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After the turnover of administrations and prime ministers in the last decade, a new wave is taking place. By 2010 with prime minister David Cameron mediocre leaders are running Britain, and after Boris Johnson, Truss, Sunak and Brexit politics, a new wave of Labor party unraveling is taking place following the Conservatives unraveling and falling apart. This is reflected in the Mandelson affair and the lack of firm direction on immigration policy with boatloads of migrants entering the country and filling up hotels in rural areas of the country. The ECHR (European Commisssion of Human Rights) written for different situations by Europeans who had little grasp or respect for the British public's attachment to their own history, culture and traditions, were being applied by British Labor leaders such as Keir Starmer to migrants who had no connections to Britain. Migrant crime and protests about migrants has weakened a Labor government, weakening the British state and its economy. Within hardly 1 year after winning  elections for a majority government British prime minister Keir Starmer faces the prospect of stepping down. ...

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Iran's economy following the naval blockade- WSJ cites assessment by Miad Maleki who led Treasury's sanctions campaign on Iran in 2025. Loss of $435 million of economic activity per day and oil shut ins in 2 weeks. As the Europeans sit out this naval blockade and US rethinks its participation in NATO, as the poorer countries in the world are affected by the shortages including Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and others around the world, the one baffling aspect is how far a nation (Iran)could let its economic prospects be affected to continue uranium enrichment. It is about the failure of another Middle Eastern nation to modernize and improve the living standards of its people, (after Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria and Iraq),  wasting a once in a centuries opportunity to do this wasting an oil dividend that will only last to 2035 when renewable energy may replace fossil fuels. Instead leaving the region with intermittent wars and destruction from the wars since 1950, falling behind in a world that is rapidly modernizing in China and India with about 3 billion people committed to modernization. ...

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Kharg Island near Hormuz and Jask Island on Gulf of Oman two of Iran's main oil export terminals. Oil is pumped by underwater sea pipelines to storage tanks that hold 30 million barrels on Kharg Island then loaded onto oil tankers that make their way through the Hormuz Straits. The oil is shipped to teapot refineries in China- smaller independent oil refineries in China that have not faced sanctions. This oil is shipped at a discount. How does China pay for this oil? China gets 2.1 million barrels a day from this source. It is paid for with a $400 billion Chinese investment in Iran under a 25 year Comprehensive Partnership Agreement signed in 2021 during the Biden Administration in the US. The investment covers energy, infrastructure and technology in Iran. At $60 a barrel before the Iran War China would have an import oil bill of $46 billion for 1 years supply of oil from Iran. This was paid for in yuan based transactions and barter systems which involved Iranian construction projects performed by China and exchange of other products, raw materials. ...

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Xi's "Great Rejuvenationof the Chinese Nation" compared favorably to DJT's "Make America Great Again" by Xi Jinping during DJT visit to Zhonghanhai Compound of China's leaders in Beijing. Xi Jinping says during DJT visit to Beijing May 14 2026- “Through strengthened cooperation, both China and the United States can promote their respective development and revitalization." This is important to grasp if one wants to understand China. Much of the media focuses on this or that smaller aspect of the DJT visit to China, including the NYT when it shows DJT invited to a walk on the garden grounds of the Zhonghanhai Compound. It does not accept that president Xi Jinping finds little that is relevant to China today and its aspirations in places like Iran and the Middle East. That Xi admires the US efforts for reindustrialization and renewal in the same way he sees the rejuvenation and renewal of the great Chinese Nation and sees this as shared goals for betterment of their people's lives.  ...

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This DD India video shows the prime ministers of all the Nordic Nations in meetings with prime minster Modi of India- the prime ministers of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland. India has strengthened relations on 3 levels - the bilateral, Nordics as a group, Nordics as part of European Union, for close understanding and close cooperation over the next 15 years. Norway has a plan for 15 year collaboration with India in a range of fields including for its Sovereign Fund. It is now at the level of a new Green and Strategic Partnership that shares close goals and a common spirit. The PM of India used the word "sambandh", and the PM of Iceland brought this up as a spiritual basis of the cooperation that was the main and common feeling bringing these nations of Northern Europe into a spiritual bonding with India over the next 15 years around shared values of democracy, rules based order, and rule of law, everything that India treasures in Western civilization and Europe in Indian civilization. The relationship is shared across all fields including scientific and technological cooperation, education, space, agriculture and fisheries, industry, renewable energy, defense, other fields. ...

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Mokoto Rich of the NYT discusses sentiment in Japan as the North Korean nuclear program advances. A majority of Japanese surveyed do not favor preemptive strikes. Japan's Constitution only allows acting in self-defense. Experts say Japan has to consider what it would do for missiles flying over Japanese territory in the direction of the U.S. A Japanese government ruling in 1956 allows acting in self-defense in a broader way. Yet the public in Japan is not sure what is the best way to respond. Also to be considered is how this will be seen in South Korea and China- would Japan taking a greater defensive role and building its own anti-ballistic missile system defenses lead to greater tensions in the region.

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Wuhan has announced  only 3 new confirmed cases since March 18. Restrictions on travel were lifted after a 77 day lockdown on the city, allowing inbound and outbound travel. Some restrictions on housing complexes have been tightened after reports of dozens of asymptomatic cases. The number of asymptomatic cases remains unknown. There is a fear of a second outbreak and authorites are staying vigilant, as it is feared that the first outbreak was worse than previously thought. Epidemiologists, intelligence agencies, and health experts believe the number of cases reported in Wuhan and China are undercounted. This could be they say a result of local officials wanting to present a better picture, of not enough testing in the early stages, not counting people who died at home, and including people who died of pneumonia under pneumonia instead of coronavirus. Dr Birx, head of the U.S. response effort,  says the U.S. lists people who died of pneumonia in New York as coronavirus deaths because of how widespread it is there, hitting seven people in a thousand. In addition there is a problem for all countries in counting people without symptoms. No one even knows how big that is, and Dr Birx in the U.S. says it is important to find out. ...

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The testing shortages in the states and the lack of enough cartridges provided by the U.S. government for Abbott Labs testing machines is causing much frustration, as shown here in the WSJ. Illinois one hotspot is an example. Illinois governor Pritzker says he spoke to Abbott Labs a week ago and thought he had an agreement to conduct 3000 tests a day. He then learned that the U.S. government was taking over the purchasing and distribution of the tests.  He  received 15 Abbott machines and 120 cartridges for all of Illinois which would enable 120 tests from the U.S. government. Abbott currently is making 50,000 test cartridges a day for the rapid test. Detroit which had better experience with the Abbott machines says it has conducted 1000 Abbott rapid tests, shortly after Abbott got approval on March 27. With the 1000 tests Detroit was able to test first responders and bus drivers in quarantine. Detroit recently purchased another 4000 additional tests from Abbott which it wants to use in nursing homes and homeless shelters, vulnerable populations in the city. The Abbott test provides result in 15 minutes making it very effective in implementing fast quarantine action when the virus is spreading quickly in a specific population.  Other governors say they are banging their head against a wall trying to get more tests. ...

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China's military exercises for air and sea blockade of Taiwan raise the political risk of doing business in China says this report in WSJ. It raises the risk level for American corporations such as Apple and Boeing and others, that have large investments in China. The escalating tension and freeze in relations between the US and China is a watershed moment says the WSJ. Looking back years from now it may be the year following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine that tensions took on a level that would lead to acceleration of the building of new supply chains for the US and European Union in Asia that separate from China. The Trump years as president escalated trade tensions and tensions over origins of Covid. The war in Ukraine and China's siding with Russia and forming a "no limits" partnership with Russia have created serious rethinking of the entire relationship from supply chains to defense. US president Biden sees Ukraine's defense as a way of showing that an attack on one country by a neighbor in violation of international law is not acceptable to the US, and particularly in the context of China's relations with Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific countries. In this situation the US is taking the initiative in the war in Ukraine with Gen. Cavoli at US Headquarters in Europe assisting in the effort to repel Russian aggression, and also send a message to China on the importance the US sees in not allowing this kind of violation of international law. ...

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10 year U.S. Treasury yields drop below 1.5% in June 2012. German bond yields in negative territory.

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The credibility of the US at stake in its ambivalent responses to the protests in Egypt against thirty years of one-party rule under Mubarak. Opposition leader and Nobel laureate El-Baradei leads demonstrators after prayers at a mosque in Cairo and is met by waves of police shooting tear gas. After returning to the mosque El-Baradei tells reporters that Mubarak's regime has closed the door to a peaceful transition with its use of the police in large numbers to stop the demonstrators. He said if the international community is not speaking now when would it speak up. He called the Mubarak regime barbaric in its treatment of the Egyptian people on the streets of Cairo and other cities. He held the US responsible for its wavering and hesitant approach to the popular revolt demanding democracy, human rights and the rule of law. By supporting the barbaric regime the international community should not be surprised if it loses all credibility in Egypt and the rest of the world, said El-Baradei. ...

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After resisting calls for impeachment inquiry into president Trump's dealings with Russia during his campaign by the Democrat controlled House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi decides to launch the inquiry in September 2019. The issue raised in the inquiry relates to a call made by the president and released transcript, and whistleblower's letter that showed president Trump asking the Ukrainian president to look into corruption of a company in which Democrat Joe Biden's son was a board member.

The U.S. provided funds to Ukraine as it struggled to keep Eastern parts of Ukraine from separating with the help of Russia. Mr. Trump states that the U.S. was left with providing most of the cost without European countries contributing enough, a complaint he has made since the beginning of his campaign about all U.S. allies in American engagements overseas such as Korea and Japan and NATO.

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This article in the Atlantic Council September 17, 2024, shows that the world may be fixating on the Straits of Hormuz when it should really be focusing on the Red Sea shipping for the Suez Canal. The Iranians ship 1.5 million barrels a day of oil through the Straits of Hormuz, and closing it off would close off the oil revenues that sustain its economy. Wald writes that even if the Iranians in a crisis would clsoe off its waters to shipping another route exists in the Straits of Hormuz through UAE waters when needed by oil shipping and it has been used by British ships. The Red Sea and Suez presents risks coming from Houthi rebels supported by Iran, who have attacked the US Navy ships in the region.

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Julie Jargon's interview with Green Mountain Coffee's CEO Larry Blanford. Green Mountain has grown rapidly after it acquired the Keurig brand of single serve coffee makers in 2006. He says K-Cups and single serve coffee is popular because of the broad choice it offers users to have different types of coffee during different times of the day without having to open three or four different bags of coffe that would go stale. On the threat posed by Starbucks single serve coffee machines to be introduced in fall 2012, Blanford says it is basically a espresso single-serve system and does not compete directly with the filtered coffee products from Green Mountain. Espresso is a small part of the U.S. coffee business. He sees growth moderating to 15-20% from the 70% in recent years.

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Reno, Nevada, has  high unemployment and high housing costs. The shift of higher income people from California to Reno, and the building of a mega Tesla plant in the area have pushed up housing costs. The population of Reno in Washoe County increased by 25 percent or 100,000 since 2019. With casino hotels the employees incomes lag behind high grocery costs. Housing takes a larger share of the household budget so that many people are living on the edge. One retiree sees rent for a 2 bedroom home go up to $1600, leaving $600 for groceries. He uses a mobile food bank parked outside a middle school. Food bank officials says they serve 155,000 people, up 70% since 2019. A retired electrician says his electric bill has doubled to $300 leaving less from a $1500 social security check. Comparing 2023 to 2019- Rents jumped 34% in Reno, in the US it was 28%. An average home jumped 43% from $383,000 to $549,000. ...

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Eighteen Senate Republicans under Mitch McConnell, the Minority leader in the US Senate, hold firm to support all Democrats for aid to Ukraine bill. This includes Senator Tillis of North Carolina who vigorously supported the aid bill on the floor of the Senate. Senator McConnell said "It is become fashionable in some circles to disregard the global interests of a global power, to bemoan the responsibilities of global leadership. It is idle work for idle minds, and it has no place in the US Senate." Mr. Trump and some Republican senators helped kill a immigration compromise legislation that Mr. Biden said would make it possible to close the border the day it was passed. This group also opposed the aid bill and lobbied to get the aid bill killed in the US Senate.

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The Nebraska Supreme Court reverses a lower court ruling clearing a hurdle for construction of the Keystone pipeline. At about the same time the U.S. House of Representatives voted 266 to 153 in Jan. 2014 to pass a bill approving the project. It will pass a Senate vote. President Obama says he will veto the bill. The pressure clearly increases on Obama to approve the pipeline.