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General Patrick Sanders former chief of the British armed forces tells graduates at Sandhurst Military Academy in the UK- "We have always fought with our backs to the wall. This is who we are.” “So if you fight, and my experience has been that you will, sooner or later, it will likely be as the British Army always has: isolated, overmatched in numbers, equipment and technology, with tenuous supply lines and before the country has mobilised,” he added. Reading US General Pershing's "My Experiences in the World War" one finds the same message about what he had learned from his experience leading the US Expeditionary forces that put one million Americans into France in 1917. US slow to mobilize in the face of unfolding German threat in Europe. Acting earlier the US Pershing believes would have had a decisive voice in settlement and not accepted the armistice that led to another world war. Every leader in that war trained under Pershing- Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur. ...

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During a critical 4 weeks in March 9 to April 9, 2025 Germany finds itself without a newly elected government following elections Feb 23, 2025. Only on April 9 is a new CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government in place led by CDU chancellor Merz. Tariffs came to the forefront, the critical issues of world trade and the effect on stock markets, without an elected government in place in Berlin to speak for the European Union and participate in discussions.  Japan's Ishiba and India's Modi offered the US some support as it sought to restore the world trading system to where it was before the serious distortions from China joining the WTO. Much of it the result of American companies outshoring American manufacturing and turning their backs on American workers, and the dignity and pride of workers who rebuilt the US and Europe, and Asia after the Depression and the Second World War.

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Jens Spahn, CDU leader and minister in Merkel's government says it is OK for Germany to leave the European Commission for Human Rights if it is slow to grasp that refugee status is about protection and also about how many asylum claims the people of a country are comfortable with. Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Austria, the UK and the US, and many Germans now feel this way and feel unease at the high levels of migration asylum, illegal and other that they face. Migration to Germany slowed but has picked up again. Failed states, economic distress, civil wars,  in Africa and Latin America have led to illegal immigration from Syria, Libya, North Africa, Arab world, Afghanistan, Central American countries and Venezuela. Is Asylum automatic? Are there decisions that have to be made in Europe and America if whole states are mismanaged or face climate distress or gang conflict leading to mass migration? These questions have to be debated and not decided by a Merkel at whim or some other leader. ...

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President Biden becomes the first US president to be present at the picket line. Biden says through a bullhorn at the UAW strike picket line in Detroit- "Unions built the middle class. It's a fact." He is pushing for auto companies to reach an agreement with the UAW union, and avoid any effects in the economy. He told union workers outside a Belleville Michigan GM plant near Detroit- "You've heard me say this many times. Wall Street did'nt build this country. The unions built this country. And the unions built the middle class. That's a fact. Let's keep  going. You deserve what you earned. And you earned a hell of a lot more than you get paid now." When he handed the bull horn to Shawn Fain the UAW leader, Fain said about billionaires and the executive class- "They think they own the world. But we make it run."

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Teh Reva Electric Car Company in Bangalore, India. GM's electric version of the Chevy Spark will use Reva's technology. THis electric version will go on sale in India by the end of 2010.

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People in California did not feel the early blows of the coronavirus like New York. This is now turning into a disadvantage as people in California have now failed to follow the guidelines for social distancing and masks as carefully as they should be. The state reopening  took place as the case numbers were increasing as the economy and unemployment became an issue.  State hospitalizations are up 40% on July 1 from 2 weeks ago. Percentage of tests coming positive are close to 6% but in some counties much higher- in Riverside county has rate positive in tests at 11.7% and bars are only recommended to close. In Los Angeles county it is 8.2%. On June 20 the day after the bars were allowed to open 500,000 people visited bars in Los Angeles County. A big problem is that for lockdown the whole state was asked to lockdown by the governor. For reopening it is done by county and each county is doing this differently. Pressure to reopen has led to counties with increasing and poor metrics for cases still reopening. Some counties felt pressured to open when other counties had reopened. Even when a county such as Riverside or Los Angeles county is doing poorly the governor waits 14 days for it to be on a watch list before acting. This is too long for the extremely contagious virus giving it time to spread quickly. Governor Newson is now facing serious problems tackling the coronavirus. ...

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Lowenstein, author of the book "The End of Wall Street," says that the government should not let firms like Goldman open a table for wagering on corporate failure just as it would not let Caesar's Palace open a table for wagering on corporate failure. He says the first priority for Congress is to end the culture that as he puts it "financializes" every economic result. turning every mortgage or bond issue into a speculation with second level and third level securities. No factories are being financed, no no new products are being launched in this wild speculative frenzy that has overcome Wall Street and endangers the safety of the financial system and its integrity, and character.

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It is a moment in the Senate that Majority leader Schumer says will be remembered years from now. A total of 65 Senators vote to support an aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, and humanitarian aid, all Democrats and 18 Republicans as a group led by Senator Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader. The Republican Senators include Senator WIcker the senior member on the Armed Services Committee, military veterans, and centrists. Voicing strong support were Senator Tillis of North Carolina and Moran of Kansas on the Senate floor. Tillis said "there is a common conviction that if we fail on this vote, if we don't support Ukraine, this is not bluster, not hyperbole- bad things will happen." Tillis also said that after the earlier vote to break a filibuster by Republican colleagues -"I slept like a baby last night." The list includes senior Republican leaders Cronyn of Texas, both senators from Iowa including Grassley, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Mullin of Oklahoma, Rounds of South Dakota, Thune of South Dakota, Todd Young of Indiana. In terms of age and experience this may be the most senior and most experienced Republican leaders from over half of the traditionally Republican states. ...

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The earlier interactions between US and Iran have turned into an Iranian effort to develop its nuclear capabilities bringing the situation faced today, and showing the failure to find solutions of everything tried before and not helping the people of the Arab World and the Gulf regions.During the Reagan period American involvement under Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to support the Iraqi invasion of Iran in a balancing act. And just a year earlier the Democrat Carter's efforts to look at the Islamic revolution as a response to the CIA's intervention in Iran's internal affairs under Eisenhower's Foreign minister Dulles to secure oil supplies, and efforts to find a way to good relations with Iran. This was followed by the Democrat Obama negotiating with Iran, normalizing relations and Democrat Biden handing over Iranian assets  of hundreds of billions of dollars that were used DJT says to build its military that had suffered badly under the earlier western sanctions under Republican Trump.  It has led to some of the migration from Syria after Russian involvement that flooded Germany with millions of migrants and destabilized European countries democratic processes.  ...

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Efforts by the Razak government to normalize politics in Malaysia and call elections that will be contested by the opposition parties led by Anwar Ibrahim. James Hookway interviews Najib Razak, prime minister of Malaysia.

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The Likud party led by Netanyahu wins 30 seats in Israel's 120 seat parliament in the March 2015 general election. The Zionist Union wins 24 seats. The party of Israeli Arabs wins 13 seats.

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Argentina's government of president Alberto Fernandes is making a state takeover of Vicentin, a soyabean exporter which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and is in ongoing court proceedings. Mr. Fernandes says he is doing this to rescue the century old agricultural firm to protect Vicentin workers, and 2600 farmers who sell crops to the company. Vicentin is Argentina's top exporter of soy meal and soy cooking oil. Mr. Fernandez says the company is a very important asset for the entire Argentine economy. Argentina's farm exports are its main source of earnings in dollars.  A drought in Argentina's farm sector in April 2018 led to a drop in export revenues and worsened Argentina's financial position leading to the 2020 default on Argentine debt. In 2018 the farm sector lost a third of its crop value and 1.5% of GDP. Growth in 2017 was 3% but declined to 1% in 2018. A number of other factors including overborrowing using dollar denominated debt led to the economic crisis in 2020 right in the middle of the pandemic in May 2020. Fernandez is a moderate compared to the previous Kirchner administrations and was elected in 2019 to get Argentina out of the debt crisis after confidence in president Mauricio Macri declined. Fernandez has tackled the coronavirus crisis with an early lockdown compared to neighboring Brazil which has not taken decisive action making Brazil the second largest after the U.S. in cases. This gives Argentina some room to tackle the debt crisis and negotiations with the IMF, lenders. ...

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The emergence of a national party in India is the subject of this editorial in The Hindustan Times. The Indian National Congress led by Mohandas Gandhi led the way to transitional home rule in the 1930's under the British, independence in 1947, with the party running India till 1962 under Mr. Nehru, one of Gandhi's assistants. This was followed by a breakup of the party into different factions with one faction led by Nehru family forming governments under Indira Gandhi, and her son Rajiv Gandhi. This faction then lost its popularity in the Hindi speaking heartland of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and became a regional party with presence only in a few states of India and very little in the south. By 2014 a new party the Bharatiya Janata Party had emerged that had a strong presence in the Hindi speaking heartland of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and in the northeast of the country. It still lacked a strong presence in the south. This has happened in the 2020 Telengana elections, says Hindustan Times. By getting a strong performance in the Hyderabad region the BJP now has a strong presence in Telengana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka where Bangalore is located. Only Kerala and the Tamilnadu region around Madras, have their own regional parties in government. In the east the Bihar elections showed BJP as the leading party to form government to push the development agenda in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is now well positioned to take this theme of rapid development to West Bengal state around the Kolakata (Calcutta) area, a state that has lagged far behind in development under a regional party that was an offshoot of the Indira Gandhi faction of the Congress party. As is common in India national political parties split into factional parties with infighting that split again into purely regional parties. This has further undermined the them of development through failed governance in India. The BJP under the current prime minister is now the exception to this because of its themes of health, governance and development, with Development at the top of the triangle supported by Health and Governance at the base of the triangle. The BJP which started out as a small business oriented upper caste party also changed its image under prime minister Modi. The slogan "Sab Ka Vikas, Sab Ke Saath," (Development for all, with all) has given the BJP support of the lower castes, the Scheduled class and the backward castes in India. This make it a truly national party with support across all socioeconomic and demographic groups. The prime minister's own background growing up working in his father's tea shop near a railway station in Gujarat has also given the party a new image of being with the working classes and the average man. His experience in Gujarat delivering on development projects and infrastructure, energy, has also given the word "development" new meaning for a modern India, very distant from the period when poor governance failed to deliver on development and modernization. Bold moves have cleared the way for a nationwide approach to development, yet decentralized, with rapid development based on accumulation of technologies, human skills, land and capital. A singular focus on the needs of the ordinary people is evident when the prime minister talks about the effect of firewood burning stoves used in cooking by hundreds of millions of rural women for their families. He says the smoke from burning this firewood in the home has the effect of smoking 400 cigarettes for each woman. Rarely has this happened since Mohandas Gandhi took up the situation of village women in the backcountry and lack of clothing in the period under the British.   ...

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Germany's views on DJT Putin meeting in Alaska- proceeding to next step of peace talks with European efforts to ensure a peace that holds. A failure by Ukrainian leaders to build a consensus for the foreign affairs of their country bordered by language and cultural ties to the east but wanting to be open to the west, its unique position after 1990 similar to how Austria navigated German language ties to Germany after 1945 but was outside NATO and carried on with an independent foreign affairs friendly with all sides. The Bush, Obama and Merkel administrations did not pay attention to this and made serious errors, leading to further wrong turns by Ukrainian leaders and Russian leaders for prolonged wars. This led to destabilization in the Middle East, in Latin America, and in Europe and the US around migrant flows, refugees, and local wars, with Russia, US and Europe local regimes acting as adversaries that had not happened in this way in the 1960's -1990 period. This is the mess that DJT and Merz are now having to untangle with the help of countries that suffered huge losses in the war Russia and Ukraine who now may have realized what went wrong and offer their cooperation to end the war. ...

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The Dutch election as elsewhere in Europe marks a significant shift away from the migration issue to the urgent problems of housing and cost of living, infrastructure, that were neglected as the migrant issue moved up in importance. Housing shortages with need for 400,000 new apartments and homes in Netherlands is a major issue in Dutch elections. Migration is not the major issue it was in 2023-2024 and Geert Wilders Freedom party lost 12 seats in the new parliament . D66 Centrist party gained 18 seats, and its leader Rob Jetten 38 years says this is a shift to cooperation as the new style in government. He told NOS in an interview- “In the coming years, we will do everything we can to show all Dutch people … that politics and the government can be there for them again." Jetten says he had noticed during the election campaign that voters liked his positive approach to “say goodbye to the Wilders era and truly seek the cooperation to move the country forward.” The Wilders era with participation of the Freedom party in Dutch government 2023-2025 led to much infighting in the Dutch government leading to neglect of major issues such as housing shortages and cost of living.    ...

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NYT says DJT ratings have been resilient and stable around 43% in September similar to April 2025. Shows slight improvement on the economy and slight drop on immigration. DJT gets higher approval in fighting crime 48% supporting, 51% saying government was deporting mostly those needing to be deported, and 54% favoring deporting of illegal migrants. On the major issues of the economy, illegal immigration, the support is fairly resilient and stable says the NYT. Even the groups that say the biggest problem is the other side Democrats saying that of Republicans and vice versa, is only about 15%, or what has been seen in polarized periods in American history such as with Jefferson and Adams, Andrew Jackson after British wars,  Abraham Lincoln and Southerners before Civil War, Hoover and FDR as Depression progressed, and Harry Truman and Wendell Wilkie/Eisenhower periods of this history. The current polarization is not something new even though it is seen as unsettling to an onlooker. On immigration Eisenhower led Operation Wetback in the 1950's similar to today's effort to reverse illegal migration. Efforts to bring Common Prayer or Christian prayer to schools is part of America's history and Prayer existed in American schools throughout most of America's history, so that this is also nothing new. ...

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As US through USAID pulls back India can and should step forward with aid to Norman Borlaug Institute that created India's Green Revolution. During the Kennedy-Johnson period in the 1960's US agricultural technologies assistance and Norman Borlaug helped engineer the Green Revolution through higher productivity in agriculture. Norman Borlaug developed many high yield, disease resistant varieties at his Institute which were adopted in India. In the period of the 1950's and 1960's there was still famine in India. The last famine in India was in 1966 in Bihar when drought led to 45% drop in agricultural production, and in China in 1960. The American contribution to Indian agriculture is huge and the scale of the impact has never been fully grasped, forgotten 60 years later. Shown in this report by Harish Damodaran, is MS Swaminathan of India and Norman Borlaug in the wheat fields of India. The Norman Borlaug Institute is based in Mexico and will need funding. India's contribution is only $0.8 million. Norman Borlaug Institute head Bram Govaerts says- "We are looking for support from countries such as India that have interests in CIMMYT continuing to empower farmers through science and innovation and breeding varieties today for tomorrow’s climate.”   ...

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Lilith Verstrynge, former party secretary of Podemos, and daughter of a Belgian politician, describes the rise and collapse of Podemos, a popular party in Spain in a coalition duringthe Covid years with the Socialist party in Spain led by Pedro Sanchez. A 31 year old who now teaches in Paris describes Podemos- a social movement based on online support and no organization under Pablo Iglesias which collapses in Spain by 2024. Podemos or translated into Spanish as "We Can" emerged from the 2009 banking speculation caused financial crisis and the years that followed with the Eurozone financial crisis which entangled the economies of Spain, Ireland, UK, Greece, and other nations in the European Union. As he crisis receded and with action taken under Pedro Sanchez's Socialist government in the areas of housing, support services, and the economy, as the economy improved the movement gradually fizzled out. Under Sanchez the Catalonian independence movement also receded with elections in Barcelona and Catalonia brining to power a socialist government. This period in Spanish political upheaval is described by Verstrynge in The Guardian, who retired from politics in her early 30's as a result. She says without any organizational structure to support such online movements once the initial surge in interest is passed there is no way to sustain it. ...

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Prime minister Manuel Valls pushes a highly unpopular labor law through parliament without a vote.  About 70% of people are shown opposed to it in recent polls, and it has led to months of street protests. It has also split the ruling Socialist Party ahead of elections in 2017. The law makes it easier to fire and hire workers in the interests of growth and job creation, but unions say it will not increase economic growth and withdraws worker protection.

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Comment by a former Tory leader, Sir Ian Duncan Smith, on negotiations with the European Union's Ursula Leyen, show how much the term sovereignty has become the word on which everything depends. Smith said on December 10 about the EU demands that Britain adhere to EU environmental and other rules after leaving the EU, "either Britain is sovereign, or it is not."  The word sovereign is discussed in this context in this Times analysis. The word comes from the old French word "sovereinete" during the period when the King's authority was being contested by feudal lords in 16th century France. The Oxford dictionary defines it as the authority of a state to govern itself, and to do this without outside interference. Tory leaders such as David Davis and others including Smith see this as meaning making your own laws. For the European Union to insist on its laws being primary and British law asked to conform with EU law making it secondary, would not only be outside interference, but also divided authority. Older French and British political philosophers Hobbes and Rousseau see this as divided authority. Even though the meaning has changed in modern times, the essential definition in the Oxford Dictionary remains undivided authority. Which is why these Tory leaders insist on the original definition as the right one. Behind the wrangling there is the sense among Leavers that Britain could do better in economic terms by setting its own direction, and doing business its way. How would a new economic power in India by 2030 affect Britain, would it create many more opportunities for Britain to grow because of its history and cultural ties. Could the relationship with the U.S. provide more opportunities for growth? What about French indifference and even disdain of Britain, does Britain have other options? Isn't the European Union merely a Franco-German alliance led politically by France and economically by Germany, and propelled by their three wars since 1871, with a bunch of European countries added in, and what has Britain got to do with it? Closer to the negotiations with Leyen there is also the question - isn't France trying to make certain with its demand that Britain not violate EU law, that Britain's ingenuity and free wheeling spirit outside the European Union does not let it grow faster than France? Where one gets Boris Johnson's immediate reply that Britain is better off not being stuck inside "EU's regulatory orbit."   At the other end of the world you have India with "Atman Nirbhar Bharat" calling for a self-reliant economy and taking the time for transitioning out of the trade relationship with China, at short term cost and long term advantage. Britain is closely watching India as it makes big strides in developing infrastructure, in renewable energy, and setting a bold vision for the future. Even France is mapping out a pathway to self-reliant economy as it looks at ways to bring production home after the pandemic. The pandemic has only reinforced the drive to be self-reliant. ...

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Anshu Jain, co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, will be replaced by John Cryan, a former UBS executive, who has no connections to investment banking. Deutsche Bank's investment banking operations would have to take on more leverage to be competitive with larger investment banks, according to experts. This would put the bank in serious problems with regulators. Another problem evident at the recent shareholders meeting is that the old management is perceived as part of the problem that led to large legal settlements with authorites. Anshu Jain leaves at the end of June, and the other co-CEO Jurgen Fitschen will leave in 2016. This closes a chapter in Deutsche Bank's history in which its image in Germany has suffered badly because of investigations.

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US and Iran accept Pakistan's mediation of the war with a 2 week ceasefire and opening of Straits of Hormuz- April 7 2026. The mediation by prime minister Sharif of Pakistan gave both sides in the war a way to back down. Both sides agreed to talks in Islamabad, Pakistan. As a partner of Pakistan, China may also have a role in setting up a settlement as China and Japan have the most to lose from the Straits of Hormuz being closed, oil prices rocketing up to $115 and higher, and even a prolonged shutdown of Hormuz Straits. Both China and Japan get 90% of their imports from Hormuz Straits. Oil prices drop to the $100 level from $115 after the announcement of talks in Islamabad. This is not a long term settlement. After the two weeks US president meets president Xi of China in Beijing shortly afterwards on May 14-15. It is likely that preparations for that trip will involve China and Pakistan working together to get the US and Iran to agree to an extension of the ceasefire. One outcome of this war is as Le Monde has noted- the unreliability of Hormuz supplies and shift to imports from US and Venezuela and other parts of the world for fossil fuels. And with this a renewed effort to reduce the fossil fuels needed by accelerating renewable energy supplies in Europe, India and China. More attention will also be focused on reducing the proliferation of nuclear weapons by all major powers. Removing US involvement in NATO may also turn out to be positive in some ways to bring Russia and US as nuclear powers to better working relationships, and reduce the nuclear arms race and weapons race. For Europe it means meeting needs of Ukraine and improving military capabilities. The overall result may be positive for all countries. The Middle East region will be seen as one in which no powers should get involved in and the Middle East will also find it has squandered its valuable oil dividend in five decades of wars and mismanagement and fall behind the rest of Asia and Europe, the US in economic progress and development. ...

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The election strategy of Obama campaign manager Jim Messina to spend heavily early on in the campaign- even before Romney would get to the convention- to portray Romney as a private equity executive out of touch with the needs of working class Americans. Romney's record at Bain Capital was under relentless attack in the late summer and Romney did little to defend his record till late in the campaign. The other area especially in the midwestern states was the auto industry bailout for which the Obama campaign put out a flurry of ads saying Romney was willing to let Detroit go bankrupt. Experts say this proved to be the decisive factor, as Romney could never overcome the disadvantage in this portrayal to voters of someone who did not care enough for people like them. To do this the Obama campaign had outdone the Romney campaign in fundraising, being way ahead of Romney in campaign funding by that time.

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A professor from Harvard's Kennedy school describes the Hungarians failure to remember the 1956 Hungarian uprising crushed by the Soviet Union as migrants suffering enormous hardship make their way to Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary. The Orban government in Hungary refused to let migrants take trains to Austria and Germany. Chancellor Merkel said the Schengen Agreement allowing free movement itself was being called into question. The Orban government later relented and put migrants on buses to Vienna. Throughout this crisis as media showed pictures of the hardships suffered by migrants, and chancellor Merkel assured asylum for hundreds of thousands of migrants, Obama and Harper were silent on the issue. The appalling numbers tell the story, says Ignatieff- with about 1500 for the U.S. and 166 for the UK, according to news reports. He is very critical of Obama, Cameron and Harper, representing the U.S., UK, and Canada, for doing so little.

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The centre right parties led by Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats lose their commanding position in the European parliament, with new EU elections in May 2019. The EU parliament's 705 seats are to be filled, and the party getting the most seats gets to name the president of the European Commission. The European People's Party which includes Merkel's CDU party has dominated the parliament for two decades, and secured the top posts for European Council and European Commission. Manfred Weber is the new lead candidate of the EPP. The EPP may have to join the Centre left Social Democrats or the pro market Liberals to form a new coalition.