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This report in the WSJ points out that any idea that China as the world's largest importer would support oil prices is misplaced. China's economy is recovering slowly but the impact of the falling demand in U.S. and Europe for Chinese products is likely to keep industrial production at low levels. Other than filling up for storage at low prices China is not likely to support oil prices which are now below $20 for U.S. WTI futures contracts for June. European benchmarks are also at levels similar to U.S. oil prices.

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President Trump says he is considering restoring funding to the WHO, but reduce the overall funding by 90%. He told Lou Dobbs of Fox News he would reduce the funding to 10% of what the U.S. was paying, to bring it to the level China was paying. China pays only 10% of what the U.S. pays and has a much larger influence on the WHO. In this crisis this has affected the normal WHO response to virus epidemics as much of the pre crisis development was missed by the WHO, and the WHO failed to ensure transparency from all its members so that international cooperation could happen very early to prevent the virus from spreading quickly. 

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Since the ouster of Mr. Licht amid falling ratings at CNN and protests by staff, the network is run by Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley, Eric Shearling and David Leavy reporting to Mr. Zaslav head of Warner Brothers Discovery. CNN will now be run by Mark Thompson who ran BBC and New York Times. It comes at an important time for the country as 2024 is an election year. Mr. Licht was a late show producer, Mr. Thompson brings rare and extensive experience running large organizations that cover news for many decades since joining BBC in 1979. He joined as a BBC trainee and over 24 years by 2004 he headed the  vast BBC British network. 

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Benny Gantz, a former Israeli army chief of staff, failed to take advantage of the situation Mr. Netanyahu finds himself in with corruption charges from the Attorney General and a sense that it was time for Israel to move on beyond the Netanyahu years. In a close election contest Mr. Gantz needs to put forward his own message which he is only now beginning to do. He says Mr. Netanyahu's office leaked news of a hack of his mobile phone by Iran which went on the Israeli television network. Mr. Gantz's view of the election is that a clean campaign would resonate with voters after the rough and tumble politics of the Netanyahu years.

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Room for Debate in the New York Times is a running commentary on the news. This is a type of format for opinions of experts on issues in the news, which invites readers to comment. Instead of an article or blog with comments, a range of expert's opinions are presented first before readers are invited to comment, in the hope that readers have a chance to look at the issue from different angles before expressing themselves. Two recent issues were nationalizing the banks, and this one on states setting their own fuel efficiency standards.

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Sebastian Dullien of the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin says the economy is growing strongly at this time as export orders have rebounded and are up 20% over the low point last year and 40% for aut products, but risks loom for the second half of 2010 and 2011 by which time the reduction of the stimulus spending and lower global growth would pose risks. The failure of a bank or a return of the financial crisis in some form could even push the economy into a recession. And even in the first half of next year he sees more layoff as the rebound fall short of the high points of production reached earlier.

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The Trump campaign rally forms the core of a movement that held together and turned into one of the most steadfast movements in modern American political history. It has changed the Republican Party. About 5-10% of the people attending the rallies are steadfast supporters who attend multiple rallies. This WSJ report profiles one attendee who is a 64 year old retiree who trusts Trump to personally deliver the news to her at these rallies. Of the 550 campaign events conducted by Trump 70% are trademark rallies. Most rally diehards are white and many are retired or have the time on their hands, not tied to home, some even live from paycheck to paycheck. Some love the energy, and some even voted for Mr. Obama. Most are not rich by any means, but fed up with Bush and Obama, and what they call "the swamp." 

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A small rise in interest rates of 1% can add about $7 billion to revenues for Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase banks, according to estimates cited in WSJ. This is because short term loans which predominate today can reprice quickly for banks and rates for depositors at banks do not change much. This is a more reliable source of revenue and one on which the banks have depended for much of the past 100 years. The use of complex instruments and shady instruments such as the mortgages devised in the 2009 mortgage financial crisis did little for banks and instead caused a major financial crisis in the shape of economic depression with income and job losses for families and workers in the US and in the rest of the world. Complexity meant less transparency in this context, more chances of messing up finances, and bad news for America and the world.

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How one can meet the needs of older people in small rural communities is the subject of this video report in DW.com. Cottbus is 12 kilometres away and the nearest town to a small rural community Neuhausen in Brandenburg state, Germany. Many older people rely on public transport and there are no stores in the small rural areas. Hildegard Blaske in her 90, still goes cycling, and remembers the time before unification in 1990 when older people still counted in a different way and quaint little stores provided their needs in the area.  

Former Day center employees Ulrich and Cindy use a retrofitted Peugeot Boxer vehicle to take groceries to older people where they live. Older people hesitate to go to stores during the pandemic. And they offer a chat and local news. This kind of effort is also a part of life in France today.

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The U.S. under president Trump ends the 18 year long war with an agreement signed in Qatar between the U.S. and the Taliban. The Taliban are required to fight all forms of terrorism in Afghanistan as part of the agreement. In the first phase of the withdrawal of American troops, a third of the 12,000 American troops will be withdrawn with a similar reduction of NATO forces. This ends a costly war that cost about 1 trillion dollars and acted as a distraction from major problems in America such as aging infrastructure, and problems related to health, education and other services. President Trump was clear about his perception of America's role during a New Delhi news conference. America could not act in a police role for other states and regions, he said.

President Trump has secured support of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and India for the agreement to bring peace to the region.

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Mr. Trump describes himself as a "wartime president" as he prepares to sign a Korean War era measure that allows the U.S. government to ramp up production of medical supplies.  Mr. Trump announced he was preparing to sign the 1950 Defense Production Act, which gives the president powers to direct civilian businesses to meet orders for products necessary for national security.

Mr. Trump is now holding daily news briefings on the emergency which can be seen on many television channels, including CSPAN.

In China factories producing mobil phones and other products were diverted to production of medical supplies and equipment as the coronavirus crisis escalated in February. The Chinese nation was on a war footing leading to the situation today when no new infection cases were reported. Only by doing this could 2 hospitals be built in 2 days in Wuhan to isolate patients. 

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BBC News looks at the situation in Bordeaux, France, after the Front Populaire wins the election. The NFP has a seasoned candidate in this parliamentary seat who can greet people by name. The RN candidate is 18 years old and is new to campaigning, showing that the RN of Le Pen had to field candidates with very little time for preparation in a snap election. People in Bordeaux and NFP supporters say 2025 and 2026 are years in which the Front Populaire has to deliver on cost of living actions to improve the lives of people struggling to make a living. For this to happen Macron has to give the NFP the chance to govern in the interests of the people of France and not obstruct actions needed to tackle cost of living. The Socialist parties have the experience to govern and obstruction would only further reduce the popularity of the Les Republicains and Macron's party.

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A "Best Countries" ranking was announced in Davos forum by U.S. News and World Report and its editor-in-chief, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, in Jan. 2016. This is the first time this rating is being done. It gives top spots to countries based on surveys of 16,000 people, 8000 from informed elites of better educated people, the rest from the public. The rankings are in many categories including quality of life, cultural influence, heritage, entrepreneurship, citizenship, raising kids, green living. Canada takes the top spot for quality of life, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Australia and Netherlands. France takes top spot for cultural influence, Italy for heritage, Germany for entrepreneurship, and second spot for forward looking, Sweden takes top spot for citizenship, raising kids and green living. Japan takes the second spot for green living, Canada takes the fourth spot, with Germany in the third spot, the U.S. and the UK in the top ten for green living. India takes top spot for movers with its rising economy. The U.S. suffers because of its obesity levels in some groups. Overall Germany comes first, Canada second, UK third and U.S. fourth. Overall ratings included correlation with per capita GDP purchasing power parity level figures from the IMF....

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Bump in the Washington Post cites the weekly poll from Gallup showing Trump's job approval rating with Republicans is at 84% among Republicans. Another poll from Survey Monkey shows 75% of Republicans are fine with the firing of FBI Director Comey by Trump. Republicans at this time see the firing as a distraction from other issues on the Republican agenda. Fox News presents a very different version of the story and it is what most Republicans watch. The health care bill from Republicans in Congress and the tax plan are also favored by a majority of Republicans in the polls, says Bump. Independents are wary and skeptical, Republicans see Trump as a way to get their own agenda implemented, and Democrats have serious issues with Trump.

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Stephanie Clifford of the NYT provides this exceptional profile of a low profile prosecutor in action on cases ranging from civil rights to organized crime and terrorism. Clifford describes the calm and rigorous style of Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York as she handled the case of a Haitian immigrant and the New York Police in 1997, rarely bringing up race and focussing on justice and fairness. Other prosecutions included Pedro Espada, a former Democratic New York state senator from the Bronx, and William Boyland Jr., a Democratic assemblyman from Brooklyn, gang and Mafia cases, and terrorism. Her style is to let others take the spotlight including answering questions at news conferences, getting the job done by involving other colleagues and co-workers in a case.

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The turnaround at Ford Motor Company described in Detroit News reporter Bryce Hoffman's book "American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company."

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What happens if Theresa May's deal with the European Union is rejected by parliament. This report in the BBC News says May has several options, including going with no deal Brexit, or shifting her stand for having a customs union with the EU under another name. The second option would tear the Conservative Party apart. Or Delay which this report says is a tactic favored by Theresa May.

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Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar says- “The cessation of firing was agreed between the military commanders of both sides through direct contact.” In fact that is what India asked the US - that Pakistan initiate by its general calling the Indian general asking for the war to stop only then would India agree to stop the war, as India had clearly informed Pakistan that it was not targeting Pakistan military only selected terrorist bases inside Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Jaishankar was responding in an interview with a European news reporter about his question on whether the nuclear aspect was kept in mind. It was an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.  Jaishankar made this clear to Dutch Broadcaster NOS- “We made one thing very clear to everybody who spoke to us, not just the US but to everybody, saying if the Pakistanis want to stop fighting, they need to tell us. We need to hear it from them. Their General has to call up our General and say this. And that is what happened.” "We have sent a clear signal to the terrorists that there is a price to be paid for carrying out such attacks, as they did on us in Kashmir in April. The firing was then started by the Pakistani military. We fired back in self-defense and once the Pakistanis understood that they were taking a harmful course, we were able to stop firing. This situation has not changed for two weeks, that is the status.”   ...

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Wells Fargo's Richard Kovacevich interviewed by Maria Bartiromo. He thinks we're getting close to the bottom and all the bad news means we're gettting to the bottom faster.