of Lighthizer so stuck were they with the old approach of no clear goal and not getting an even playing field from China. ...

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WSJ's Trofimov talks to some of the 2.5 million refugees and displaced people in the sectarian conflict in Iraq in 2015. He finds a mood of despair and resignation to a permanent partition of the country following sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis. The situation is being dictated by the facts on the ground as the refugees see little prospect of returning to their homes, and the different regions controlled by Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish forces with borders.

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About $229 billion, three fourth of Greece's debt, is now held by the European Central Bank, the IMF and the European Commission. This is taxpayer money and the governments are making sure that they get back bailout loans in the form of interest payments. About two thirds of the $177 billion given to Greece as bailout loans since May 2010 actually came back to the ECB, IMF, and the EC, in the form of interest. The ECB is keen on recovering taxpayer money. The money route has been setup with an escrow account in Greece for bailout loans so that interest payments get paid, and this money cannot be used for any other purpose. Banking experts say this is a practice in risk management, and with Greece's poor record in finances the controls have been put in place to recover money the ECB invested in Greek bonds in an effort to calm nervous financial markets and now gets about 10% in annual interest payment. Under earlier debt restructuring for private creditors to Greece a haircut of over 50% on Greek bonds was taken, with the ECB insisting on receiving full payment. If Greece were to repudiate the loans under a new elected government losses would have to be taken by the ECB, IMF, and EC, and by private creditors. The ECB has Greek bonds in the range of $44 billion to $69 billion, and the European Financial Stability Facility $88 billion, by some estimates. Greece's exit from the euro would result in losses on these bonds .for the ECB and the EFSF, ultimately European taxpayers. It would also make the new bonds to private creditors under the restructuring of little value which is why European banks would not favor that outcome. Greece's tax receipts at some point, possibly 2013, would exceed basic operating expenses of the government, at which point a future Greek government might decide to exit the euro and stop interest payments on debt in its best interest....

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France was exceptionally well prepared says France 24, citing a report in Le Monde, for the SARS crisis in 2002 and the H1N1 influenza in 2009. A billion masks were stockpiled by 2009. Following the H1N1 influenza not appearing in any significant way the media, political parties and the public shifted their attention away from public health crises preparation. For H1N1 the government spent 1 billion dollars some of it going to pharmaceutical labs. The eurozone financial crisis that followed the global financial crisis shifted policy to austerity measures. The entire preparation effort for influenza type health crises was abandoned as too costly.  The same pattern repeated in Britain which was also well prepared before 2010. Austerity budgets after 2010 had little room for public health investment.  One could say a similar pattern was seen in the U.S. Today the worst hit countries are U.S., Britain, France and other European countries. France which had 1 billion masks in 2009 to tackle a possible H1N1 epidemic finds itself with 150 million masks in March 2020 and scrambling to find masks. Some masks which were usable were even destroyed as expired, ministers and experts who had built up the prevention effort in 2009 were even demoted and forgotten, as was much of the preparation in these years. It wasn't just medical supplies pubic awareness had practically disappeared. In the U.S., in Europe, the same situation of a lack of public awareness so that experts, government, and the public could work together quickly, was clear to see. In countries such as Taiwan the preparation led to speedy response at all levels, making contact tracing, isolation of clusters effective. In the U.S. and Europe this early, early, period was lost leading to makeup mitigation measures and the growing sense of a loss of control over the virus. ...

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The Guardian shows pictures in both black and white and in color from the last 50 years of US president Joe Biden. The first picture is a black and white picture from 20 November 1972 showing him cutting his 30th birthday cake with his wife Nelia, sons Beau, and Hunter. He is shown taking the oath of office for the Senate as he turned 30 the youngest senator and now the oldest former senator to be president. On the Metroliner Amtrak in 1988. He spent decades riding Amtrak to Washington D.C. He campaigned with Jill Biden for president in 1988. Not till the extraordinary situation of the pandemic in 2020 did Americans who largely ignored him give him the opportunity to lead- and at what a time when the Nation desperately needed his vision and his leadership through the largest vaccination program in history with the exception of that in India. And following this with his skills in Congress to get the legislation passed with Republicans for trillions of dollars to go into aiding families recover, and the economy to recover, investing in chips and science, and in infrastructure in ways that have happened only three times in American history, first in the early days of rail transforming a largely agricultural country during Lincoln and Grant's years as president in 1860's and 1870's, and again during the TR, Woodrow Wilson years in the 1900, 1910 period, and in the period under FDR, Truman and Ike 1940's, 1950's. No other country recovered better and stronger, and yet because of the lingering effects of the pandemic with 1 million dead from the Covid virus, and increases in the cost of living even as inflation was brought down from 9% to 3% for reasons stemming from unwise decision of American business to concentrate the supply chain in China, from housing and automobile price increases, the Nation did not immediately grasp the sheer magnitude of what had been achieved. ...

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The views in Europe and Europeans perception of Russian threats to Europe as expressed by defense chiefs of France, Sweden, and Germany, around the time of the 28 Point Plan proposed by the US president and negotiated with Russian negotiators over 3 days in Washington DC November 20, 2025.

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People in Japan are living longer healthier lives. So much so that people are working well into their 70's. In Nagano, Japan, people say that those in their 40's and 50's are like a child with a runny nose, and people in their 60's and 70's are in the prime of their careers. In this WSJ report, 38 years old Norohiro Aizawa is a part time farmer, who says he plans to work into his 70's like many farmers in Japan. Today his father in his early 70's is active and in charge. Sachiko Kobayashi runs a crafts business, has a job making box lunches, and a garden full of pumpkins and radishes. She is 65 and gets up at 3 am. In Nagano she is called by the term pre-elderly, not elderly. For elderly she has a long way to go. Japan has 29% of the population in under over 65 years group, Europe 21% and US 17%. Yet something else is happening. People are just taking better care of themselves and their health, and living, working longer. A 70 year old today in Nagano is in health status like a 60 year old one or two generations ago. Perceptions of what is elderly have changed.    Japan's White Paper on the Elderly in 2021 shows studies suggesting that many in the 65-74 year group do not share traits associated with the term elderly.  Only 6% require care by others. Half of 65-69 year olds hold jobs, and a third of those in their early 70's also hold jobs. Life expectancy in Japan stretches into the late 80's for women, and early 80's for men. This is almost 5-8 years more than countries like the UK with a strong national health service. In April 2021 a revised Employment Law took effect, telling big employers to offer work to workers until age 70, up from previously government sanctioned retirement age of 65 years. Government says it is meant to protect the right of people to work longer. There is even a term called late-elderly.  Oshima 82 of Nagano, leads a volunteer group that shoots video of community festivals and works late into the night, and is cited in this WSJ story as saying that even if people called him late elderly, his response is oh yeah? I don't care. It is all about living a full life, terms don't matter at all when one stays healthy.   ...

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Every day lost in the struggle with coronavirus is a big thing, which is why Itay's most affluent northern region has gone from being well equipped with resources of healthcare to seeing the health system overburdened to the point of disaster. This WSJ report shows why this has a lesson and an early warning for how the U.S. and other countries should design their response. It is also why the White House team that includes President Trump in the U.S. emphasized the plan for just the first 15 Days in the news conference at the Brady Room in the White House on March 16. It is saying the first 15 days are critical, not a day to lose.  It does not matter if you are an advanced economy with state of the art hospitals. Social behaviours must change, old rules rewritten and implemented throughout nations, quickly in days. Here WSJ shows lessons learned by Dr. Cereda at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania who trained in Milan and was in constant contact with colleagues in Milan and elsewhere. Many of the lessons relate to not overburdening hospitals and health systems and protecting health systems. This means mild to moderate cases are managed from home and not in the hospital, through massive deployment of outreach services and telemedicine. It means therapies can be delivered at home or through mobile clinics. The second major lesson from Italy is to protect healthcare workers and doctors. The entire White House team with Dr Faucci of CDC and Dr Brx, head of Infectious Diseases in the U.S. news conference of president Trump March 16, focused on the goal of protecting healthcare workers, doctors and hospitals, so they remained strong to take on the crisis. The second goal of the White House team is to protect the elderly with medical conditions. To do this only the most serious patients are treated in hospitals the rest for mild to moderate at home.  Studying the conditions in Bergamo and other parts of Lombardy and northern Italy, is helping U.S. medical leaders to prepare for the current nationwide effort, the 15 days plan announced by the White House. The lessons from the Papa Giovanni Hospital in Bergamo are important say U.S. medical leaders, including Dr. Brendan Carr, head of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Health System in New York.  He says build capacity in hospital beds before we need it. Clear out hospital space and add new hospital beds.  ...

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Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves dropped to $2.9 billion in February 2023, says this report in the WSJ, enough to cover 2 weeks of imports and a fraction of debt servicing requirements. Under an IMF agreement that is being negotiated $1.1 billion will be given by the IMF, which would lead to further lending by other countries and banks based on IMF oversight. This includes putting $630 million in  additional taxes and increasing the price of electricity. Successive governments have decided to avoid the IMF conditions of increasing taxes and price of electricity. Donor countries such as Saudis and Qatar, UAE, would step in once IMF oversight is in place and invest in airports, power plants, oil and gas companies, and make loans to Pakistan once the IMF oversight is in place, says WSJ.   Sri Lanka faced a similar situation after it delayed an IMF program and loan, leading to financial crisis. The situation is now stabilized with the IMF on the verge of making a $2.9 billion loan and other banks making loans on the basis of IMF oversight. In Sri Lanka's case India is a serious donor, investor and supporter of Sri Lankan recovery. ...

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This podcast in the WSJ by Sarah Randazzo shows how 15 months of the Theranos trial have revealed ways in which Silicon Valley startups raise cash. It shows the culture of creating hype and so called buzz behind startups that was lauded in business culture but has led to massive capital misallocation away from essential needs of society for infrastructure, health services, and education, investing in new technologies at home and fighting climate change. Many such situations are recorded in the pages of the WSJ, of hype and huge losses for investors in the last decade when some of the most egregious behaviour happened. Along with this was the acceptance in the business culture of shipping jobs and technology overseas, then shipping products halfway across the globe what could be easily be made in the home country- leading to a loss of control over the future and with it a loss of hope. The WSJ says the trial was a referendum on how Silicon Valley startups raise cash, with the jury finding Holmes guilty on 4 counts. The pandemic has led to rethinking and going back to basics, discarding all the unessentials or self-harm behaviours.  ...

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It took Panasonic 6 years to get its Wuxi factory near Shanghai, China, to near net zero carbon dioxide emissions. It was tough say company executives. Panasonic has a job on its hands. It would take 37 such efforts to neutralize the 2.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions of the company's operations. When suppliers are included this is only 2% of the 110 million metric tons associated with Panasonic. To get an idea of how much this is- it is the same as  half of Spain's annual emissions, and five times that of Apple Inc. Zeroing out emissions would take till 2030, or beyond, depending on how much pressure there is from customers, investors and government. It is this pressure from all sources that is making the 100 largest corporate emitters to take notice and take action on climate change. Solar panels are only part of the action, every part of company operations has to be examined and changes made including energy saving so that less energy is needed in the first place.  For companies taking such action this report by WSJ on Panasonic Wuxi is a lesson on how it is done, step by step. ...

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The incoming executive director of the European Banking Authority, Adam Farkas, voices concerns about the stress tests of European banks in 2010, and would like to use more rigorous criteria for 2011 stress tests. "I would personally opt for a stricter approach," he said in testimony at the European parliament in Brussels.The stress tests for 2011 are already being watered down by the EBA in response to pressure from governments. The stress tests use macroeconomic criteria for growth and unemployment that are benign. And tests are not taking into account a scenario in which European sovereign bond holdings of European banks decline in value due to defaults in some countries. The result is likely to be a loss of credibility in the stress tests. Under worst case scenarios for Greece, and some other countries, their economies would do better in 2011 than in 2010, and improve on 2011 in 2012. The UK Financial Services Authority tests use an unemployment rate of 12.4%, in contrast to the 10.6% rate for the U.K. used by EBA in its worst case scenario. The actual unemployment rate in the UK was 8% for the 3 months to Jan 2011, according to the UK National Statistics Office....

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A Syrian opposition group describes the mislabeling of opposition groups in Syria by the Obama administration.

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Oil importing countries in East Africa will benefit from lower oil import bills. Measured as a percentage of GDP the oil imports will go down from 6.3% to 3.7% of GDP for Tanzania, from 6.2% to 3.7% for Mozambique, from 6.0% to 3.6% for Kenya and from 4.8% to 2.8% for South Africa. For the oil exporting countries for revenue decline as a percentage of GDP, Ghana goes from 2.7% to 1.6%, Nigeria from 15.7% to 9.3%, and Angola from 56% to 33%. About 80% of Nigeria's budget comes from oil revenues which will result in spending cuts. About 14% of GDP in Nigeria is dependent on the oil sector, because of the growth in retail and telecommunications. Nigeria's finance minister estimates the decline in GDP growth by 1% to 5.3% for 2015. Benefits from lower oil prices are offset by decline in the price of iron ore and other commodity exports for South Africa, and from the decline in the South African currency, the Rand. Drop in the value of iron ore exports affects other parts of West Africa such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Projects for large investments by large oil companies in Uganda and Angola may be delayed as oil prices decline. ...

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Life in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, is shown alongside as the city struggles with most of its infrastructure destroyed in the war. The $61.5 billion aid to Ukraine was passed in the US Congress only with the efforts of Mitch McConnell who never gave up even in February and March when bills passed in the Senate were stalled in the House as the former president and some of the Republican base wavered. Mitch McConnell says now after the vote of 79 to 18 that passed  in the Senate that "at times I felt I was the only Reagan Republican left." At a meeting with the president in late February he wanted to start the meeting because he says-" I wasn't trying to convince Johnson of anything other than we had a time problem. I did't think we had time to fool around." Speaker Mike Johnson had wavered in calling for a House vote of a Senate bill on Ukraine aid after the former president had declined support. "He had a spine of steel and wouldn't give in to pressure from those in our caucus who did not have the depth of understanding of the stakes and who had reached different conclusions" says  Susan Collins who visited Ukraine in 2022 with McConnell. She calls him "steadfast and unwavering." Pat Schumer says "I give him a huge amount of credit. we were shoulder to shoulder on this." As he stays in the Senate till his term ends in January 2027, Mitch McConnell can look back on two decades of leadership in Senate realizing he had added nine Republican votes to get it 31 Republicans for Ukraine aid at a critical time. He says of two rules he has followed for 18 years - you take a lot of arrows, and yet you never speak about your members on or off the record, and in that sense he is free to pursue his own interests and has a lot of latitude now till 2027. He will be sorely needed in the Senate as the voice of experience and depth of understanding.   ...

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U.S. Fed governor, Daniel Tarullo, said in a recent speech that U.S. financial institutions could be required to meet stronger capital requirements than the Basel international standards. The Fed is considering requiring the riskiest financial institutions to put aside 8.4% to 14% of capital. The Basel standards require institutions to gradually increase the capital cushions to 7% by 2019 from about 2% at this time. Less risky institutions would would have a smaller increase over the Basel standards- about 20% compared to the 100% increase over Basel for the riskiest institutions. Speaking at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Tarullo said- "The regulatory structure ...should discourage systemically consequential growth or mergers unless the benefits to society are clearly significant." Tarullo said no one wants to see another TARP. Banks would have to build up their capital reserves using common equity and not other forms of less reliable capital such as contingent capital, where banks convert debt instruments into equity in an emergency. Tarullo emphasized the need for the U.S. to move beyond the Basel requirements, known as Basel III, because they are narrowly designed for individual institutions and do not adequately address the systemic risk. When there is a high degree of risk correlation among many actors in fast moving markets additional risks are created which require stronger capital standards. Tarullo said systemically important institutions have "no incentive to carry enough capital to reduce the chances of such systemic losses."...

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The IMF's Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, says the Fund is taking a very pragmatic view of capital controls. Because of large capital outflows from developed economies in the West to emerging market countries, this has become a much discussed issue. In the past the IMF has supported open flows, but this has created serious problems for some countries. Strauss-Kahn says that with the right economic policies in place, it can be a good idea on a temporary basis to use the tool of capital controls and prevent damaging economic distortions.

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Starmer's visit to China and the result being halving of tariffs- it comes 8 years after Theresa May's visit 2018.  Starmer is following his intution  to set an independent course for Brtian's foreign policy. It makes sense as the US is using common sense in coming back to basics, to getting its own hemisphere policies right. How could there be a situation like that in Venezuela and Mexico as with the drug cartels operating as states within states- what would Teddy Roosevelt say about this? So we now have the Monroe Doctrine, the return of the Panama Canal, the restructuring of the oil industry in Venezuela, and other action. This also means Canada and UK, India, European Union can pursue policies that are common sense. It means for Britain a new openness with China after 8 years inward looking with Austerity, Brexit and Covid. For a smaller economy it makes sense for Britain to have agreements on trade as it signed with India, and now with China. Carney, Starmer and soon Merz will have worked out relations with China on trade and exchanges. For Europe and the US over concentration of making goods in China can be corrected while still engaging with China. For the EU the visits Germany's Merz made to the kite festival an India and Leyen/Costa of the EU following up with trade agreements are all part of common sense to not just reduce over concentration in China, but also to build a new partnership with India to form a 2 billion people market. All of which happened suddenly as European nations realized how to work out new arrangements following the war with Russia over Ukraine and China's support for Russia, taking up the cues from DJT common sense action in its backyard. "I'm a pragmatist, a British pragmatist, applying common sense," the prime minister tells BBC on the plane and says he wants to "make Britain face outwards again."  ...

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Deteriorating China Iran relations as the oil imports from Iran for China face US tariffs of 25% on China's exports to US, and US economic relations far more significant for the Chinese economy. China gets somwhere between 1.4 to 1.6 million barrels aday from Iran (80% of Iran's oil exports) into Shandong refiners at $10 below Brent crude prices. Another 400 mbd comes from Venezuela to China. This means $30 billion comes to Iran from oil sales to China at $59 a barrel, and $8 billion for Venezuela from oil sales to China. This has financed much of the bellicose policies towards the US in the western hemisphere and in the Gulf region. Iran's bellicose policies in the Middle East, its nuclear policy, are now seen by China as a distraction and  detract from good economic relations with the US. China $400 billion oil deal 25 year cooperation agreement signed in 2021 was signed under the Biden administration and China today faces a completely different situation in 2026. Even China's relations with Russia are not the same as the US builds better relations with Russia. A wind down of the Ukraine war would change the situation completely and ensure peace in Europe including Russia, as the US works with the EU to meet future challenges having learned from this experience in Europe (Ukraine dividing Europe) and in the Western hemisphere (drug/ migrant. trafficking). When historians write this chapter of the inflows of capital from advanced West to Arab countries and the Gulf region they will write about the huge contrast between China/India's efforts to modernize and these nations where much of that capital was wasted in wars and conflicts and in grandiose projects that made no material difference to the standard of living and quality of life of the vast number of ordinary people. Once the oil dividend is gone with fossil fuels replaced with renewable energy by 2035-2040 this opportunity to advance is lost for the Arab and Gulf region. ...

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What is California's position in nuclear and renewables and does the substance the facts justify the image it promotes of being energy friendly and using renewables? Answer is NO  because only 9% of its total end use energy consumption according to EIA figures (2023) comes from renewables. It uses no coal yet about 60% of its energy is from crude oil. During the current crisis in the war with Iran is California an example to follow? The answer is No because it has not used renewable energy the way Germany has or EU has, and it has not managed its crude oil well by not using domestic crude oil instead relying on imports, which only burden the global needs for crude oil coming from a state with capacity to do lot better. By comparison Germany gets 23% of its total energy consumption from renewables compared to 9% for California, and for Germany 60% of its total electricity production is from renewables compared to 46% for California. EIA data shown here from US government data does not paint a very energy friendly picture. California's imports of crude oil at 75% of consumption and drop in refineries from 48 to 3 shows it has not managed the oil refining side of energy in the best way possible. How does it rate in making good use of energy? Here it uses 174 million BTU's per capita no different than New York at 174 and about the same as Florida and Washington DC, Massachusetts, Maryland.  And Germany has achieved 122 million BTU per capita showing California far behind. How does it rate in using renewables and nuclear? As it is a state with urban and suburban sprawl with large driving distances it uses a lot of crude oil for transportation. Petroleum or crude oil use is 58% of total energy use, Natural gas 25, Renewables are only 3%, electricity generation is 14% of which only 46% is from renewables. California is NOT the model for the US. We have to look elsewhere for answers.   ...

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Dropping birthrates in China are a major concern especially in the northeast states.Women are pushing back against pressure to have 2 children after 3 decades of one child policy. State subsidies and incentives are not working as birthrates continue to drop. Improving education standards and incomes have delayed marriage and childbirth. In 3 decades more than a third of the population could be over 60 years of age. A struggling economy in some states and cities places extra burden to delay childbirth. In Hubei province hospitals have offered to cover the costs of childbirth as well as give 500 yuan subsidy for first child and 700 yuan for second child. Extended maternity leave is also offered. A beautiful families campaign is being run by some organizations.