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Should Ohtani the 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases be MVP of the year even if he was designated hitter and played no defense or in the field preventing runs being taken?

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Embraer 190 aircraft flying fo Azerbaijan Airlines flight from Baku to Grozny crases in Kazakh airspace after possibly being hit by Russian air defense systems. Russia was facing Ukrainian drone attacks in recent months.

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Italy's finance minister Carlo Padoan, the EU president Jean-Claude Juncker, and Vitor Constancio, vice president of the ECB, express the need for increased public spending and investment to reverse increasingly sluggish economic growth by Septembr 2014. In a letter to Paduan, finance ministers of France and Germany, Sapin and Schauble, express support for a new investment program in 2014-2015.

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Al Maktoum is prime minister of Dubai. He points out some important facts about the Arab world. About half of the 300 million people in the Arab world are under the age of 25. Unemploment is very high among these 150 million Arab youth. About 50% of the jobless are youth, according to the prime minister. About 65 million of the Arabs are illiterate, and 10 million children under the age of 25 are not enrolled in any school. He points out that with so little education, the Arab youth are especially vulnerable to propaganda that creates extremism and is hostile to the west and the USA. One of his key points is that the Arab world is the most militarized place in the world, and spending on conflicts in the Middle East in the last 60 years is about $3 trillion. And in the last 15 years he says the spending on education which is 20% of what the world's 30 wealthiest countries spend, has dropped to 10% of that amount. And very little is being done to educate girls and give them opportunities. As a result of these convictions, Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai and from the royal family, has committed about $3 billion to various initiatives to provide schooling to children, especially girls, and education for young people. This makes him one of the more enlightened leaders in the region pushing for new directions. This also reveals the critical weakness among the Arab peoples and why they tend to be so radicalized. Improvements in education and more opportunities for jobless youth, and creating a peaceful region -with the US and the EU countries committing to policies that lead to much diminished military sales to Mideast countries and reducing hostilities in the region -would do more to reduce anti-American sentiment in the region and improve US security than any other policy actions. As Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the Muslims of India share the same characteristics as the Arab peoples, and the same cultures, the same is true of this region, actually more so. Education has been even worse neglected in the South Asian Muslim region than among the Arabs. It is the key to peace, does more than troops to ensure the peace. The need is for more schools to be built and run in the region, for essential services like healthcare and development, and financing of job creating industries. ...

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Katie Rogers writes in NYT about Jill and Joe Biden's fight for "the soul of America." English and writing professor Biden is the first person as spouse of the president to continue her career in the history of the US. 

To win this battle for "the soul of the nation," a campaign promise has led Jill Biden to travel to 32 states. To promote school reopenings, infrastructure funding, community colleges, support for military families. It is a task similar to that of Eleanor Roosevelt, spouse of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when she tried to rally the country during the period of the Great Depression and the Second World War. With the pandemic, economic challenges, and the social ills the country faces, the tasks today have a similar dimension and are being fought in the same way.

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Opinion polls in France show a drop of 20 points in popularity for president Hollande after just 6 months in office, from 60% to 40%. Hollande is seen in France as slow to make decisions compared to his predecessor Sarkozy. Hollande has suffered in popularity over the decision to increase value added taxes to give tax rebates of $26 billion to companies hiring new workers starting in 2014. The opinion to the left is that this hurts the working class which has to pay more in taxes. Jean-Luc Melenchon of the Leftist Front, which asked voters to vote for Hollande, went so far as to cal the program "a shame." And the Greens with two ministers in the government have discussed withdrawing from the government. The conservative supporters of Sarkozy question the need to wait till 2014 considering the 10% unemployment and closing factories. They also cite the $39 billion figure recommended for payroll tax cuts, not tax rebates, by the commission setup by Hollande to look at ways to revive the economy. Centrist parties say the bloated government which takes up half of the economy is a cause of the problems. Hollande's Socialist supporters question the wisdom of moving this quickly to reduce the budget deficit to 3% of GDP by 2013, as required by committments to the EU, especially now that the downturn is seen by the EU, the IMF and the Bank of France as prolonged....

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Fletcher cites statistics from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that between December 2007 and June 2010, private sector employment in Texas went down by 0.6%. During that period public sector jobs increased by 6.4%. Government employees make up about 17% of the workforce in Texas. The Texas economy gets a large amount of federal money because of military installations and NASA- $227 billion in 2009, according to the Census Bureau. By comparison California received $346 billon in 2009. During the recession period after the global financial crisis of 2008, Texas received $25 billion in stimulus money. Richard Fisher of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank acknowleges the federal money going into Texas, yet he points out the driving force in the economy of Texas is still the private sector. For the private sector there are several advantages to being in Texas. There are lower taxes- no state income tax and lower business taxes. The large supply of land for development and few land-use restrictions make development easier. Corporate efficiency was a key advantage cited by Fluor when it moved from Orange County, California to Texas. A growing energy sector has helped, along with the growing trade with Mexico. The housing regulations in the state have acted as a check on housing prices, and left Texas with less of the detrimental effects of the housing mortgage crisis than the rest of the nation, especially California and Florida. The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, says he is not against all regulation, and the kind of housing regulation in Texas certainly has played a good role for Texas. Perry's tort reforms have reduced the legal burden on business prevalent in the rest of the U.S....

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Mr. Trump trashes the state of Florida and calls it "a dump" says the Editorial Board of WSJ, because of personal interest as the 2024 primaries come closer. "The real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair. He has left a wake of destruction all across Florida," is the quote from a spokesman, in a statement issued by Mr. Trump. WSJ says that is not how Floridans saw it when DeSantis was elected with 59.4% of the vote. It says Florida is a model of successful Republican governance and Republicans should be citing it as a role model, not "a dump."

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Spain's 7 LNG terminals, its renewable energy projects, its ties with the Middle East and North Africa, make it a potential exporter of energy in Europe. Spain is too dependent on tourism. The Pedro Sanchez government plans to use 140 billion euros from the European Unions's Next Generation Fund for the green conversion of its economy. This includes reviving the Midi Catalonia project, a gas link between Spain and France. This pipeline would have a capacity of 7.5 billion cubic meters of gas in its first stage, one seventh of the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia that was shut down by Germany.

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Queen Elizabeth leads tributes to the National Health Service for "the grief and loss felt by so many," as Britain pauses for a minute's silence, on the first anniversary of the lockdown of March 23, 2020. She offers flowers to St. Bart's hospital, after the recovery of Prince Phillip who was in hospital for one month for heart surgery and recovery. Pictures of a canon preparing for a outdoor garden service at Durham Cathedral, and lighting of candles at other cathedrals, offer glimpses of a solemn moment of silence, and the nurturing of hope for the recovery.

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Engineer and climber Kelsey Olson makes cell towers for 5G infrastructure work. WSJ shows her at work - she has no fear of heights. Ms. Olson is 36, and Denver based division manager of Tower Engineering Professionals, a North Carolina company that helps telecom companies upgrade to 5G. She joined at age 23. She not only manages about 10 engineers to design the structures, but also works outdoors with teams that inspect these towers and retrofit with new equipment for 5G. Once high up in a climb in the Pacific Northwest, she could see a purple sunset, from way above the pine trees. 

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A new music album recorded live in 5 days from Bruce Springsteen in New Jersey, who brings lives of ordinary people in America to life with an earthiness and immediacy that bring memories of Woody Guthrie during the Depression years. This is a period of creativity of an unusual kind during the difficult period of the lockdown. Artists from Carla Bruni coping with daily chores of raising children, to McCartney and Springsteen tackling a period of mature years by decamping at their studio to try out unfinished work, turn out music albums in a casual way and to have fun doing it for yourself.

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Hewlett Packard was one of the founding companies to setup what is called Silicon Valley, with engineers Hewlett and Packard acting as pioneers of a new industry making computers. It is now moving from San Jose to Houston as more companies leave the high cost San Francisco San Jose area following the coronavirus pandemic, which has made remote work popular. Engineers and tech workers now prefer not to spend every day of the week working in office locations. This report in WSJ says the area around San Jose no longer has the pull it once had as companies move to other cities.

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The 2018 report on doing Business ratings shows China at 78th place same as before when it should be 85th in the world. The World Bank is correcting the data in the report. It is seen as the result of manipulation of data as a result of "undue pressure" reported by members of the the Doing Business ratings team at the World Bank. The 2020 report is also being corrected for giving the UAE and Saudi Arabia a higher rating. The review was carried out by senior management of the World Bank in place in June 2020.

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Brett Lee recalls the one time when he was bowling very fast at 165 kmph and Sachin hit the ball for three fours in an over leaving Lee spellbound. Here he recalls his amazing friendship with Sachin and how it meant so much to him. Invited for dinner by Sachin they got to know each other off the field. Brett says of the encounters on the field "we respected each other."  As the Aussies meet India in Adelaide for the first Test this brings back memories of Aussie cricket over the years going back to Richie Benaud and Neil Harvey, Norman O'Neill. 

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Andy Jassy joined Amazon in 1997, three years after it was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. He is credited with the rapid growth of cloud computing into a $51 billion business for Amazon with market share of 28%. He now takes over the role of CEO of Amazon with day to day responsibilities just as Bezos shifts his attention to other opportunities. Jassy shares the traits of inventive spirit and investing heavily in growth opportunities one finds in Jeff Bezos. Careful planning and a long term plan in entering a business and achieving one goal after another as the business accelerates.

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The U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, says that it is imperative that the WHO report on the origins of the virus be "independent" and "free from alteration by the Chinese government." This echoes earlier concerns of the Trump administration and of president Trump who made the decision to quit WHO on this issue.

Sullivan noted that "reengaging with the WHO also means holding it to the highest standards. We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the Covid 19 investigation were communicated, and questions about the process used to reach them."

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The Labour Party faces a dilemma over the date of a general election because Boris Johnson could change the date later from October 14 to October 31 so that during a campaign period Britain would simply fall out of the European Union. The problem is that Labour MP's do not trust Boris Johnson. So that instead of Labour MP's providing the two thirds majority to call a general election ahead of 5 years under current law, snap elections have to happen some other way. Including through a no confidence motion and Labour trying to form a new government under Corbyn and failing to do so.

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Leaks of conversations Mr. Trump had with leaders of Mexico and Australia early in the Trump administration resulted in the effort to protect sensitive discussions on a separate high security server. This is now the subject of inquiry in the impeachment inquiry by Democrats in the House of Representatives into president Trump's discussion with Ukrainian president Zelensky. The impeachment inquiry stems from the call with the Ukrainian president in which Democrats say Trump asked Ukraine to look into corruption at a company in which Democrat Joe Biden's son was a board member, and storing this information on a top security server.

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Protests by US members of Congress against the surcharge fees charged by the IMF on loans to countries such as Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, South Africa, and other countries that is causing additional distress during the pandemic. Fund estimates are that almost $4 billion in extra fees will have been collected in addition to interest charges by the IMF. The US pays the largest share of IMF revenues. Letters went to Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary from members of US Congress saying that the fund was a lender of last resort but intended to do this "without resort to measures destructive of national and international prosperity."

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Th Labour party of Mr. Anthony Albanese promised a referendum on its "voice" plan to give aboriginals separate representation. It would have created an advisory body to the government for indigenous people related to issues such as health and education.The referendum failed by a wide margin in the vote across Australia. Some opposed it as not doing enough for reconciliation with the indigenous people who make up 4% of the Australian population, the opposition Liberal party opposed it as being too vague, and others felt the government was not doing enough for major issues such as cost of living.