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After a career of 30-40 years in business, medicine or other profession, starting when one graduates from school, the first year after retirement can be difficult. As shown here in the story of Sherry Mendelson, a psychiatrist who says she faced a tectonic shift. How she coped in her own words by rethinking roles and old habits. Finding new passions for activities alone, and together with her husband.

Simple things like hearing aids that can make a difference, adapting to bad knees and not being able to ski. But finding a new passion in writing helped her regain her longtime passion for psychiatry and her home office sanctuary. In the process making awkward adjustments to one another and one's spouse, discovering new wisdom, moments of shared appreciation. 

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WSJ asks the question how are companies run in America by CEO's during the 9 month old pandemic? To answer that question it looks at Emerson Electric, based in Ferguson, Missouri, with its 90,000 employees in the U.S. and around the world. David Farr is CEO of American conglomerate Emerson Electric that makes products in a number of industries, for longer than most CEO's in America. At 65 years today, he has managed the company since he became CEO at the age of 45. It has 8000 employees in China and 10,000 in Mexico, and plants in the midwest, all hard hit by the pandemic. Add to this racial riots after killing of a black man in Ferguson, Missouri, and you have a challenging situation for any CEO.    As a son of a plant manager at a Corning plant in Corning, New York and growing up in a manufacturing environment in England, his instincts are that customers are what matter the most. That shrinking production could lead to some competitors making it and others shrinking if they did not act quickly to protect their supply chains. His goal is to keep factories running to have parts ready for their customers who made the finished product in the oil and gas industry and in factories where Emerson supplied the automated processes. As a first step he has 7 charter planes fly parts from a Nanjing factory to Shanghai when the trucks stopped moving. He campaigns with the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. to have the company listed as essential business to be kept open in a lockdown but fails. He gets up at 5.30 am and works till 8 pm and spends most nights reading, lounging with 2 spaniels, and going to bed early. He tells his son who works at Caterpillar company to get back to work as soon as he can as he believes being on the job is really really important. Yet he is worried up his daughter working as a pastry chef in New York and wants her to come back home to the midwest. He is a manager in the old style saying he wouldn't hire American workers because the Obama administration was out to destroy American manufacturing with its environmental rules forgetting that he was doing just that in the end-  and what had America and the concept of a free nation and a free people with opportunities for all have anything to do with like or dislike of any president or party. He also has his quirks, keeping 5 baseball bats and swinging a bat while he took walks and did some thinking. Passionate, hard working, and getting it done he keeps Emerson in the game as an industrial competitor from the U.S. ...

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Macron of France, Scholz of Germany and Tusk of Poland meet in Berlin to iron out difference on Ukraine. Macron calls for strategic ambiguity and a more efforts to support Ukraine.

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The unexplainable situation of Peter Murrell's embezzlement of 400,000 pounds, when he was chief executive of the Scottish National party while wife Nicola Sturgeon was head of Scottish government. The loss of reputation and honor in Britain as Scotland struggled with 14 years of austerity, Brexit policies, and from the failed leaders from Labour that brought deindustrialization and the 2009 financial crisis. The loss of credibility that Scotland could better manage its own affairs as an independent state than it could as an autonomous part of Britain that it has been for centuries, in an arrangement that made Scotland and integral part of the idea of Britain in the world from the British Empire to the Brtish Commonwealth. Scotland's population of 5 million people with main industrial hubs of Glasgow and Edinburgh is relatively small compared to the population of England with 59 million people and industrial hubs in Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and London. Since the Act of Union tht brought Scotland into union with England as Great Britain in 1707, Scotland has depended on the industrial strength of England and its significantly larger financial and people resources. The autonomous arrangement preserves Scottish culture and identity inside the region, yet gives Scotland a better relationship, more access to benefits with the world as part of Great Britain's much larger presence.  ...

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European economies are likely to weather the winter better than expected with sufficient energy supplies on hand after the Russian cutoff of oil and gas. This means says this WSJ column that the central bank for Europe, the ECB, can continue to raise interest rates to fight inflation. As Fed chairman Jay Powell pointed out at the Brookings Institution recently out of control inflation poses a major risk for upward mobility in American society. This is a risk that exists in both the US and Europe. In this sense 2023 is a critical year for the Fed and the ECB, for Lagarde and for Jay Powell, to bring it back under control.

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Hugh Schofield of the BBC gives this analysis of the televised national debate between Macron and Le Pen on April 20. BBC also gives a video of the debate. On the economy and cost of living- Macron said actions he has taken to put a cap on fuel prices and tax exemption for pay bonuses were fairer and more effective than Madame Le Pen's ideas. Le Pen said she would cut the VAT on energy. Macron said a cap on fuel prices was "twice as effective as dropping the sales tax." Le Pen said she will cut taxes, and no tax for under 30's.  On Europe and Russia- Macron said Le Pen was one of the first leaders to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. "You are speaking to your banker when you speak to Russia," Macron said referring to a bank loan from Russia. He also said that the French did not look to Russia for finance, when Le Pen said she was turned down by French banks. On the European Union- Macron argued that Le Pen's idea of "a Europe of nations" would spell the end of the European Union and that "you are selling a lie." Schofield says Macron avoided the trap of coming across as too arrogant or technocratic, sometimes even holding back.  ...

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Biden says at the APEC Summit that the US is seeking stable and good relations with China, that this is good for the world. He pointed out that the US wanted to be clear -"We are derisking and diversifying our relationship with China, not decoupling." This refers to the excessive dependence that happened in the relationship with China in the supply chain, in manufacturing, and in trade during the last three decades.

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Leaders of France, Germany and Italy are shown on a train ride from Poland to Kviv as they visit Irpin and Kviv to show solidarity with Ukraine, in this story in The Guardian.

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Teachers are packing up classrooms for the last time says this report in WSJ. Worn out by the covid pandemic, under staffed schools and political battles teachers are leaving in large numbers. About 300,000 public school teachers and other staff left the field during the 27 months of the pandemic, according to Bureau of labor Statistics data. More teachers are thinking of doing the same, A National Education Association poll conducted in 2022 found 55% of teachers saying they would leave earlier than planned. Teachers are finding better pay and working environment in other professions and in business. Teachers of younger students in the early grades say teaching should be about kids learning but that isn't true anymore. 

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This report in The Times of London says 2700 tons of exploding ammonium nitrate was stored in one of the warehouses at Beirut port. This caused the explosion. Yet no one knows what caused the explosion and what caused the accident. It says in Beirut no one is in control of safety and security because the government is run by many parties and factions. 

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Kingsley of the NYT provides this report from Turkey describing the impact of the conflict with the Kurds inside and outside the country.

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This Guardian report gives a discussion with Austin based Dr. Attia of Early Medical and ways to ensure healthspan- adopting healthy patterns of living including food and exercize, sleep, that start at an early age. The approach is that prevention should be the best way to tackle health issues that can develop later in life and the time for that is early, right now. Most of it is well established based on exercizing well, and weight exercize routine for strengthening muscle. It could just as easily include yoga or pilates, and sports. Nutrition plays an equally important part.

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The opening of new factories in America, the revival of manufacturing, gives a boost to companies producing steel and excavators. Nicor and Caterpillar benefit from the investments in manufacturing in the US under Biden's Make in America plan. 

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Protests in Nigeria by young people against a police unit called Anti Robbery Squad that is supposed to fight crime and carjackings and allegations of extortion against the unit.

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Poland's ruling party, the Justice Party, faces elections in 2024. The influx of grain from Ukraine has lowered prices for farmers in Poland, and this affects the largely rural base of the Justice Party. As a result the government has acted to stop Ukrainian grain from entering the country, and also bans the shipment of grain through Poland to other EU countries. The UN sponsored Black Sea ports agreement that allows Ukraine to ship from Odessa and other ports is also coming up for renewal.

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Spain's soccer icon Iniesta's support for Jennifer Hermoso and the rest of the Spanish women's soccer team speaks for everyone. Here Laia Herrero tells the story of Hermoso's grandfather a goalkeeper for Athletico and her father who encouraged her to play soccer at the park in her Madrid neighborhood. She started playing for Athletico when she was 14 years and has also played for Barcelona. She has a record as Spain's most prolific goal scorer.  

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China build its solar industry with huge subsidies, the US did not. From 2018 to 2022 the US solar industry suffered with lack of help from the US government under the Trump administration and the first year of the Biden administration. 30 US based solar companies shutdown in a bloodbath and many jobs were lost. Enter the climate law in 2022 under president Biden and in 2023 the US investment in solar reached $8 billion, three times what it was in the previous 6 years. 

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If the wording in the Pew Research Survey were to include that only the government can tackle huge problems in climate change, infrastructure, and manufacturing, the over 50% of Americans that support government taking on these responsibilities might just as well be closer to 60-70 percent. The tide is turning as the whole culture since Reagan and the key adopters of Reagan's theory  successive Democratic administrations of Clinton and Obama is being reversed- Democrats and Independents supporting the change to get government to tackle these problems is up 15 percentage points. Another shift is the young people who are filled with frustration by the lack of government taking on a bigger role to solve problems such as climate change, manufacturing jobs in US, infrastructure rebuilding that only the government can do. 

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A Swedish supplier Autoliv's scientists say GM in the late 1990's asked the supplier to match Takata's airbag that saved several dollars per airbag. The problem say the scientists at Autoliv was that the Takata airbag that was made at lower cost used a dangerous volatile compound. Autoliv cited here by Tabuchi of the NYT, says it refused to do this. Years later 100 million of the Takata airbags are installed on cars in the U.S. made by GM and other automakers.  The chemical ammonium nitrate used by Takata is still being used to make airbags with modifications to reduce its explosiveness. In this indepth account Tabuchi looks at the evidence against using ammonium nitrate, the warnings that were not heeded from Autoliv, and the work of Italian and other scientists that confirm the explosiveness of the substance when exposed to temperature and moisture changes. Here Tabuchi cites reports from suppliers of the nitrate who were hesitant to supply the substance to Takata because of liability issues. And he points out that there was manipulation of testing quality control for the defective airbags that passed the test, so that in addition to the use of the faulty chemical, the company failed to maintain strict quality control as required by the automakers. The pressure from automakers for cost reduction is given as one of the reasons for the problem, just as the pressure from BP to cut costs led to some of the faulty work done by suppliers at oil wells leading to explosions on a oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Before the approval of the faulty chemical for airbags Takata airbag business was in dire straits leading to management looking for ways to develop a viable business, as other propellants had failed to deliver results. It is at that point that Takata approved ammonium nitrate despite evidence of its explosiveness that led to TRW, another airbag maker, to reject it.  ...

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Vast migration of about 5 million kob antelope and other antelope species across South Sudan near Boma National Park- viewed from light aircraft or helicopters stretching for miles and miles. Antelope seek to move in the rainy season to where there is more water. The lack of human settlement in this space lets the migration go on unimpeded.

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It started out as a crazy idea but Paris Olympic organizers began to see the beauty of it. The Olympics on the River Seine itself. Organizers saw the 2018 Youth Olympics done on the streets of Buenos Aires showing that it could be done. And they were upto the challenge with a 1.4 billion e French government project to clean up the river and its rancid dirty water in time for the event in 2024, and to make it swimmable for the first time. Swimmers would dive into the Seine. Click on Original Article to see Les Carpenter's report in The Washington Post and see how the river Seine looks at different times of the day. It would be risky but after the pandemic it was worth trying to bring back the idea that Paris is back. Paris 2024 CEO Thobois, a badminton athlete himself, was upto it. After listening to all the experts, all the plans, the organizers looked at each other at the meeting and said that this is crazy -let's do it anyway.

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It is important to remember that FDR and Harry Truman won in North Carolina by huge majorities, so did Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy, LBJ. In fact going back to Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916. Democrat Josh Stein, Attorney General elected in 2020 and Republican Mark Robinson, the Lt. Governor are very different candidates for governor in North Carolina. Rory Cooper, a Democrat, who won by 4 percentage points is not running after two terms as popular governor because of term limits.  Cooper's focus has been on education, ease of living, infrastructure and clean energy. North Carolina has one of the largest rural populations in the country with one in three being rural with new out of state residents settling in the suburbs. In recent years it has generally voted for a Democrat as governor and Republican for the legislature. Only in  elections since 1980 except in 2008 it has voted Republican for president. In 2024 it is expected to be a swing state. If elected Robinson would be the first black governor of North Carolina, Stein the first Jewish governor.   ...