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Robert Mueller, the special counsel, says the Mueller Report and his investigation into the 2016 presidential election does not exonerate president Trump. If we had exonerated the president we would have said so, said Mueller in a public statement. "If we had confidence the president did not commit a crime we would have said that," Mueller said. He said the constitution of the U.S. does not allow a sitting president to be charged by the special counsel. Because the special counsel office is under the Justice Department and the department policy set the manner of the report, charging the president was not an option he had. The Republican party controls the Senate and the Democrats control the House of Representatives. Any effort by Democrats in the House to impeach the president would fail in the Senate. Democrats and Speaker Pelosi are wary of impeachment proceedings. Mr. Mueller's statement suggests there is also growing discomfort in Congress about taking no action at all that would be construed as exonerating the president for what happened during the presidential election, because it might set improper precedent for the future. This increases the pressure for impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives from some Democrats for more information to let Congress decide. ...

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In upcoming national elections the anti-immigration narrative pushed by prime minister Viktor Orban is no longer sounding convincing to voters. One retiree in a local election is cited here as saying there is no one at the border, that he is tired of hearing that narrative. The number of people at the border from Africa and Asia has dwindled to single digits from 200,000 at one time. All parties in the country are opposed to it.  Hungary's economic growth of 3% in recent years since 2013 is helped greatly by aid from the European Union.  Large public works programs have brought unemployment down to 3.8%.  As a result Orban is likely to win about half the seats in parliament down from about two thirds majority. The other half of the seats will be divided among parties from the Greens, Socialists, Centrists and the right wing. As in Hungary the anti-immigration narrative should gradually fade in the rest of Europe including Britain. The vote for Brexit was close and the anti-immigration narrative helped boost the yeas vote margin. As a result of the change in public perception there will be questions about how much a decision that affects Britain for future generations should be made on the basis of an event that happened in 2015-2016. ...

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The views being currently argued in meetings with the President about the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Vice President Biden's view: Completely change the goal and strategy. Scale down the military presence. Change the goal from protecting the people from the Taliban- and note that reports on the ground suggest that the people are indifferent and see the Americans and the Taliban as equally bad, with the Americans as foreigners far worse, see Doris Kearns others- to accelerated training of the Afghan forces to fight the Taliban. The focus of US interests would shift to Pakistan. Biden points to the disparity for every $1 spent in Pakistan $30 goes to Afghanistan, and the US real interests lie in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. The US would work with Pakistan to take out Al Quaeda in the border regions. And the proof is that this is working, as Al Quaeda figures have been taken out with Pakistan's help. Counterinsurgency would be replaced by counter terrorism so the US doesn't get bogged down in support of a failing government. The fraud in the recent elections and increasing isolation and loss of support for the Karzai government, supported by unofficial evidence from the ground, make this a serious option, especially as President Obama knows the Karzai government does not merit support and presents a losing proposition. The second view is that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton- Ike Shelton of Missouri on the Armed Services Committee and Leslie Gelb (see links) share this view- who said in an interview on PBS, "Well Al Quaeda's no longer in Afghanistan. If Afghanistan were taken over by the Taliban, I can't tell you how fast Al Quaeda would be back in Afghanistan." The problem with this view is that the US has only a limited presence in a large mountainous country with the difficult terrain that Afghanistan has, and its not American ground troops that have done the damage in taking out Al Quaeda, its mostly high tech drones. WIth a wider engagement and expanded US ground troops in support of a failing government, that is alleged to have corrupt and narcoltics connections, the popular support would dwindle to the point that the extra troops would not be seen as protecting the population- because how do you protect a people who simply don't care or are suspicious of you? The solution requires some sort of settlement with the Taliban, which guarantees that it not serve as a haven for Al Quaeda. Progress with schools and modernization would have to be, at least in the short run, be given upon the basis of the U.S. coming to terms with what it can and cannot accomplish at an acceptable cost, and the idea of vital interests not lying in Afghanistan but Pakistan. The missing elements in this puzzle would help this strategy, bringing together key countries in South Asia, India and Pakistan, to assume greater joint responsibilities and abandon the entire postindependence. approach to relations. The third view is that presented by Bruce Reidel, who led the Obama administration's strategy review of Afghaistan and Pakistan earlier this year, and is based on pragmatic considerations and the unofficial information on the ground. Reidel puts it this way: "A counterinsurgency can only work if you have a credible and legitimate Afghan partner, and thats in doubt now." And he goes on to say "part of the reason you are seeing a hesitancy to jump deeper into the pool is that thay are looking to see if they can make lemonade out of the lemons we got from the Afghan election." For a complete change in policy and focus Obama would have to admit that he now has different information, and he is willing to admit to have misread the situation during the first 6 months and during the campaign. That is a test of leadership, being able to change after looking at the reality of the situation and digesting it fully. ...

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The 2016 presidential election campaign is expected to lead to $10 billion in campaign spending. The Federal Election Commission is unable to take any action against campaign abuses with the commission deadlocked 3-3, with 3 Democratic members and 3 Republican members voting strictly along party lines and seeing any move by the other side as partisan. The members are not even on talking terms. Republican members see the issue in terms of First Amendment rights to free speech. The Supreme Court's decision in the 2010 Citizens United case affirmed First Amendment rights of free speech and unlimited fund raising to conduct election campaigns. The Supreme Court ruling considered corporations as associations of individuals and therefore entitled to First Amendment rights of free speech. The Court suspended the "electioneering communication" ban imposed by the Bipartisan Reform Act of 2002, allowing corporations and unions to engage in free speech electioneering during election campaigns.

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Alexander Kudascheff of DW.com, says the Berlin Christmas market attack on the Kurfstendamm, is likely to change the way Germany looks at the terrorist threats in the world. Smaller attacks had hit Germany earlier in 2016. This one resembling the attack in Nice on Bastille Day is likely to touch a nerve with Germans who did not see something like this possible for a Christmas tradition of Christmas markets in Germany, and right in Berlin's centre.  This means stormy waters for chancellor Merkel's refugee policies. The comments to this opinion in the DW.com show the public dissatisfaction with current policy. Many of the comments focus on too open an approach of liberal media, what is perceived as a spin on stories for refugees, and on the use of words "suspected terrrorist attack" even when it had become clear to most people that it was a terrorist incident. In other ways this incident is different as it puts Germans in the same situation as Americans, Spaniards, Turks, French, and other people in the way terrorism has made people less safe or unsafe in 2015-2016. Most of this is a result of the situation in Syria and Iraq, as is the refugee situation that has divided European opinion, and American opinion.  ...

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Yuka Hayashi gives an exceptional account of the rise of nationalism in Japan. This is especially true of the younger generation. As examples of the changing mood, he gives the popularity of Will magazine with circulation of 100,000 among younger readers, including large numbers of women. Other examples are the movie "Eternal Zero" remaining on the top of box office charts for 2 months, neto uyo or right wingers on the internet are popular, and bookstores display titles responding to China and S. Korea's criticism of Japan. Fringe candidates such as Toshio Tamogami have won 24% of the vote in Tokyo's gubernatorial race, with large proportion of younger voters. The younger generation is not accepting quietly the criticism of Japan's prewar record in the same way as the older generation with memories of the war. It sees itself free to respond to what it sees as China and S. Korea's constant criticism of Japan, even when Japan has apologized repeatedly for its aggressor role in Asia. Weekly magazines such as Bunshun and Shincho carry Japanese criticism of China and S. Korea with sensational headlines about lies. Abe's recent visit to the Yasukuni war shrine- the main object of S. Korean and Chinese criticism and America's concern expressed to Japan- is shown in an Asahi Shimbun poll recently to get favorable support from 60% of people in their 30's. Many of the 119 freshmen members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Mr. Abe also provide support, and some even see Japan needing to defend itself with or without the U.S. Is this level of nationalist sentiment similiar to the twenties and thirties, or to periods of tension in the 1990's and other post war periods? Only recently in 2010 the Democratic Party of Japan under a young prime minister Hatoyama and premier Naoto Kan, a civil rights activist, presented another side of Japan seeking closer ties with China- even distancing itself somewhat from the U.S. on the issue of bases in Okinawa. Naoto Kan also enjoyed a 60% level of popularity as premier Abe has in 2014. Which is the real Japan, or is it a reflection of fatigue among younger Japanese with always having to say you are sorry, as has happened to the younger generation in Germany. Hatoyama resembled Obama as a younger politician bringing a new optimism in Japan after years of LDP rule. Unfortunately president Obama distanced himself from Hatoyama on the base issue and failed to support Hatoyama at a time of tensions with N. Korea, leading to his fall in ratings and resignation. This may turn out to be a lost opportunity for the U.S. for building peaceful neighborly relations in Asia. In 2007 Chinese premier Wen Biao a speech to the Japanese parliament, the Diet, saying: "With history as a mirror it does not lead to long-lasting hate, it points to a better future." Japan's premier at the time? Shinzo Abe. What has changed? China's economy has doubled in size, and so have global Japanese corporations such as Toyota with advanced technologies, economic insecurity is unfounded in a globally linked interdependent economic system. ...

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The Indian federal elections started on April 19 and will take place in phases for 960 million voters the largest of any country in the world in mountains in Ladakh to desert around Jaisalmer to the seas around Vizag and Kotchikode. It will take about 6 weeks to complete by June 1 and final results to be announced June 4. The voting is done using portable electronic boxes. It is still one of the great wonders of the world that its crazy no one talks about it and is a demonstration that India has taken the best of its own democratic traditions dating back to the time of the Buddha 563-483 BC. "It may come as a surprise to many to know that in the assemblies of Buddhists in India two thousand and more years ago are to be found the rudiments of our own parliamentary practice of today." This is Rab Butler, who was born in Attock, India and the leading parliamentarian of Britain who set up the post war education system of the United Kingdom, the longest serving minister in Britain from 1941, Home Secretary under Churchill to Foreign Secretary during Suez Crisiz in 1956, under Macmillan as Home Secretary in 1964, the best parliamentarian Britain had to offer in the 20th century. Butler served under Viceroy of India in 1910, and worked hard as India Secretary to pass the India Act of 1935 that gave India its first parliamentary style assemblies and elections. His idea even in the 1920's was for India to gain Dominion dominion status similar to Canada and Australia with a democracy, and was opposed by Churchill. Churchill knew his own weakness and supported Rab Butler as the younger Conservative who would revive the Conservative Party- his 1977 book The Conservatives. Cooperation with Hugh Hugh Gaitskill of Labour Party right into the 1970's made Britain a stronger country, which is how the Education Act 1944 was passed to make free education to all children to age 16.  Much of it broken since 1980 in 50 years of failed Conservative policy leading to the chaos of the Conservatives today, and an effort to spread that chaos to the US. ...

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Nigel Farage of Reform UK surges as its membership reaches 100,000 to Kemi Badenoch's Tories with 132,000 and split in their ranks. Tories are nervous about what is happening. Labour is trying to get its act together, and trying to get the civil service to serve the people. Starmer even goes on to warn that the civil service is "in managed decline." Every ministry is asked to save 5% through cutting waste and inefficiency, and to make good use of limited resources to deliver results to the British people. 2025 will be critical not only for Wales, Scottish and local elections, 2025 will show whether Labour can tackle the immediate problms of housing, cost of living, transport and show results in delivering on infrastructure and improvements at the NHS. Labour needs to get its execution for the goals set right and stay on top of delivery metrics at every stage on a monthly and quarterly basis. Can a lawyer like Starmer do this? It took years of execution of projects for Modi of India at the state level as chief minister in Gujarat to executi at the national level. Can Starmer/Reeves and the rest of the team learn, and learn quickly? ...

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Eurobarometer Survey conducted by the European Commission on what people say about staying inside the European Union show increasing support inside the UK and inside member countries of the EU. In a survey done in March 2019, Eurobarometer Survey involving 1000 people in each of the 28 countries of the EU shows 53% of respondents in the UK supporting Remaining in the European Union, 35% Leave , and 12% undecided. Asked whether Britain had made the right choice to leave the EU in the referendum 54% of respondents said Britain made the wrong choice, only 38% said yes. There is a definite shift in sentiment that reflects the way the changes in the EU since the referendum was held- with only a trickle of immigration to Europe and now return of some refugees to their home countries, economic aid to African countries to reduce migrants. The economies of Europe that struggled through austerity policies such as Spain have show strong growth of 3% over 3 years, and of Portugal and Greece recovering. News at the time of austerity policies, uncontrolled immigration to Europe, affected public sentiment at the time of Britain's first referendum on EU membership. In the EU countries there is a definite upturn in sentiment- 66% would vote to remain in the EU, only 17% would vote to leave. The chaoic Brexit process in the UK has also led to the upturn. 68% of respondents in the EU countries said their countries had benefited from membership in the European Union, the largest support seen in 25 years. ...

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Emma Tucker describes the elation in the News Desk and for reporters of the WSJ on August 1, 2024  following the release of a young reporter Evan Gershkovich held by Russia for coverage in sensitive Russian regions. Emma Tucker said-    "We are grateful to President Biden and his administration for working with persistence and determination to bring Evan home rather than see him shipped off to a Russian work camp for a crime he didn’t commit. We are also grateful to the other governments that helped bring an end to Evan’s nightmare, in particular the German government that played such a critical role." Who is Emma Tucker and why does it matter?-   It matters because of monopolistic/oligopolistic hold over communication of news in the public space that belongs to public service since Lincoln, TR, FDR, Kennedy in the US, and it's shaping of public perceptions such as no action needed on climate change fires/floods, or on infrastructure investment in a dilapidated US. Emma Tucker studied in Sussex and in New Mexico before studying philosophy, economics and politics at Oxford. She becomes a graduate trainee at the Financial Times  in 1990 continuing for 30 years right into Covid years (FT now owned by employee owned Nikkei since 2015 acquired from Pearson for $1.32 billion). In 2022 she was selected to run Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal acquired by him for $5 billion- including $2.25 billion premium- from the Bancroft family that owned it and Dow Jones since 1928.   ...

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American Enterprise Institute, conservative think tank, supports Kiel Institute of the World Economy figures that say European Union aid is about double that of the US to Ukraine. Quite the reverse was stated in casual seemingly reckless fashion to 67 million viewers by former president Trump. Moderator David Muir should have had the facts right before him to correct this as this was a much anticipated topic and perennial Trump gripe. The US is not getting creamed- no way, the Europeans are paying up and keen on doing so $187 billion to the US $98 billion. Even with the best of intentions on fact checking this is not good enough from ABC News, or for that matter the rest of the television media - the CBS's, Fox's, NBC's, CNN's, not to mention the internet media, a disservice to democratic process that is built on facts not delusion.  To someone working 2 or 3 part time jobs, or the less literate who can't do quick fact checks that can be time consuming, or educated viewers who hav little inclination to check so much that is being thrown at them- what does it mean to have grievance and grudge thrown at them leaving the impression that the US is incapable when it is in fact greatly strengthening NATO alliance including Sweden and Finland and ties with Western Europe that were damaged over time since the Reagan period in the 1980's.   ...

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Marie Le Pen's National Front Party gets only 8 seats in France's parliament following the second round of voting. It will not have enough seats to form its own parliamentary group. After winning about one third of the votes in the presidential election Marie Le Pen will not have enough seats in parliament to act as opposition leader. Marie Le Pen will represent the industrial constituency of Henin-Beaumont in northern France. Many voters from the parties on the right and the left decided not to vote in the parliamentary elections giving smaller representation to all parties, with a sharp drop for the Socialist and Republican parties. The big gainer in this situation was the En Marche party of  president Macron. For the first time younger members were elected with average age around 40-ish and 38% of parliamentary seats going to women, which is seen as a positive factor in the results. By giving Macron a solid majority in parliament the French people chose to give the government the ability to implement its program for reviving the economy, and reducing the gap between rural areas, industrial towns and large metropolitan areas such as Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux.   ...

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Eugene Daniels Politico interview with Brian Fallon of the Harris campaign. The focus of the Harris campaign is to get the electorate to know more about her and her plans for the economy, across all parts rural and urban of the most contested states. To get across to voters how her plan for the economy stands in contrast to the former president in the belief that once people get to know her economic plan they will support her for a better future for America.  There is also the realization that this campaign is compressed into three months August-September-October. The change from Biden to Harris integrating the campaigns had to seamless, and this has been seamless, an essential prerequisite. Another is that it had to be nonstop in every corner of the nation indifferent to rural and urban, red or blue. Nothing matters more than talking to all parts of the nation, to young and old, Republican and Democrat, urban and rural, men and women, to fight for every single vote, and this is happening in this campaign. The essential prerequisite to do this was to do it as the underdog which is how the Harris campaign is being carried out in these last weeks and days. ...

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Prime minister Passos Coelho of Portugal makes the decision not to ask for a precautionary credit line from lenders, as Portugal exits the EU bailout program in April 2014. Portugal received bailout funds of $78 billion euros from the EU, IMF and the ECB in 2011. Portugal's economy is expected to see growth of 1% in the next 2 years. Unemployment declined from 17.7% in the beginning of 2013 to 15.2% in 1st quarter of 2014. Portugal returned to bond markets in April 2014 with 750 million euros of 10 year government bonds at 3.575%. Still Portugal will take a long time to fully recover and the EU will continue to monitor its financial position. The last loan to the IMF is scheduled for repayment in 2024 and to the EU in 2042. Exports and a return to bond markets are the two bright areas, but the government debt continued to climb from 94% in 2010 to 129% in 2014. A 15% unemployment rate and mere 1% growth through 2015 suggests a slow recovery similiar to Spain.

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The inspiring story of Joan Poh, only the second rower to compete for Singapore in an Olympics. She rises at 5 am to workout as she also works as a nurse in a 10 hour shift at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. She has missed meals as she does her training in the midst of work as a nurse. She returned to working in nursing after a call from Singapore government for frontline medical workers in April of 2020. She sees sport as a dream, a luxury that one has to work for. Puts in 100% as a nurse and when rowing 100% as a rower.  At 5 foot 5 inches, 30 years old,  she is much smaller than other rowers, and uses her technique and training to compete. She is the oldest of 3 children who grew up in a 1 room apartment in Singapore. Without resources she learned to row on a long boat by joining a dragon boat rowing team when she was 17, then learned to scull in 2015 at age 25. In 2019 she took extended leave from her hospital to train for the Olympics in Australia. A Canadian who won Olympic Bronze in 1996 and 2000 coaches her free from Vancouver Island in Canada, using videos and workout programs, and went to Singapore when Poh qualified for the Olympics to train her in person. She looks at competing not just as medal winning, and sees this as one step in building a team in the right direction. She sees creating opportunities for others, and overcoming her childhood situation growing up struggling for resources. She says early on it was for her not wanting her lack of resources to decide what she could do. As she puts it - to always aim for a strong start even though one started with not such a good start. ...

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The singer Pete Seeger about life after 90 - he turned 90 in 2009- and what he has learned over the years, and what he is still learning now. That includes homely stuff like how best to boil corn- he eats right, with less fat, less salt and sugar, which he says has helped him stay healthy. He lives in the house he built in Duchess county, New York. He loves to cut wood and describes the whack in cutting wood as something that started with man from the earliest times.

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The Fabian Society suggests extending the freeze on income thresholds to generate 12 billion pounds. The reasoning is that it would be fair to most of the middle and lower income households- only the top 20% would pay higher. “The chancellor  (Reeves) recently she wanted to ensure that those with the ‘broadest shoulders pay their fair share of tax’. Our modelling suggests that half (49%) of the revenue raised would come from the highest-earning fifth of households. Conversely, the poorest fifth of households would bear just 4% of the cost,” he writes. “With our public services in dire need of investment, and our public finances under great pressure, there are few good options. Continuing the freeze in income tax thresholds for a further two years is surely one of the better ones." Reeves has been a poor choice for chancellor throughout this Labor administration as she lacked the ideas to go with the grassroots and the people all across Britain struggling to live beyond paycheck to paycheck including the middle class, and follow Labour's own instincts about what was right for Britain at this time in 2025. In this case 49% of the revenue would come from the highest earning fifth of the households and only 4% from the poorest fifth of households. Such choices have inevitably to be made and a lot is needed for the infrastructure and services that benefit all segments of the population and most the four fifths of the population. ...

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How did Steve Smith go from that Jofra Archer short ball bouncer to sitting out the next Test match for rest, and then go on to score 211 at Old Trafford on September 5, 2019. Australia were able to score 497 for eight wickets in the first innings. In the second innings he scored a needed fast 82 runs. Bouncing back quickly shows Steve Smith's character and courage. In his own words- "A bit of the past came up, if you know what I mean, from a few years ago. That was the first thing I thought about. The I thought "I'm actually OK here." I was a bit sad, but I was alright mentally the rest of that afternoon.  "No, I'm really not going to change anything. There is a  bit of talk that he has got the wood over me, but he has'nt got me out. He hit me on the head on a wicklet that was a bit up and down at Lord's. All the other bowlers have had more success with me, I dare say. I've faced them a bit more, but they've got me out a lot more, so yeah, pretty comfortable about that." About a heavier barrage of short balls and bouncers in the next match he thought "If you bowl it up there then you can't nick me off, or hit me on the pad, or hit the stumps," he shrugged. About the Dukes ball, its and interesting ploy, so we'll see what happens." Steve Smith went on to play like he always does moving about to take the ball in his own way, building up 600 runs in Test series three times, 671 in this Ashes series.     ...

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What is the one thing experts say is most beneficial for health? Improving our minds by building self-awareness. Understanding your feelings, motivations and behaviours in more depth, enables us to make better choices. To do this try journaling, meditating, practicing mindfulness or simply making time for self-reflection at the end of the day.

In doing this also pay attention to diversity in eating plant based foods for as many as 30 plant based foods, incorporating different exercize routines that get you motivated and happy, and get a good seven or eight hours of sleep, say these experts in health and nutrition.

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This article in the Economist following the state election in Berlin, says it shows Merkel and the CDU as still the only likely option to form a new coalition in the 2017 federal elections. Even though six parties emerged in the Berlin election- the left parties SPD and Die Linke, the Greens,CDU, AfD, FDP- the situation is so fragmented that the CDU still remains the leading party nationwide. The Economist points out that a Greens and left parties coalition as in Thuringia is not an option at the federal level, because most Germans are not in favor of a SPD, left party Die Linke, and Greens coalition at the national level. The opposition from the CSU inside the CDU-CSU parties to Merkel's refugee policy,  with Seehofer calling for a numerical limit to refugees, is it says presents the only real challenge to Merkel. Yet Merkel has already tackled that problem, as the new refugee numbers are dropping dramatically. and Merkel has already pointed out that the refugee crisis came when she and her government were caught unprepared. By taking the right steps to assuage voter sentiment as she has deftly done throughout her terms in office, staying close to what voters generally accept as the best way forward, a year from now Merkel and the CDU may as she says be seen as having taken actions that best reflect Germany's interests in the long term. ...

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On Facebook "Back the Badge" targeted at wives of police officers remembering killed police officers was seen 1.3 million times. Another ad "Woke Blacks" for Afro-American culture targeted at the civil rights movement was seen 750,000 times.These and other ads on Twitter were cited in Congressional investigations in the U.S., as ads paid for in rubles and conducted by Russian internet agencies. Facebook, Google, Instagram and Twitter managers answered questions in Congress about the ads during the U.S. presidential election of 2016.

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The Republican House Health Care pLan in 2017 relies on tax credits of between $2000 and $4000 based on age. Under the Affordable Health Care Act the elderly poor in high cost insurance areas received additional help. These people would lose over $2000 per person and may forgo full coverage or coverage entirely under the Republican House Health Care Plan. A report by Standard & Poor's estimates about 2 to 4 million people who are in 50's and 60's not yet qualifying for Medicare might lose their coverage they now have under ACA. The Republican plan also gives incentives through tax credits higher for older people, $4000 for a 60 year ol and $2000 for a 25 year old. Under the ACA the insurers are not allowed to charge more than three times what is charged for younger people, under the Republican plan this goes up to five times. 

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As the Afghanistan conflict has receded into the background in American minds and the U.S. has become more careful to avoid foreign entanglements, 80 warring factions including the Taliban and the government in Kabul are meeting for talks in Doha, in Gulf state of Qatar. The effort is designed to settle the dispute and settle on an Islamic legal system for anew post war country that bases itself on Islamic values, yet ensures women's rights within the framework of Islamic values. There is an explicit urgency to shed some of the bitterness and the scars from the war once and for all.

Germany's migration crisis was made worse by economic migration from Afghanistan and North Africa in addition to the migration from war torn areas. Germany is now hosting these meetings along with Qatar, understanding the effects of such conflicts reach well beyond distant lands.

 

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One sees the "quintessential IBM-er", close confidant of Sam Palmisano, and the involvement with Ms Chiesi, where insider information is excahnged over dinners. Questions arise about the ethics prevailing at the country's supposedly high standard maintaining firms such as IBM and McKinsey where another high ranking executive Anil Kumar faces similiar charges. Did these senior managers not ask themselves what was the right thing to do or was the dividing line between ethical and unethical simply blurred. Top ranking executives at Siemens were also found making decisions where they could not see the difference.

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France with about 6 million Muslims and a history of colonial rule in North African Arab countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and other countries) faces a challenge of integrating Muslims into French society. Germany with a large population of Turkish origin also faces a similiar challenge. The attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for poking fun at Islam, in a manner similiar to its satirical work on Catholicism, leads to the death of 12 journalists, a policeman and a policewoman. Erlanger and Bennhold describe the reaction of people in France. Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College , London, says about anti-immigrant sentiment increasing in Europe to the point where it is uncoupling working class families from the elites in Europe and reaching into the mainstream of society.