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Rohan Bopanna  of India is 45 years old, and yet fit enough to win the Australian  doubles tennis championships in 2024. WSJ's Jason Gay looks at an extraordinary athlete. By 2022 Aussie Ebden, 36 years oid, was looking for a partner and the two found each other. One has this terrific serve and Ebden the mobility in returns on court. For Bopanna Ebden added the extra composure when he would become anxious. The year before Bopanna struggled to find his game with injuries, at one point considering that his time was up.The amazing part is that Iyengar yoga helped calm Bopanna's anxieties down when his knee cartilages had fully worn out and he had to take injections. Holding positions for long periods in a correct alignment in this yoga practice called Iyengar Yoga from a yoga master in Karnataka has delivered results. Bopanna felt relaxed and calm, his pain gone, and internally feeling so great, showing the strength that can be gained from the proper practice of yoga. ...

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The Supreme Court of the US lets stand the ruling of lower courts and the National Labor Relations Board that says unions can organize and represent workers on the docks in container terminal at South Charleston. The Charleston terminal is in right-to-work state South Carolina. It is the fourth largest container terminal on the East Coast after NY NJ Terminal, Port of Savannah Terminal, and Port of Virginia. A new terminal is being built at Savannah on 395 acres to handle addition 2 million containers per year. Savannah, Georgia is another right-to-work state. Georgia Ports Authority now says it is talking to the ILA and the decision for union labor will not affect its plans for expansion. The Biden administration has supported cost of living action through increase in workers wages and helping workers organize through unions after a long period when labor was not able to push for a fair wage and the relationships between labor and employers were excessively drifting against workers. Rail strikes were settled with an agreement, auto strikes were settled with Biden on the picket lines in Detroit for the United Auto workers. International Longshoremans Association labor efforts at NLRB are part of this story of Biden and the changing face of labor in the US.   ...

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As Governor of South Carolina for two terms 2011-2017 Nikki Haley played a major role in getting Boeing to expand its operations in the state and attracting auto companies and other manufacturing industries. South Carolina had suffered from the decline of its textile industry from an earlier industrialization era. She personally helped recruit smaller companies such as Kent Cycle to set up plants in the state.  Nikki Haley's father Ajit Singh Randhawa  is from Amritsar, India, and went to the University of British Columbia on a scholarship for advanced studies in 1964. He was a professor at Punjab Agricultural University before going to Canada. His wife Raj Kaur had a law degree from University of Delhi and after getting a Masters degree in education taught in public schools in South Carolina for 7 years. Ajit Singh moved to South Carolina as a professor of biology at Voorhees College after receiving his PhD. in 1969. Nikki Haley graduated from Clemson University in 1994 with a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance. After working for FCR she joined her family's clothing business started by her mother. From 2005 to 2011 she served in the South Carolina House of Representatives. The report from Politico on Haley's career shows her to be resilient and sticking with her beliefs and principles even as she found herself to be the only immigrant  prominent in southern state politics of South Carolina. She also served as US Representative at the United Nations 2017-2018 following two terms as governor of South Carolina.  ...

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Japan will become the first country to issue climate bonds to finance action against climate change. This will bring in private capital. Japan will issue $5 billion in climate bonds (800 billion yen). A total of 20 trillion yen of climate bonds, sovereign debt securities, will be issued.

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Jaiswal after his superb knock of 214 unbeaten in 236 balls, with 14 fours and 12 sixes makes him the third youngest player to do this after Vinod Kambli and Donald Bradman. Bradman takes us to the pre war period before 1945. Jaiswal says his hunger for scoring runs comes from catching buses, rickshaws and trains, working so hard for everything as he was growing up. Even getting to the bus you had to work really hard to get to the bus or the train.

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Jaiswal's double century at Rajkot in the third Test cricket match against England was achieved with cricket skills developed though hard work on the pitch.Sriram Veera reporting from the Rajkot cricket grounds says Jaishwal is a player who has worked hard on his batting, methodically improving it to build a sound base. This discipline was seen in practice sessions and on the pitch when Sharma pointed out for him to keep his bat straighter.

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Obesity in the US is as high as about 40% in West Virginia, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. It is lowest about 25% in Colorado, Vermont and Hawaii. About 22 states have obesity rate over 35%. Compare this with China which is seeing obesity increase from about 15% in 2023 to 20% in 2034. Real competition between the two countries starts with areas like health care coming out of the pandemic when looking at the true interest of both peoples instead of geopolitics creating a huge distraction from problems of health, climate change and education. Meat intake has tripled in China and a return to more vegetable and fruits and ancient grains is something that is needed badly, also helping tackle climate change. The states in the South and midwestern US have higher rates of obesity followed by northeast and western states. This includes in the South Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas. In Midwest it includes Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Kansas. It is useful to note that this is in Voice of America news which is aimed at an overseas audience and this kind of information is not seen widely in US media. Robust food programs ae needed especially for people living in poverty. Health consciousness needs to be emphasized in all aspects of life and worklife, workspaces, living locations and transportation options all need to be devised around this. Bussel of the Robert Woods Foundation says even ten years back no state had over 35% of the population being obese. Clearly headed in the wrong direction with all the discussion in media run by billionaires on everything but what most affects the quality and ease of living of ordinary people. ...

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It depends- only if you look at it in actual millions of people. In percent of people Voice of America and this WSJ report show that US obesity rate is much higher with 22 states above 35% and the rate overall at about 25%, compared to China's at about 14%. The fact that this was reported in this way is happening as this issue is taken far too casually in the US, when the quality of life is largely dependent on health. And such high levels of obesity in the US, catastrophic levels in some southern and midwestern states, means one is not doing things right and heading for a poorer quality of life. This report in the WSJ cites estimates of obesity in China of as high as 200 million and likely to grow by another 100 million by 2034, about 14% of the population being obese today and obesity increasing to about 20%. In China the demand for weight loss drugs is growing. The government has a program to reduce the intake of salt, sugar and oil and increase health foods in the diet. Meat in the diet has tripled and there is a need for more health conscious attitudes in China, even more so and urgently in the US. Both the US and China are too auto centric in their culture, particularly the US where public transportation has not been given high priority leading to a lack of enough exercise getting to work. ...

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Peter Goodman who covers the consequences in the lives of ordinary people of the industrial changes going on around us, gives this report from Michigan. He shows how today's Michigan, was home to Henry Ford's automobile plants that made it a major part of the industrial revolution in the US after 1910, when Ford's first assembly line manufacturing was set up in Highland Park, Detroit. Industrial growth till 1960 made the US the leading industrial nation in the world. Followed by Japanese imports and auto manufacturing shifting to Asia and Mexico, that led to deindustrialization and neglect in Michigan and the midwestern US.  Key aspects of resurgence today is coming from lessons learned in the period of deindustrialization. From labor and management not working together, from huge pension obligations and costs that had to be overcome, that made existing wage and cost structures uncompetitive with Asian manufacturing. Labor concessions in the last decade have made a rearrangement of cost structure possible, yet along with the financial crisis of 2008 further worsened worker incomes. The first steps of a return for Michigan to its role in the early industrialization of America, the new labor contract negotiated in 2023, the support of president Biden and the government, the investment in the new technology of electric car manufacturing by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Goodman shows how the state, federal government, community colleges and other educational institutions training workers and students, and car companies are working together to promote interests of workers and communities. There is uncertainty created about the fewer parts in the electric car manufacturing process, automation advances, and fewer jobs. Yet the process is a transition over many years and this is accepted by the Biden administration and by the industry as it responds to slower demand for electric cars in 2024. This provides the time to bring up new training programs for workers, enable the funding of new research into battery technologies that would bring down the cost and make electric car prices accessible to the wider population. Uncertainty and fears about the transition are counteracted by the effort the Biden administration is making to bring up all manufacturing and to make large investments in American manufacturing.   ...

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Jaishankar  of India and Blinken of the US join to say the world should not be divided into political blocs and that there is room for working together in different groupings such as the Quad, in the Indo-Pacific economic cooperation, as two largest democracies, and for the rule of law, open navigation in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific. Both agree that polical complexity should not be reduced into black and white and simplified. For India Jaishankar says it means we are in a certain location in the world, there is history, our experience is different, all this shapes how we see the world. India gives voice to the aspirations of over 2 billion people in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other countries. It created the G20 out of the G7 nations.

Baerbock of Germany adds that Europe has to accept that in the past it when it backed colonialism based on attitudes at the time, when it supported Apartheid in Africa, it had made mistakes.

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Exercise at a relatively low effort for a long time is now called Zone 2. In it someone can carry a slightly strained conversation while exercising. This is becoming popular as the right way to exercise and is the best way to build a sustained and stable way to health. It stimulates our cell's powerhouses say experts and converts into better health and athletic fitness. It is the secret of great elites that helps them faster for longer, says an expert at UT Medical Center in Dallas. As we age we lose mitochondrial function so it is even more important to so this kind of exercise. Mitochrondrial refers to the mitochondria, the battery packs in our cells that convert fat and cars into energy. Zone 2 exercise stimulates mitochondria effectively. About 80% of training can be Zone 2, and 20% at higher intensity to achieve the right balance.

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Jaiswal who made 209 in the Second Cricket Test hits a fast century in the Third Test against England to put India in a strong position on Feb 17, 2024. Jaiswal hit 3 sixes and 2 fours in 8 balls at one time in the 150 run partnership with Shubman Gill.

 

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Ollie Pope's sensational 196 run batting helped England even the Test series against India. It happened even after Pope was recovering from injury and batted 11 nervous balls before he was out in the first innings against India. The Independent looks at Ollie Pope and his batting.

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A 16 week abortion ban that is now supported by Republicans as reported in NYT.

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A $355 million fine in the civil fraud trial of Donald Trump.

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Republican McConnell and Democrat Schumer in interviews in recent days with The Washington Post, as the focus on the rest of 2024  is on what will the new US Senate look like, who is in majority, and who is in minority after November. A small faction in his Republican party opposed McConnell's bipartisan compromise. McConnell says after 17 years in the US Senate, that one has to remember what Harry Truman said. Truman America's post war president in 1950's said if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog. Yet the Post also says the two McConnell and Schumer worked closely for 4 months to negotiate the bipartisan compromise on immigration to close the border. The first time the two sides have come  this close in this century says the Washington Post. Looking at the 22 Republisenators that supported McConnell and voted for the aid to Ukraine one finds most are senior and the majority of the senators with the most experience, compared to a small faction of newcomers without anywhere near the same experience. This is why the dissension in Congress can also be seen as not telling the whole story, when the most experienced people in the Senate and the House of both parties have come together on the big issues even when the fringes of both are engaged in unconstructive confrontation. You could see that when the younger J.D. Vance of Ohio addressed the heads of all the major US banks this past week in a Congressional Senate hearing and the difference when the more experienced Van Hollen of Maryland talked to the same banking heads. And when Senator Tillis of North Carolina one of the older experienced Senate Republicans made a strong plea for aid to Ukraine on the House floor and in his earlier support for the bipartisan change to asylum and parole immigration laws in the US. A broad center is emerging around coming together, around the most experienced people in the US Congress that sets the country in the right direction.   ...

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Judge Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court is the rarest of judges in his style, demeanor and use of everyday expressions. He was a cabdriver and a music teacher and more like everyday people in America.  NYT shows the 92 page legal decision in which Judge Engoron sets a fine of $355 million in the civil fraud trial of Donald Trump. Engoron cites a poet and uses rare language in his everyman style, saying: "The English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) first declared, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” Defendants apparently are of a different mind. After some four years of investigation and litigation, the only error (“inadvertent,” of course) that they acknowledge is the tripling of the size of the Trump Tower Penthouse, which cannot be gainsaid. Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” posture that the evidence belies." And calling it "this is not the defendent's first rodeo"- "In considering the need for ongoing injunctive relief, this court is mindful that this action is not the first time the Trump Organization or its related entities has been found to have engaged in corporate malfeasance. Of course, the more evidence there is of defendants’ ongoing propensity to engage in fraud, the more need there is for the court to impose stricter injunctive relief. This is not defendants’ first rodeo."     ...

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The story is an encouraging one as the president and bipartisan Congressmen persevered with courage and patience to invest in America. The story is told by Biden adviser Gene Sperling in the WSJ today Feb 16, 2024, and is on this page. The US federal Budget deficit rises to 6.1%  in 2025 from 5.6% in 2024, then slows to 5.2% in 2027 and 2028, going back to 6.1% in 2034. Because these projections depend on assumptions inflation, interest rates, wages, which may be different in actual numbers in future years the broad guage one can get is that the extra surge in investment of five tenths or six tenths of a percentage point of GDP help the US make the investments in an aging or crumbling infrastructure and in manufacturing, better technologies, not replaced since the 1950's or 1970's, is needed for economic growth and better living conditions for the American people. It is this investment that in trillions of dollars of spending under president Biden that has generated growth of 3.1% in the last 2 years compared to the recession in Germany, UK, France and otehr European countries. UK is the latest to fall into recession this month. Sluggish growth can also be seen in China with a bloated construction center hindering growth. The US is in abetter position after the pandemic than any other country with the exception of India. ...

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The Global Summit  2024 organized by the UAE under Mohamed Bin Zayed. The PM of India opening the Summit says- After 13 years leading a state government and ten years leading the federal government, I am convinced that  there is a need for Clean government distancing itself from corruption, that is transparent. Governments that are sober in the international crises, that are green, providing ease of living, ease of justice, ease of innovation, ease of doing business to their people. The confidence won during the pandemic was gained by giving attention to the needs and aspirations of the people through Inclusiveness that is the mark of good governance. Minimum government, maximum governance, is the way that was the approach taken in India, taking the whole of society, and putting people's participation at the heart of all activity. This is true for sanitation drive, digital innovation, women's empowerment, social finance inclusion. We attached 500 million people to their own bank accounts where they had none. As a result we have advanced in digital payments. We have made laws for participation of women in government. We have focused on skills development for young people. Third in startups. Last Mile Delivery is the goal of the government that the government reaches people and does not differentiate between people. Differentiating among people of diverse origin disappears under Sab Ka Vikas, Sab Ka Saath, that is Development for All, With All Involved. We have in this given 250 million a way out of poverty. 1.3 billion people have a digital identity. With the use of technology we have a system of Direct Benefit Transfer and in 10 years have transferred $400 billion to people's individual bank accounts, and prevented $33 billion into falling into the wrong hands. This has eliminated leakages of funds. Our culture is that our efforts should match the opportunities before us. Mission Life is a new road we take for the climate. When we look at the future every government faces many questions by international interdependence and national sovereignty, the international rule of law, and how to contribute to the global good, and bring the wisdom of our culture to this good. As we transform our countries should we not transform global financial and governance institutions? For this we require future planning, that brings cohesive, collaborative effort. This means Global South voices must be heard. And its priorities moved up front. And that we share our technologies and resources with them who lack the basics of life. In doing this we will give Vishwa Banduthwa, World Unity and Harmony, in line with India as Vishwa Bandhu, a Friend to the World.   ...