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Mike Atherton looks at the Australia India series and sees hope for England. He says Bumrah had too heavy a burden to carry as a fast bowler missing the second innings of the last Test. Starc and Cummins are getting older now. Lyons was there but not by much. No batsmen looked confident. Not Smith or Labuschagne. Only Australia's Head and India's Jaiswal were good and consistent. Kohli and Sharma disappointed the Indians. Indian fielding was not at it's best at critical moments. 

The public responded to the contest with 833,000 coming to the Test matches in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and at the MCG, SCG Final Test.

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DW.com shows Kashmiris voicing their concerns about their future. The Kashmir economy can get an immediate and significant boost from tourism which creates significant number of jobs and opportunities for young Kashmiris. Spain gets 85 million tourists and its economy is highly dependent on tourism. Kashmir also has the potential for boosting production of fruits and vegetables for export. 

It is this economic force that Kashmir can see building its future and would boost the living standards of the people in this region. By creating a strong economy Kashmir can boost investments in schools, universities and hospitals, healthcare, to improve the quality of life in the region.

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US stock markets June 27 2025, after Israel-Iran war and NATO Summit in Hague. The rapid de-escalation after strikes on nuclear weapons development  sites was similar to the India- Pakistan war within days the US after strikes of its own on Fordow and Isfahan called for a ceasefire and an end to the war.

In briefings following the US strikes Lt Gen Dan Caine showed extraordinary composure and professional skills that were displayed throughout the crisis unlike anything seen in recent American military history. His rapport and connection with junior military officers was something that gives new confidence to the armed services of the United States.

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There is a close relationship between Quantas and the Australian government giving it control of 61% of the Australian market. As the national airline of Australia it is 51% owned by domestic investors. It was founded in 1920, nationalized in 1947, and private investors were slowly given a stake in the airline after 1990. Quantas received $900 million in government aid during the pandemic. Quantas management illegally outsourced jobs for 1700 baggage handlers to prevent union action. In the last year it made $1.8 billion in profits. Yet its reputation has suffered from its handling of baggage handlers and workers demand for higher wages.

 

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Sandra Day O'Connor always carried a copy of the US Constitution with her and worked to expand civic knowledge of the younger generation through iCivics from 2009 when she left the US Supreme Court after 25 years service. As she lies at the Supreme Court after her death at age 93, president Biden who was ranking member of the US Judiciary Committee when O'Connor was nominated in 1981, remembers her as "gracious and wise, civil and principled." Biden said: "One needed not agree with all of O'Connor's decisions to recognize that her principles were "deeply held and of the highest order, and that her desire for civility was genuine... She empowered generations of American women in every part of American life." 

 

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Wooden delivery in interviews, number crunching or scientific approach, and hesitant decision making, did not hurt Merkel. Germany's SPD is now seeing a former mayor of Hamburg known for number crunching as "brave in crisis."  He is finance minister in Merkel's government and helped convince Merkel of the need to have the $390 billion nonrepayable aid given as part of the European Union Recovery Fund. This and his work during the pandemic has convinced SPD's different factions to support Scolz in an effort to provide continuity after Merkel, as no effective Christian Democrat leader has emerged so far. Once the party of Willy Brandt, a respected leader in the period of the post war West Germany known as the Federal Republic, the Social Democrats have languished in the period Merkel was chancellor of Germany.

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Craig Smith, the head of Surgery at Columbia University's hospital in New York, and Craig Smith the writer using language that provides solace to many people at a difficult time. He is also poetic at times quoting from John Wooden, as well as Emily Dickinson. He is in the middle of this public health crisis that is New York City today. When he gave the presidential address to the American Association for Thoracic Surgery he opened and closed his lecture with meditations on a Yeats poem. Here he is as a human talking to humans caught in a most perplexing time for medicine.

He quotes Emily Dickinson in one note saying- 

"Not opening when the dawn will come/ I open every door." Doors are opening all over the place.

 

 

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The accompanying article from Pro Publica about Lighthizer's term at USTR shows the lack of results as China shifted production to Mexico and Vietnam - it shows it was going to be a long struggle, carried over into another 4 DJT years this time in 2025. That article showed tariffs are really not so much a weapon against other countries  as they are a way to signal to America's corporations to invest in supply chains in the US.  In Congressional hearings towards the end of his term at USTR in 2020 Lighthizer said -

“They have a system, and their system is challenging our system.”  Lighthizer told Senators that the U.S. struggle with China is “going to go on for years.”

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Action United Airlines is taking after the episode of bumping passengers on a flight to Louisville caused public protest in media with live pictures, include offering more financial incentives to passengers to vacate seats on overbooked flights, and setting up new rules for handling such situations. Upto $10,000 will be offered to passengers in travel vouchers. Only safety and security would be considerations once passengers are already on the plane. Other airlines are also taking these steps- Delta has set $9950 as the amount maximum to be offered to passengers as vouchers. Other steps United is taking are special call center for overbooking, and reducing number of overbooked flights, offering $1500 no questions asked for lost baggage. United's Board has also acted by not promoting Mr Munoz, the CEO to chairman, and by making it essential that executives show meaningful improvements in customer experience to get incentive compensation. These steps are a result of the report that looked into the failure at United in bumping passengers who were already seated made by the airline. ...

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Laurent Berger, head of the French Confederation of Labor, C.F.D.T., is a moderating force in France as president Macron leads an effort to make a revision to France's labor code. With a large parliamentary majority president Macron is expected to push for a shift to a Scandinavian version of "flexible security," that allows companies and the economy to adjust the work force, introduce retraining and create flexibility so that new jobs can be created. His union is now the largest, after surpassing the militant General Confederation of Labor. Issues in labor changes proposed by president Macron are- direct negotiations between management and employees bypassing unions, and a cap to compensation in unfair dismissal cases. Berger's view is that though the interests of labor and management conflict, there has to be dialogue instead of constant confrontation. He is willing to see some jobs lost if business creates new jobs with improvement in the economy. Macron has summoned labor leaders for marathon talks. ...

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Gerald Seib of the WSJ describes the huge wave of young supporters who helped Labor party leader Corbyn in Britain's 2017 general election. He cites an analysis by the Financial Times that shows young people backed Labor over the Conservatives by 51 points more than the national average. People over age 65 backed Conservatives by 32 points more than the national average. This points to a staggering age gap of 83 points, said the Financial Times. Young people failed to turn out in large numbers during the Brexit vote, and this was a large factor in the pro Brexit win. One exit poll shows turnout went up by 12% in 2017 compared to the 2015 parliamentary election. Only 26% of voters in a WSJ/NBC poll for ages 18-34 years say they approve of U.S. president Trump's performance, 64% disapprove. Seib says the movement of Corbyn is similar to the Bernie Sanders movement in the U.S. and has implications for a similar surge of support showing up in the U.S.

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President Trump says he will reconsider his decision not to join the Trans Pacific Partnership. Trump says he will look for a "substantially better" deal that the one negotiated by president Obama. Trump added that the U.S. already has bilateral trade deals with six of the eleven nations in the TPP and negotiations are taking place with Japan a country with which the U.S. had difficulties in trade. This change of mind comes as Republicans in Congress and other groups including farm exporters are calling for using TPP as a way to pressure China. Wheat exporters in the U.S. say joining TPP would give them a level playing field with Australia and Canada for exports. This means reopening the negotiations with Japan conducted by the Obama administration and seeking more concessions from Japan. Japan's chief cabinet secretary says Japan has made all the concessions it could.  U.S. president Trump would have to come up with a better deal to justify joining TPP.

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Members of the U.S. Congress lead a lousy life with life split between the capital and their home state location, most are weekend dads or moms. This makes them less likely to grasp the issues of work-life balance and the issues of parenting faced by average working families or couples with both parents working, says this essay in Politico magazine. This is true also of understanding issues facing women and mothers. Hard to believe but this report points out that Congress in the U.S. does not have a family friendly leave policy and no restroom for women till 2011 on the floor of the House. Similar issues face women in Japan and other countries for women in parliament. Former Speaker Ryan says he is tired of being a "weekend Dad." Senator Biden, former vice president says of his commute from Delaware to Washington D.C., he realized that "a child has a thought he wants to share and 12-18 hours later its gone, gone, gone." ...

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President Trump reset the border debate after the government shutdown on border wall funding by emphasizing immigration issues but not repeating his threat to call an emergency. This time he was more conciliatory on the border wall issue, explaining that it be " a smart, strategic, see through steel barrier, not just a simple concrete wall," and deployed in areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need. On withdrawal from Middle East, the president said "great nations do not fight endless wars." Trump now faces a rocky second half of his term because Democrats control the House of Representatives after the 2018 Congressional elections. He said "if there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be a war and investigation." He faces the Mueller investigation by Special Counsel Mueller on the meddling by foreign powers in U.S. 2016 presidential election, with the arrest of lawyer Roger Stone recently, and Democrats in no mood to compromise on the wall. ...

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This is a heartwarming story from the BBC in beautiful video of how Maria Baltazzi went back to her family's land in the buffer zone outside Nicosia, Cyprus, and turned a wasteland into a farm with olive trees. In 1974 Turkish forces invaded Cyprus turning this land near Nicosia airport into a war zone. Since then UN forces patrol the area which was wasteland in the buffer zone separating Greek Cypriots from Turkish Cypriots.

Maria Baltazzi took a look at this land which was part of her family's land, a 54 hectare farm part of it in the buffer zone and part outside. Here in the buffer zone she with a colleague Netien introduced organic farming for olive trees and turned this area into an olive growing farm which produces some of the best olive oil in the region.

Olives grown here are hand picked in the farm and crushed in mills outside. Nutrients testing show this to be some of the best and healthiest olive oil in the region.

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Sandhya Sharma of The Economic Times puts a spotlight on the dominant role of China in global shipping by 2005. In 1980 China had a tiny role in global shipping, with bicycles a dominant form of transportation in Beijing. By 2019 this role had expanded to dominant position in all the largest modern technology container ports with global shipping volume having more than doubled since 2005. Much of this was done by working with major providers of container port technology such as Maersk of Denmark and other European shipping companies, with imported technology playing a critical part. India is starting from basics in its effort to develop its shipping in the Indian Ocean region with its large coastline facing the Suez Canal and the eastern coastline facing Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. This was evident during the recent "Atman Nirbhar" global shipping meeting in Vizag- the Maritime India Summit 2021. The goal is to make the next decade one of rapid development of the maritime sector to secure India's position in global shipping particularly in the Indian Ocean region. Collaboration with major European technology providers will play a key role in developing container ports to the levels required for India's future role in global shipping. Sharma discusses the visit of premier Boris Johnson in April 2021 to India to forge strong trade ties.  The Indian prime minister held virtual meetings with premiers of Sweden and the Netherlands, two major maritime nations in Northern Europe for stronger trade and technology ties. These ties are part of the broader effort by the US, UK, and European Union countries to forge strong trade and technology ties with India now that it is clear to them that new supply chain will be needed over the next decade as China disengages from that level of its trade ties with Europe, US and India. New global supply chain means new global shipping container ports and global shipping links of India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, with the US and Europe. Looking at what happened between sometime in 1995 and 2005, and in 2005 to 2009 when the global financial crisis hit, when China went from a miniscule level of world trade to predominance. And the years of the Obama administration 2008-2016 when this simply continued without any understanding of its implications for both sides, to levels of China's predominance in world shipping that can only be considered as unbelievable. Growing at over 12% through continued use of  imported technology from Europe and the US. Looking back at what happened one sees that this made China over dependent, its economy too intertwined with Europe and the US. This also made the US and Europe over dependent on China in its supply chain. It took the pandemic and the one term Trump administration, the crisis in Hong Kong, the situation in Ladakh and India's norther border, the South China seas and Vietnam,  for both sides to realize this was not in the interest of any of the countries involved.   ...

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A new solar module factory in Freiberg, near Dresden, Germany, with the latest technology, requiring workers to only supervise the manufacturing process, is shown in this report in DW.com. It is cheaper to make higher performance solar panels that produce 20% more electricity in Germany than to import from China. This could be a global trend in automated supply chains. This is a technological shift says the CEO because more efficient production technology requires less resources and fewer steps in the manufacturing process. Key components such as solar cells are also made nearby in Leipzig in eastern Germany, 90 miles away.    This report shows the interesting changes that are underway. In 2018 the factory building in Freiberg now being used for solar modules was left empty after German manufacturer solar company Solarworld lost a price war with Chinese competitors. Today this solar company Meyer Burger brings new jobs and excitement to Freiberg and the region. By 2026 plans are for it to make 5 GW of modules annually in Germany. Meyer Burger made the heterojunction SmartWire technology machines that made solar modules. In 2020 it decided to make solar modules instead of selling its equipment to others, using its own proprietary technology. Thinking has changed. CEO Erfurt says it is complete nonsense to transport solar modules halfway across the world from China, they should be made where the products are used as it is energy infrastructure. Transport costs 10% of cost, and new technology is constantly being developed and costs decreasing with technology advances. He adds that this is how energy sovereignty can be achieved. In 2021 the demand is expected at 209 GW worldwide. Erfurt expects it to be 500 GW in 2025. Large demand that will now be met locally in the regions themselves- in Spain, in Germany, and in India.   ...

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Night trains are making a comeback in Europe. Nostalgic ideas of travel from way back are when trains were the main forms of transportation. In 2017 European transport emissions were 28% above 1990 levels. The European Green Deal sees cutting these emissions as a priority for meeting climate change. Rail is critical for achieving this. For EU CO2 emissions road transport is largest contributor (73%), aviation (13%) and maritime (11%).Austria's OBB rail system is launching night sleeper trains from Vienna to Brussels and Vienna to Amsterdam.  Competition will increase in rail. Italy's Trenitalia  has applied to EU Agency for Railways (ERA) to operate in France. French SNCF and Trenitalia will enter Spain in June 2020. Critical are capital investments in rail per person for each country. Austria and Switzerland lead, and Germany is 140 euros per person target as part of the 86 billion euro plan in capital investments  for rail over the next ten years. Technical standardization is an important goal- as a stop in Aachen for Austrian railways night train from Vienna to Brussels for 30 minutes because of changing a locomotive and the train driver having to be Flemish. Freight movement by rail is another goal as it is stuck at 17% for years.  The Green Deal in transport in Europe is likely to have an impact around the world as rail makes a comeback for sustainable tourism. ...

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On April 20, 1996 the story of the merger of Ciba Geigy with Sandoz was the first story in notes made that day for Lyrarc from the WSJ Europe. This was during a trip to Europe. Ciba Geigy and Sandoz had become part of the home medical kits in Asia and Latin America by the 1960's, and their story had to be told to millions of people in these countries bringing Basel, Switzerland, to the world. Sandoz was founded in Basel in 1886 as a chemical company in Basel, Switzerland, and entered pharmaceuticals business in 1900. Ciba Geigy was formed in the 1850's as a chemical company for dyeing silk fabrics and entered the pharmaceuticals business in 1930's. The two companies were merged in December 1996 to form Novartis. Today Sandoz is the generics manufacturing part of Novartis. As prices of generics have declined Novartis CEO Narasimhan is planning to sell or spinoff Sandoz. With this move Novartis will focus solely on innovative drugs, says this report in WSJ. CEO's have also shifted fin the 25 years since the merger of Ciba Geigy and Sandoz from one with family connections to one with a professional background from India.   ...

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Young voters 18 years to 29 years, some voting for the first time, including men on college campuses, voted by 14 percentage points in favor of DJT, compared to the same group of young voters giving  Biden a 15 percentage point margin. The total shift this time nearly 30 percentage points in favor of DJT. Young men fight the endless wars and young men are falling behind women in college education and Democrat Biden and Republican Trump were the only presidents fighting to end these wars, Democrats not even sensitive about the crisis facing young men.  For younger women 18-29 years the Harris margin was 18 percentage points down from 32 percentage points for Biden in 2020, a swing of 14 percentage points away from Democrats.  Overall for men and women Harris was only 52% to 46% for DJT a margin of only 6 percentage points.  This bodes well for America to have independent thinking from young people, and the same pattern is observed for Latinos, which also is a good sign for America for the future. ...

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Jerome Powell, the new head of the U.S. Federal Reserve values continuity in policy, suggesting that the U.S. central bank will gradually raise interest rates in 2018. A raise is expected at the March 2018 Fed meeting. Powell said at his swearing in ceremony- "While the challenges we face are always evolving, the Fed's approach will remain the same. We are in the process of gradually normalizing both interest rate policy and our balance sheet with a view to extending the recovery."  Five interest rate increases since December 2015 have taken the short term benchmark rate to a range between 1.25% and 1.5%. During 2018 3-4 rate increases are expected.

Powell is seen as a consensus oriented leader with a focus on careful evaluation and rigorous study. Powell is pushing for a continuation of the Fed's policy to improve transparency, and responsiveness. 

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What makes this year's Tour de France cycling event in France interesting is the element of surprise, and of individual cyclists of unfamiliar names taking the lead. A Danish cyclist Vineegard who worked as a fisherman in Denmark took the lead from a Slovenian cyclist Pogacar by the 12th phase of the cycling event. With a steep 8 mile ascent with 22 zigzagging turns this is one of the most difficult in the event - the Alpe d'Huez. Each phase of the event is won by different cyclists with the overall person in first place winning only some of the phases but staying up front in the top five for most of the phases. 

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This NYT account of what happened at Facebook as it faced privacy issues and issues related to its detrimental impact on societies here and abroad, is based on interviews with 50 people close to Facebook. Its social media presence slows and it shifts to a different strategy of focussing on its role as a messaging app following trends that show young people are turning away from publicly posting status and photos. Meantime its controversial role in information in the past is coming under heightened scrutiny. A realization that social media role in information was never appropriate  happened by accident, and is reversible. Other accounts say that the shift happens from trends of young users not from company management and values. 

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Melinda Gates says even though she spent years at Microsoft immersed in technology she was not prepared as a parent when she had her youngest child, who is part of what is called the iGeneration. This term is used for children born between 1995 and 2012. Many of the children born since 2000 find themselves in a new world of smartphones, iPhones, iPads and social media apps. Melinda Gates says she would have preferred to put computer devices in children's pockets at a later age, and worries about their effects on children. It exacerbates the problems of growing up and reduces some of the empathy that comes from face to face human contact. Parents have to find other ways of giving their children much needed empathy and understanding that is missing when children spend many hours in front of such tech devices. The professor who coined the word iGeneration says many of this group spend as much as 6 hours in front of these devices with different apps. Yet the development of these children lags behind that of children of previous generations. It is hard not to say out loud that one worries about this- that the tech devices after all the hype really aren't that great when it comes to giving children an advantage in life. That human interaction, the use of imagination, motivation from family and school, live human interaction, cannot be replaced by staring at a screen for hours at a time. After all the hoopla about tech making children smarter and better, it is a huge let down. One must depend more on the basics that have served children and parents well over generations- the human interaction that spurs the imagination and motivates leading to exploration, reading on one's own, and curiosity to learn. Tech is just a tool, not the real thing. ...

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The reason given for the Governor of California in vetoing $35 cap for insulin is the $50 million contract with a non profit CIvicaRX to make insulin for $30. It would be distributed as brand CalRX.  Governor Newsom says it goes to the heart of the problem by the state manufacturing the drug itself.