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Stories of children in New York City overcoming adversity to go to college with the help of the New York Times College Scholarship Fund. Children with poor or sick parents in the city, from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, and other countries.

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Rapid growth in SUV sales in China in 2011-2014. SUV sales increased by 49% in 2013 over 2012.

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Low morale at RIM Blackberry as it struggles in the smartphone market in 2013. The Blackberry model 10 fails to make a dent in the market dominated by Apple and Samsung leading to large losses and a decision to cut employee count by 40%.

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Wal-Mart promotes Doug McMillon, head of the expanding international operations since 2005, to the CEO position. He started as buyer trainee in sporting goods in 1991. He is a native of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and was mentored by Chairman Rob Walton of Wal-Mart. The current CEO Mr. Duke took the position in 2009. He will stay on as advisor to McMillon for one year, a practice followed by Wal-Mart, with the prior CEO Mr Scott staying on for 2 years when Mr. Duke took the position. Under Mr McMillon international operations in Mexico, China, India, Japan and other countries now make up 29% of sales of $135 billion for the year ending in Jan 31, 2013.

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Toyota's gamble on large pickup trucks with its $1.2 billion assembly plant to make the V-8 engine large size Tundra pickup. Toyota now competes with Ford's F series pickup and GM's Silverado, and moves from its roots in the small car market.

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Obama cites "Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall" in his second inaugural address after failing to push strongly enough to address poverty and civil rights, housing foreclosures impact on minorities, and immigration during his first term. Stevenson says the address was filled with King's "urgency of the now," in pushing for progressive values in an unabashed manner. Freed from the constraints of the first term Obama senses the urgency of the moment if he is not to lose the opportunity to have contributed to the march of progressive values in America during his term as president. A cautious president feels the urgency of the progressive spirit that marked his early years, his first book, his work as a community activist and Illinois legislator; if all this is not to be lost in the burdens of the presidency, the pressures of politics, the fundraising machinery, election manoeuvring and vote getting that secured the presidency.

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Seib points to the part of the president's inaugural speech that said action must be taken even if victories are partial, that the debates over the role of government could go on for all time, but action however imperfect needs to be taken in this time. There is a sure willingness to engage in more partisan fights with Republicans and a broader list of issues from climate change to immigration, gender equality and curbing guns. The diffusion of the pent up purposes- pentup by the first term economic and healthcare issues- and the short time during the second term of 2 years to accomplish this, adds to the urgency for the president Obama.

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A open conversation with the NYT's Baker, Schmidt and Haberman by president Trump in mid July 2017. This conversation of the president with the NYT is remarkable for its frankness about people close to the president during the election campaign, particularly Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Sessions was the only leading Senator in Congress who supported Mr. Trump from the beginning. Southern states came out heavily for Mr. Trump as part of the traditional Republican base. Trump says of Sessions that had he known Sessions was going to recuse himself from the Russia investigation he would not have appointed Sessions as the new Attorney General. About Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein Trump says he should never have appointed Mueller as Special Counsel. The president also says Mueller should stay only with information related to Russia and not stray from that to delve into Trump's finances. During the election efforts were made to get Mr. Trump to disclose more about his finances as a real estate businessman- most of these efforts failed and not much is known about president Trump's finances. The president says he never said he would order the Justice Department to fire Mr. Mueller, yet he left open this possiblility, according to the NYT, as the president feels it has affected the first 6 months of the Trump presidency. This interview with president Trump was published on July 20, 2017, the day after an editorial in the WSJ by the Editorial Board of the Journal on July 19, 2017, calling for transparency from president Trump on the Russia investigation. This was an exceptional and powerful editorial by its editorial board telling president Trump that he must tell everything he knows now or face the risk of losing public confidence, and risk his presidency. It said that president Trump was wrong to think that his larger than life personality and social media role could insulate him from the effects of this lack of transparency. ...

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Toyota ended its relationship with Tesla to focus on fuel cell technologies. Panasonic is taking up electric car batteries project in stages to limit risk. As Tesla focusses on a car for the mass market at $35,000, both the upside and the downside are evident, as shown in this report by Pulliam, Ramsey and Mullins of the WSJ. The reporters say the arrrangement of interconnected companies Solar City, Tesla, and SPace X through Musk's holdings and his personal loans to companies in difficulty such as Solar City- using his Tesla shares as collateral- is a risky business. This follows the way Valeant shares lost 14% in one day, as market perception changed. Venture capital companies such as Jurvetson with which Tesla has connections, and relatives, round up the ownership of these companies in a tightly knit arrangement with Musk as the key shareholder in an unconventional arrangement, says WSJ.

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This NYT editorial on the Jeb Bush Tax Plan says Bush has taken into account the shift in voter sentiment and focus on increasing inequality, with Trump, Kasich and Huckabee sounding these themes in their campaigns. The WSJ editorial on the same day also mentioned the plan's effort to help improve worker wages by increasing business investment, and creating the kind of growth where workers could share in the benefits. Jeb Bush made the lack of economic mobility a focus of his speech at the 2013 CPAC conference, a theme he shares along with his concern for fair treatment of Hispanic immigrants. In his speech at the 2013 CPAC conference Bush said: "the central mission of conservatives is to reignite social mobility in this country- restoring the right to rise," and pointed to the loss of economic mobility in the U.S. compared to any point since World War II.

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Home prices are surging in Australia in 2015, with home prices in Sydney up about 39% since June 2012, according to CoreLogic RP Data. As a multiple of annual income home prices in Sydney are at 9.8, Melbourne 8.7, and Wollongong near Sydney 7.5, compared to 6.1 for New York and 8.5 for London, according to a 2015 affordability survey by Demographia. Australia's surging home prices are happening just as the mining boom that powered its economy is winding down and unemployment is up to 6.1%. Interest rates are down to 2.25%, and low interest rates with speculative purchases are likely to fuel the market up further, say experts. About 40% of home loans approved in Feb. 2015 were to investors, increasing from 31% in 2009, according to official data. According to Australia's Reserve Bank the wealthiest 40% of the population have 75% of the debt. This surge when the economy is feeling the effects of the slowdown in China, and the rest of the world is cutting down on debt, puts Australia in uncertain territory....

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Denmark's Social Democrats tighten rules on immigration, requiring immigrants to work, and not allowing them to live off allowances. This follows a shift in opinion in favor of the tighter rules proposed by the opposition Liberal Party for immigrants before the 2015 general election.

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Nasdaq OMX Group CEO, Robert Greifeld, says Janet Yellen and the U.S. Fed Open Market Committee should exercize caution in increasing interest rates in 2014. He cites the heavy risk for long term investor outlook and psychology of the Fed moving too quickly in increasing interest rates, because of the steep drop in oil prices, the crash of the ruble, slowdown in Europe, deflationary trends in the eurozone and Japan, and slow growth in China. The Fed now has more room for taking a cautious approach says Greifeld, as wage growth is tepid, the dollar is strong, and oil prices are down significantly.

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The LDP's landslide victory in the Dec. 2012 elections is not seen as a mandate for Shinzo Abe, the new LDP prime minister. Abe acknowledged this when he said: "We recognize that this was not a restoration of confidence in the Liberal Democratic Party, but a rejection of three years of incompetent rule by the Democratic Party." The LDP won 294 seats compared to the 308 seats won in the landslide win by the Democratic Party of Japan three years ago. Abe campaigned on a stronger stance in Japan's disputes with China. Yet he is committed to maintaining relations with China, a key trading partner. On China Abe says: "Our goal is to stop China from making these challenges, but we do not intend to allow an overall worsening in relations." Osaka Mayor Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Party was expected to do well but his campaign lost momentum after joining with Shintaro Ishihara, a nationalist politician. The Tomorrow Party which campaigned on the nuclear issue and anti-nuclear sentiment petered out after voters sensed the impact of electrical shortages and prices. The LDP is pro-nuclear and plans to reverse some of the anti-nuclear steps taken by the DPJ. The Democratic Party of Japan gained only 57 seats, and the former DPJ prime minister during the earthquake and tsunami, Naoto Kan, lost his parliamentary seat. Just as the PRI, a party that held a long monopoly of power was returned to power in Mexico in 2012, the LDP is returning to power, but very dependent on voters aspirations for good governance and its performance in office....

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The attack against the ill trained and ill equiped Pakistan poilce forces in the Punjab and across the country. It also resembles the attacks against police forces and suicide bombings by insurgents in Iraq. The police force of 167,000 recruits the same way as it did during the times of the British rule, which is to take poorly educated recruits and train them to protect the ruling elites and maintain order. THe Punjab police officer in charge of logistics says the force has only 80% of the weapons needed for the 167,000 men. Because police officers take bribes routinely they are also not like by the public, whereas the terrorists act like pious Muslims and mix with the people. The terrorists by contrast are very well equiped and trained making the police no match for them. Making things worse the terrorist groups that were supported by the Inter Services Intelligence or ISI of Pakistan and encouraged to operate against India are now coordinating actions in Pakistan with the Taliban. These terrorists have even more training and equipment than the Taliban, operating in places like Kashmir fighting the Indian military....

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This article has several information links for different groups. One to "Putin and Russian oil policy"- consolidating into state hands all the major oil properties by buying the privately held company holdings such as BP-TNK's Kovykta gas field. A link to remarks to the New York Times in an interview by Medvedev, deputy CEO of Gazprom. And a separate link to "How Russians see Themselves and the World around them." The other link is in comments by Surkov, Mr. Putin's deputy chief of staff at a news conference and Putin's remarks in pre-8 Summit television interviews. Content Links 1. Link To the group "How Russians See Themselves and the World." In remarks at a news conference, Vladislav Surkov, Putin's deputy chief of staff referred to Russia's desire to keep its national sovereignty in terms of how it manages its oil resources in Russian interest. Russia did not want to have to respond to western demands for access to its oil resources and oil and gas pipelines. Surkov pointed out that Russia was a free nation among other free nations and did not want to be controlled by outside interests. Putin in pre-summit television interviews had an interesting view of the criticism of Russian oil policy and its consolidation of oil resources into state hands, as well as the centralization of powers and putting media into state hands, and its new stance in foreign affairs. He told this to the French channel TF1: Putin suggested old views of Russia stemmed from outdated cold-war competition, and misguided colonial-era arrogance. If we go back 100 years and look through the newspapers, we see what arguments the colonial powers of that time used to justify their involvement in Africa and Asia. They justified their involvement with statements that is was about playing a civilizing role, the white man's burden, the need to civilize these people, Putin told TF1. All you have to do is change the words "civilizing" to "democratization" and then we see the application almost to a word of what the newspapers were saying in 1900 to day's world. These are the arguments one hears from our peers in the U.S. and Europe on democratization and democratic freedoms. This is remarkable statement in revealing how the post Berlin Wall 90's experience with democracy has soured Russians view of democracy. And the peculiar way Putin and other Russians see the western exhortations for openness, transparency, freedoms, self interested, motivated by gains for western economic interests, and disregarding Russian interests such as national pride, economic-higher energy prices to sustain growth, national sovereignty. The NYT article can be seen in the context of a strategy article in Foreign Affairs, July/August 2006, "Russia Leaves the West," by Dmitri Trenin. Trenin says the U.S. and Europe want a weak Russia that they can exploit and manipulate, which means Russia needs to assert itself and its own interests just like the U.S. and China. The idea presented by Deputy Director of Carnegie Moscow Center, echoes Putin's own suspicion of western interests and their "colonial era arrogance". Trenin's view is of a fundamental shift in Western-Russian relations: the United States and Europe could protest this change in Russia's foreign policy all they want but it will not matter. For Trenin the U.S. and Europe had to agree that the terms of the Western-Russian interaction, set after the collapse of the Soviet Union's collapse, was now fundamentally changed. 2. The second link is with the "Putinand Russian Oil Policy" group. It provides details about the Kovytkta field owned by BP-TNK and what is happening there. Alastair Ferguson, director of BP-TNK's gas operations describes the situation in a interview with NYT at his Moscow offices. Ferguson says it makes sense to do what Russia is doing if you are the Russian government. By letting BP-TKN build its own pipeline Russia would lose influence over gas prices. According to Gazprom allowing private companies to ship gas independently would drive down gas prices. And Ferguson says this gas field is huge and supplies going to China and rest of Asia could lower prices of liquefied natural gas in California. Medvedev, Gazprom's deputy CEO was also interviewed in his Moscow offices. Gazprom and the government would answer the question about export sales, not BP-TNK. Medvedev's view is that this is a technical question for Gazprom and Russia to decide and has little to do with the G-8....