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European leaders emergency meeting Feb 16, 2025, after DJT lead negotiator Lt. Gen Keith Kellogg talks about Ukraine peace talks without Europe. Kellogg said "this will not happen."

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Canada's oil sands is an oil patch with strong climate change effects. As big oil companies under pressure from different groups leave this oil patch, other local companies are stepping in. This WSJ report says these local companies in Canada are pumping more oil from this patch in third quarter 2021 than in the same period in 2020. As long as it is profitable to do so these companies will operate in this patch of Canadian oil sands in Alberta, says the WSJ.

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With misinformation and harassment online  during election year 2024 Annalena Baerbock, foreign minister of Germany, says "democracy did'nt fall from the sky. We have to protect it" Elections take place in Mexico, European Union, India, Britain and France, in 2024 as online media spreads misinformation. Baerbock says the yardstick of women's rights is a crucial one. If women are in danger it is a bad omen for society." Peter Limbourg of DW says "Even in dark times optimism is a better way to handle it. Because pessimists normally do not contribute to solutions." Hendrik Wurst stressed "the critical role of promoting media literacy in the digital age," something that is done through the efforts of Lyrarc.com by bringing in the best articles from leading media publications in the world on all topics to create educated informed mindsets that shape better lives and societies, and by keeping it open to all to access.

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Russia repeats call for retreat from Donbass in peace negotiations Jan 23 2026.

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South Korea's economy contracts 0.1 % in the first quarter of 2025 because of political unrest and Trump tariffs.

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DW.com shows the Straits of Hormuz where the Persian Gulf meets the Gulf of Oman before it meets the Arabian Sea facing India. Ships cross a narrow space of 2 miles in the narrowest point that is 21 miles wide in the Straits of Hormuz. The UAE, Oman face Iran in that area. 20 million barrels of oil by tanker traffic cross the Straits of Hormuz every day. India, China, Japan and EU depend on the Straits of Hormuz for oil supplies making it critical for sea navigation. Iranian parliament  has threatened closing of the Straits as aresponse to the US strike on nuclear weapons development sites. China and India lose cheaper oil supplies from Iran as a result of the Israel-Iran war. Russia, Saudis, UAE, Qatar, gain because it increases the price of oil supplies from Russia. Iran loses a source of oil revenue with damage to its oil facilities. The Israeli economy is resilient and its stock markets are showing rapid growth as the war changes the Gulf region and  Southwest Asia, South Asia moving it in the direction of economic and business deals and agreements that enhance improvement in the lives of the people away from decades of conflict from the colonial era in which the British and the French gained control of the Gulf region and Iraq, Syria after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the anti colonial regimes that failed to provide development, the CIA's intervention under Dulles and Eisenhower to remove the democratically elected government of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 and its repercussions in the Reagan period with Rumsfeld/Reagan compounding that error by supporting Iraq's Hussein leading to 3 decades of loss of American lives in the region's wars and also endangering Israel. ...

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Oil CEO's bet on DJT reviving oil's role to reduce the cost of living is working out in 2025 with more oil and gas production and exports. Leading to a reduction in oil prices.

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Iceland at 20 degrees centigrade or 68 degree F on Christmas eve 2025, shows clear signs of climate change impact. Mosquitoes found for the first time in Iceland. 

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In the flight from San Francisco this lawyer couple in the Bay Area moves to Sonoma working with telecommute several days a week. Exchanging 900 square feet for 1800 square feet and with life in a small town in the middle of nature.

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More evidence in Commerce Department trade figures that president Trump's strategy of imposing tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods and renegotiating trade pacts with Canada, Mexico and South Korea was not sufficient to reverse the huge U.S. trade deficit. The international trade deficit in goods and service increased 19% in December from prior month to $59.8 billion. Excluding services that U.S. sells to foreigners such as tourism, intellectual property and banking, the deficit grew to $891 billion the largest on record.

Mr. Trump's tax policy of increasing the fiscal deficit increased growth in the U.S. at a time when the rest of the world economy was slowing leading to higher demand for imports, and the 4 increases in interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve helped strengthen the U.S. dollar that pushed up imports.

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One can say DJT's warning to US retailers not to increase prices have worked overall. Overall retailers have increased prices only slightly, about 2% since March when DJT announced tariffs. So called old fashioned jawboning did work, as it has with Walmart shown below when DJT admonished Walmart on price increasing strategies. Harvard Pricing Lab experts say retailers have acted cautiously and incrementally because of a lack of clarity on what the tariffs would eventually be, and what impact it would have if it was a negotiating strategy. Here are price increases shown in WSJ Analysis on less expensive items from March 2025 when the DJT tariffs were put in place to July 2025, some of them on basic canned foods made in the US by Campbell Foods and others. Amazon  5% Target      3% Walmart   -2% On less expensive items the prices were reduced slightly- Amazon  cut prices 2% Walmart cut prices   4% Target cut prices       6% Amazon and Target, Walmart operate in slightly different environments. One third of Amazon revenue comes from inexpensive products and it costs more as a percentage of price to ship these products. Walmart and Target operate as brick stores so that some of the lower priced items can get compensated by sales of higher priced items when a shopper makes a trip to the store. Amazon has higher margins on more expensive items so that it is easier to cut prices on these items.    ...

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German Foreign Minister Baerbock is now at the UN as president of the UN General Assembly. In this video she looks at changes needed for the UN to better reflect realities in 2025.

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China is slowing infrastructure projects after loaning $30 billion to Venezuela. As Venezuela's economy declined under Maduro Venezuela is paying this off with oil exports in what is called a creditor trap. Both Russia and China are intent on trade with the US, Russia to open up business and trade and China to preserve it's trading and business relationship for its exports at a difficult time for it's economy. This tacitly preserves the idea of US direction in a beneficial way for the western hemisphere that was part of the message in 1823 by president Monroe to Congress. In the Mexican War, through Manifest Destiny during the administration of James Polk in 1843 this was still the accepted idea when Ulysses Grant a future president and civil war general on the side of Lincoln fought in that war. This brought slavery free, Spanish feudalism free, democratic processes and modernized economies to California, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, much of the West and the Pacific shoreline. Russia hopes to get the US to accept it's aspirations to be a modern Northern power in Europe. The US DJT Republican administration has shown it's respect for Russia in its zone of influence, with it's main objection to Russia in Ukraine being the massive invasion of a neighboring country. When compared to Mexico it was the US replacing the Spanish who had invaded the Aztec tribes in Mexico setting up feudal regimes, not the US invading a neighboring country. The European Union and Germany now bear the burden of defending Western Europe as a European power. The situation is similar in Asia where China has it's area of influence and India, Japan, Australia as Asian powers sharing zones of influence in Asia with China, so that the US can maintain good relations with China including fair trade that brings back it's manufacturing. The US would continue to support Taiwan as an independent country. This balance can ensure peace in the Americas, Europe and Asia as nations modernize and choose better governance under governments that relate to their history and geography, as opposed to Communist and anti-communist or democratic or anti-democratic, when they meet the aspirations of their people.   ...

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China's consumer prices declined by 0.3% in July. There are signs that the economy is slowing. A deflationary trend is taking shape with buyers declining to spend following layoffs at companies, higher unemployment and less growth. Expectations of falling prices could further sap demand worsening the debt situation in China. China's economy has grown in the last decade by assuming ever larger debt burden. The debt in 2022 was three times the GDP of China. Servicing this debt becomes harder when consumer demand is weak. The situation in the US is different with the central bank the US Fed increasing interest rates to lower inflation from 9% in 2022 to 3.2% in July, and expectations of a drop ion inflation with lower shelter costs in rest of 2023.

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Outbound shipments rise 12.7% for China from the prior year in October 2024. How will Trump's tariff plans affect these figures?

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U.S. president Trump pulls back from a threat to pull out of NAFTA trade agreement after calls from U.S. business, and calls from the leaders of Mexico and Canada. Mexico said the threat would hurt constructive negotiations, Mr. Trudeau told Trump it would hurt jobs on both sides of the border. Canada is facing headwinds for growth as business is reluctant to invest under the uncertainty for NAFTA. U.S. businesses lobbied heavily including the American Chamber of Commerce. Trump administration aides say they had used this as an effort to get Congress to act- delays resulting from a 90 day rule and from negotiations not to start till Congress approves of the new trade representative Mr. Lighthizer. Helping the situation was the effort by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross showing Trump the states that had voted for Trump that would lose jobs, and that nothing was to be gained from the action of pulling out when constructive negotiations were possible- and when Mexico and Canada were eager to start negotiations to reach a new agreement. Mexico is also eager to renegotiate NAFTA because president Nieto faces a strong competitor from the left parties in coming national elections. ...

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A younger team from Britain takes on Canadians in curling and loses one more time at Milan Olympics.

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The US Justice Department imposes a $225 million fine on Teva Pharmaceutical and requires it to sell its Pravastatin drug line as part of a deferred prosecution settlement on price fixing charges. The  public was overcharged by $350 million according to a 2020 indictment. Collective fines on price fixing charges in the generic rugs industry amount to $680 million reports WSJ. Teva will also have to donate $50 million to needy patients. This is another way the Biden Justice Department is bringing down the cost of living by keeping a close eye on drug costs pushed up by illegal price fixing.