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The U.S. vice presidential debate between Mike Spence and Tim Kaine showed Kaine focussing attention on Trump's crude attacks on women, praise for Russian president Putin, and opposition to the minimum wage. Spence's tone was measured and his focus was on deflecting the attacks on the crude language used by Trump in the campaign by saying Trump was "not a polished professional politician," like the others, and not responding to the Kaine references to Trump. Spence stuck to issues about immigration open borders, abortion, president Obama's inaction in Syria, the plight of workers in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He did not respond to repeated questions on Trump's failure to disclose his tax returns and his business failures leading to close to a billion dollars in losses and not having paid taxes for 18 years, as disclosed by the New York Times. Spence had to choose between hurting his own chances for reelection with the traditional Republican voters alienated by Trump and standing up for Trump's crude language against women and minorities. He deftly tried to the best using his skills as a radio broadcaster. Kaine who is usually more measured and thoughtful, had to choose between his traditional style of speaking and the role he was expected to play bringing to the public's attention the crude language and style of the Trump campaign and the instability reflected in it. He used his skills as a litigator to ask repeated questions on Trump, especially on the taxes, which leads to questions about funding infrastructure development and jobs without the wealthy paying their share of taxes. ...

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No country benefited more than first Japan and then South Korea till 2000, and now China till 2022 from the trade and sharing of industrial technology enabled by the American backed system of trade and industry. Walter Russell Mead says in WSJ that China has chosen to challenge the system through which it developed into an industrialized nation with the US running huge trade deficits, sharing its technology and letting Chinese manufacturing displace American local manufacturing. China is seen as challenging the system. Yet what has happened is that this process of displacing American manufacturing and industry was not sustainable anyway and continued for a decade longer than it would otherwise have lasted because American industry could not easily reverse a course it had set of setting up manufacturing in China, once that manufacturing base had already been transferred from the US to China and American companies had grown accustomed to a new state of affairs of making overseas in China. Not much thought was given to how American workers would react to that situation as companies and industries making that transfer made independent decisions. This led to the election of Trump with wins in midwestern states that had suffered from loss of manufacturing communities.  The Trump tariffs on Chinese goods and the Biden administration lining up completely behind American workers and families for the first time for Democrats has sent the signal to China that it finds the situation of China's dominance in the trade system unacceptable. The document of "China 2030" of the Chinese Government with planned dominance in key sectors and industries was met with alarm across America in all parties. The paradox of Apple as a key sector in Chinese manufacturing and the largest American company is the result of policies pursued by America without realizing the true cost of shipping manufacturing out of the country. That process is now being reversed with change of management starting at Intel Corp. and other companies to bring the manufacturing base back to the US. This policy is being resolutely pursued by the US and will speed up following the pandemic which has further demonstrated how much of a mistake the policy of sending out manufacturing in critical areas such as health could be. This is the reality behind the rhetoric and verbal exchange between China and the US. With the rapid growth of Chinese manufacturing countries such as India were put in a difficult situation  as this was preventing the local industrial base developing in India with Chinese imports in the same way as it had damaged that of the US and the EU. Worse it led to the use of US and European technology in China's defense industrial base including aviation and other sectors that threatened India's borders with repeated Chinese incursions in the Himalayas, from the Pakistan western Himalayas to Ladakh and the eastern Himalayan mountains. That situation existed long before the Trump and Biden administration and the Modi administration called for a return to America of its industrial manufacturing base and its technological leadership. Both the Bush and Obama administrations and the Indian Congress administrations failed to realize the dangers of letting the US, European and Indian industrial base wither. India is not just a country but a culture that extends from the Himalayas all the way across Bangladesh to the Indonesian islands which shares a common cultural history of Buddhism and the Vedanta. This is a region that has a population of about 2 billion people. In a larger sense the cultural history extends to  Vietnam and Japan with its Buddhist culture whose origins go back to India, and also of China itself. In the larger sense this is a population of close to 3 billion people. The economic development of this region and learning from the parliamentary traditions and scientific discoveries of the modern period since 1700 is a task for both the US, Europe and the people of the region.   ...

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The influence of business executives who helped shape president Trump's views on Mexico, China, Export Import Bank, and other issues is covered by Stokols and Bender of WSJ. On Mexico the departure of Mike Flynn helped moderate views, Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Secretary also provided a moderating influence. The plans are now to change NAFTA but not entirely redo the agreement. On the Export Import Bank the views of Boeing CEO Muilenburg, who explained to Trump why the Bank supported U.S. exports and how other countries had similar banks, led to the president filling the bank vacancies. On China the influence of NEC head, Gary Cohn, former president of Goldman Sachs, and other business executives, led to a less confrontational position. The president once called NATO obsolete during the campaign but he met this week with NATO secretary general Stoltenberg this week and expressed strong support for NATO after rising tensions with Russia.

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Who knew that Prince William had actually slept on the streets of London in 2009 to understand homelessness and his passion to end homelessness through affordable housing. There is also the passion of the King Charles to do this another way by building aesthetic, friendly housing at lower cost so that it serves the needs of ordinary people. Around this one idea the deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and  William, Charles have found a new relationship. Charles chats freely with Angela, says the Times in this report and the two have developed shared concerns, as it is Rayner who as housing minister that has to come up with the 1.5 million new houses to be built under Labour's and PM Starmer's promise to Britain. It is agood sign for the new Britain that the royal family can come together with someone who has had her own struggles as Angela Rayner has had in her earlier years with an early pregnancy, as the three people come together to fight homelessness in our communities. ...

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The Afghan Army in operations in Chak District, Wardak province as the U.S. prepares a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. The withdrawal plan leaves a large role for the Afghan Army.

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President Trump says any deal with North Korea has to be an "all or nothing deal" that covers all of North Korea's nuclear weapons. Mr. Kim had offered only the Yongyan complex which Mr. Trump rejected, walking away from the talks in Hanoi. National Security Adviser Bolton has persuaded the president that any deal must include chemical and biological weapons, and "cover all weapons of mass destruction."

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According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 17 million families, or roughly 15% of all households- had difficulty putting enough food on the table at some point in the year. USDA found that 5.6 million households had chronic problems all year long. The number of homes has tripled since 2006, but remain about the same as 2008.

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The SCHOOL survey by eminent researchers shows that that 37% of rural school children in India are dropping out- an alarming piece of information. Only 8% of rural school children have access to online classes regularly. The figure for urban areas in India is 24% of school children having access to online learning regularly. This could have serious consequences. Getting primary and secondary schoolchildren back into classes is an important goal during the pandemic. Online learning has only a limited reach at this time. Many households have no smartphone or only one smartphone that is used by adults. The SCHOOL survey covered 15 states and 1362 sample households. Between 51 and 58% of students had not met their teachers in the preceding month according to the survey.  This also affects nutrition as schoolchildren are missing the midday meals given at school. Midday meals were discontinued with the closure of schools. Overall this report says 97% of parents support reopening of schools. ...

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What was established in Alaska meeting in Anchorage was the necessary rapport between two world powers. During the Bush, Obama, Biden administrations Russia was treated as a secondary economic power on Wall Street, with the focus shifted to China, which damaged relations with Russia which has always seen itself as a Northern European economic power. Some of the roots of the conflict go back to this period. In a nuclear world the size and historical relation in Northern Europe of Russia cannot be ignored purely on economic grounds about the size of it's economy in the way China could not be ignored in the 60's and 70's when it's economy was not what it is today. History and culture are not in Wall Street or Silicon Valley's understanding or grasp of international relations which go beyond economic and business considerations. On DJT and the first term, the survival of the US president- “When I came out of the plane and I said, ‘Good afternoon, dear neighbor. Good to see you in good health and to see you alive. I think that’s very neighborly and I think that’s some kind words that say to each other.” On Ukraine- “We have always considered and continue to consider the Ukrainian people our brothers and sisters. We share the same roots, and everything that is happening is a tragedy and a source of pain for us. Our country is interested in putting an end to this. But at the same time, we are convinced that for the settlement to be long-term, all the causes of the crisis must be eliminated." On DJT's assertion that if he was president there would have been no Ukraine war- Putin says "I can confirm that." “Today, we hear President Trump say that if he had been president, there would have been no war. I think that would have been the case. I can confirm that. Because, overall, President Trump and I had established a very good working relationship based on trust.”     ...

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Shoichiro Toyoda's son Akio takes over as new CEO of Toyota. He got the MBA degree from Babson College in Massachusetts and joined the company at 27. Initially Shoichiro was opposed to Akio joining the company. Even today with the Toyoda family owning only 2% of company shares there is a faction that supports Akio and a faction that dislikes the founding family's involvement in running the company. So the job has not been an easy one for Akio. At one point Akio admitted himself into a hospital early in his career after friction with one of his bosses. Things settled down after that and eventually Akio headed the China operations, where he engineered the merger of Tinajin with FAW to give Toyota a more capable partner to expand in China. And to get Akio to take on the new role, the elders at Toyota like his father and others had to ask Fujio Cho to stay on as chairman, even though he has a back ailment that made him keen on resigning. Current CEO Watanabe will become vice chairman and help Cho with his duties. The idea may be to have more experienced people at the top as Akio takes over and makes changes to the conservative culture and bureaucratic ways of Toyota. This eases the transition especially if there are people who are wary of the founding family and Akio's more direct and bolder style of management....

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Under the law overturned by the US Supreme Court it was illegal to carry a gun openly and a permit was needed in New York to carry it concealed. Three Supreme Court Justices appointed by president Trump were of a disposition that opposed gun control laws- Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. The requirement under the New York law was that you had to show "good moral character" and "cause" to carry a concealed weapon or carry a gun openly. Many other states have such laws in California, Hawaii and urban states in the north east. Republican states are loosening gun control laws. This comes as many random shooting incidents are taking place in the US some in schools and grocery stores, the most recent being a shooting in Buffalo, NY. The vote was 6-3 after the Supreme Court for years had avoided hearing such cases based on Second Amendment rights from the Constitution that some had interpreted to include freely carrying guns without any common sense restrictions. This issue is second only to abortion as a cultural issue in the US on which sides are taken by the public including the Supreme Court Justices selected by Mr. Trump. Though not directly apparent these and issues of immigration, other cultural issues surrounding gay rights are putting those who would normally come together on issues of national interest on opposite sides when it comes to common sense support for everyday issues of feeding families, keeping workers employed in good factories at home, child care, education, health care, fair wages, restoring America's manufacturing leadership and bringing back manufacturing to the US. The emergence of Tech and tech companies, Silicon Valley, the finance sector in New York, has reinforced the prejudice in these opposing sides as Tech and the finance sector have largely embedded themselves into the Democratic side. Tech and finance sector employees with higher incomes have largely insulated themselves from the interests of ordinary workers and families creating a split Democratic party when it comes to supporting workers and families who form the vast majority of the American people. In a sense today the national interest is separate from these cultural issues and supporters of national interests can be found in both parties who can look beyond and above these cultural issues. It is also where many of these cultural issues can be resolved to some degree using common sense on which most informed members of Congress can agree. This is true for gun control as a group of bipartisan Senators from both parties are preparing gun control around common sense principles that today are even beyond the capacity of the Supreme Court of the US that itself now reflects a raucous public sphere. ...

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Coach Jitendra Singh who coached Hardik Pandya from his childhood days talks about the way Pandya has matured over the years since the Karan Johar chat show episode. Coach Jitendra Singh says Pandya told him- "Coach you won't hear any negative things about me after this." The death of his father who took his two boys to Baroda to prepare at a cricketing academy has affected Pandya.

In the recent IPL final Pandya showed his captaincy skills and his skills as an all rounder with 3 wickets for 17 runs including that of Butler of the Rajasthan Royals and 34 runs batting at a critical stage for a over 50 run partnership with Shubman Gill. Pandya is seen as very close to players and encouraging David Miller who took the Gujarat Titans to win the game with superb batting.

Here the Indian Express calls this a Kapil Dev moment for India as Kapil Dev is the only cricketer in Test history to have scored 5000 runs and taken 400 wickets.

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During the Civil War and the two World Wars it was called the War Department till changes were made in 1947-1949. The US Navy was independent of the Army and operated independently. Harry Truman changed this in 1947.Since then the US has been on the back foot even in its on backyard, where once the Monroe Doctrine made clear that colonial powers had no place in this hemisphere, today even in places like Venezuela and central America regimes operate against the interests of their people and create a massive refugee problem for the United States of America and other countries in the neighborhood. The USA was also on the back foot in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and after prematurely declaring victory in the Cold War finds that nothing of the sort of a win in the Cold War happened, as the adversaries in the Cold War reassert their interests. And the US faces crises of refugees and on its borders, Europe faces crises of refugees and on its borders.    ...

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China's loans and projects in Latin America and the unwinding of projects in 2026. China had shifted policy to collecting back $10 billion of loans to Venezuela in meetings of its envoy with Maduro the day the US acted to remove Maduro, says this report in WSJ. China is shifting to reduce losses in the region from loans. Over last 2 decades China has loaned Venezuela $100 billion in exchange for oil shipments. As its oil industry production declined without US assistance Venezuela went deeper in debt. This is another aspect of the problems that this type of model of development brings to finance building of rail and transport, seen across the world from Venezuela down to small countries like Sri Lanka and Zambia. For China this could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in loans that lack transparency and are opaque to Africa and Latin America, when its construction industry debt and local government debt has led to problems. Other solutions and alternatives are needed.   ...

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US housing prices are seeing a decline in 2022 as a result of the Fed's interest rate increases even though there is no extra supply of housing. Renters are staying away from high mortgage payments at the higher rates, and families with a 3% mortgage are staying put rather than risk making larger mortgage payments for a new home. Fed's Jerome Powell has this to say- "You had housing markets go up at very unsustainable levels and overheating. Now the housing market is going through the other side of that and hopefully coming out at abetter place." This is more like the drop in demand for housing in 1979 which revived in 1983 after the Fed eased up on increasing rates, says the WSJ.

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Jos Biden loves to talk about his Irish ancestors. This Times report takes an in depth look at Irishmen in America and how Biden uses his Irishness to activate his progressive base. For many years in the twentieth century Irishmen were active in American Catholic progressive politics. Many states in the northeast of the country have large Irish populations including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware, and New York. About 10-15% of the population in these states being Irish. About 34 million people having Irish ancestry in the US. forming a significant voting bloc. Biden carries an appeal to this bloc of voters that overrides local politics. Only John F. Kennedy, another president with Irish grand parents had this kind of appeal in American politics.

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Disagreements on how much to fund an education recovery effort in the Toy government of Mr. Johnson. Sir Kevan Collins resigns after his program designed to help students recover from the loss of study time from coronavirus at a cost of 15 billion pounds is rejected. The government plans to put 1.4 billion pounds, which Sir Collins calls too narrow, and not doing enough, delivering too slowly. Sir Collins had hoped to give 6th Formers and extra 100 hours of schooling and help prepare students for GCSE exams. He would have extended school time by 30 minutes in 2022 and setup a 35 hour week for students.

Netherlands plans to spend 2500 pounds per student, the US 1600 pounds per student, the UK 50 pounds per student. 

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Sector by sector infrastructure reviews chaired by the prime minister have resumed as the coronavirus cases fall below 50,000 a day on June 26. The prime minister has done a detailed review from a few ministries including transport and civil aviation. Before the pandemic such reviews were done every quarter. A separate presentation by each sector is given to the full council of ministers so that all ministers are aware of the problems and how they are tackled by each ministry.

Before the second wave of the pandemic the prime minister had met with private industry partners in infrastructure development to push forward with significant progress. The task now is for quick implementation so that time lost from the second wave can be made up.

 

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This report in the WSJ shows Pfizer is expected to make $8 billion in profit on its vaccine business, and Astra Zeneca barely breakeven in the vaccine business. The British-Swedish drugmaker Astra Zeneca had offered to distribute the vaccine at no profit during the pandemic. For this reason Astra Zeneca is the only vaccine that is available in 170 countries with 1 billion doses released. One of the main recipients is India with a population of 1.2 billion, which is also a vaccine maker for the Astra Zeneca vaccine that was developed at Oxford University, under Indian brand name Covishield. The Pfizer vaccine by contrast was sold to governments in the US and European Union, and Britain, who could afford the large outlay of funds and signed contracts early.

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The attempted shooting of De Gaulle's car was part of the OAS effort to prevent the granting of independence to Algeria, a course of action that De Gaulle like Lincoln for emancipation relentlessly pursued, in this case for North African Arabs colonized by the French. De Gaulle also modernized French agriculture and changed the living conditions of French farmers that had not changed for centuries with poor conditions. It was during this period under De Gaulle that France emerged as a truly modern nation with the infrastructure built under De Gaulle and continued by his assistants who succeeded to the presidency. This report says 30 attempts were made on his life and it shows the resilience and character of the leadership in the early post war period.

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Baby Boomers from the FDR Truman era 1950-1965 were offset by the Generation X of the Reagan period 1965-1980. Each generation was making its political affiliation as Democrat or Republican based on its most impressionable years of life. Then come the Millenials till 1996 and Generation Z, who tired of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were wary of war, and had seen banking deregulation and laissez fairre lead to the financial crisis of 2008. The younger generations now enter as voters in 2024 and 2028 as Democrats. So big is the gap for Generation Z that it is the highest for all generations 20% Republican to 36% Democrats. This is from the General Social Survey by the University of Chicago every year since 1972.

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Efforts in Utah by Governor Cox to limit the damage to children's mental health from overuse and addiction to social media outlets including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Utah governor Cox says in answer to the question why now, the better question is why didn't we do this 5 years ago. "If this was child cancer or car accidents we would be losing our minds about this," he says. New laws in Utah would put time restrictions and give parents access to messages and posts. Utah and other states will file lawsuits to make tech companies accountable. The CDC found 3 in 5 American adolescent girls had mental health issues in 2021, this has increased every year since 2011.

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As inflation eases and job growth continues in the US, and to a lesser extent also in the European Union, there are different opinions on why this is happening. One camp says that the surge in inflation was from temporary supply shocks. Once these shocks abated and supplies came back into the market the situation has eased. Central bank increase in rates played a smaller part in easing inflation say these experts. With interest rates up on loans there is less demand for cars in the US that leads to sellers having less pricing power. The other camp says the increase in interest rates at consecutive meetings had a strong impact on expectations of inflation. Higher interest rates played apart in cooling demand for cars and home purchases.

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This op-ed piece in the NYT points out that the vote was not against women but the weakness of Hillary Clinton in appealing to the interests of working and middle class Americans as she gradually became out of touch with ordinary Americans. The urgency of tackling the problems of ordinary Americans was missing and the message muffled and lost in the way the campaign failed to win the trust of Americans hit hard by the recession. Separate reports in the media show Bill Clinton worried about how the campaign had lost its focus on the lives of ordinary Americans and the struggles of working class and middle class since the great recession. Ignoring these lessons and blaming the results on sexism would be wrong, says Naomi Klein.