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Britain's Home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is setting up a Young Future's unit to help teenagers exposed to social media, mental health issues, and other pressures who could get into trouble with the law. This was seen during the UK riots with persons ages 12-15 in court for throwing stones or rioting. Cooper says- “It’s always been tricky to go through the teenage years, but it feels like for generation Alpha it’s got much, much harder,”  “You’ve got the pressures from social media, county lines and child criminal exploitation, the rise in the antisocial behaviour that we’ve seen, and … pressures on child and adolescent mental health. So we’re responding to that.” Cooper,  announced her goal for a £100m “young futures” policy at last year’s Labour conference.   The home secretary will tell councils and police forces you have till Christmas to put proposals into effect to tackle crime among young people. New Home Office guidelines will be put out by the end of the year setting out how networks of police, mental health professionals, local schools, youth offending teams and charities can work together to help get teenagers avoid crime. ...

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This Editorial in the WSJ says Obama's complete inaction in Syria led to problems later on. It destabilized the entire Middle East in a way that Reagan destabilized the region with intervention in the region. Russian unease with NATO at its borders was not sensed in US and EU- and no efforts to address these concerns to reach an agreement to create the right kind of environment for peaceful coexistence that is only now being beginning to be seen as needed. Other serious consequences were the migration from the Middle East to Europe after Arab Spring in 2011- migration to Greece and Italy and onwards to Hungary, Austria and Germany. During the Merkel years little was done to identify and act on the sources of the problem- instability in the Middle East and Africa and dealing with the problem at the source. This led to AfD in Germany taking up the unease felt by the German people at the size of the illegal migration. This led in ricocheting manner to migration fears in Britain and Reform UK taking up the unease felt by the  British people.  This problem of migration found new sources in 2024- Venezuela and Central America for the US and cross Channel migration in the UK and again it's size stirred up unease- because of the size of illegal migration in the millions. ...

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The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in the UK in its report published on March 29, 2021, says Britain has become a more open society and that racial inequalities in education and employment have narrowed. Bangladeshi, Indian and African backgrounds children are performing better across eight GCSE's using scores on average, than white British children, an amazing story. It says "this should be regarded as a model for white majority countries."  Much of this could be the result of strong families, ethic of hard work, help from the idea that hardship brings virtue, and single minded determination of families and children to excel in studies, showing that obstacles such as language and other economic barriers can not only be overcome but actually be a motivational influence. This should translate into more success in the workplace. The report says this is happening in the workplace with diversity in the professions of medicine, law and teaching, and shrinking pay gap with white population. Criticism persists and is true for the top of the public and private sectors, the report says. Yet it should be uppermost in mind that in terms of number of people benefitted it is important- that the process be strong at the ground level so that the talented individual can then move to the higher ranks. To do this the report says British employers should go for more "evidence-based alternatives" than let "unconscious bias training" prevail without quite realizing that this is happening in the absence of initiative. Much of what happens in Britain is also true for the US and other places with British based educational systems such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. In South Asia there are disadvantaged minorities because of old caste based inequalities and bias. There the problem also has its perverse forms in which politically motivated moves to assign quotas are made before the emphasis on education and investment in education for disadvantaged minorities. This is leading to a general decline in education in government or public schools and reliance on private sector schools to provide quality education. A process seen in Latin American countries such as Mexico and Brazil that also involves public sector unions and their control of who gets hired and how. The result is that huge problems not entirely visible like an iceberg that cripples ships or economies is happening in these countries, and the focus is almost entirely on the disparities in British schools where progress is actually being made with results, intentions backed by will to accomplish. ...

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The UN badge and logo for sustainable development goals is becoming highly popular in Japan. It has 17 colors for the 17 Sustainable Development goals set by the UN- ending poverty, reducing inequality, improving education, other aspirations of the people of the world. It is something India, the US, Canada, Britain ,Germany, France and other nations should adopt in the way Japan has done. India has taken up specific goals, clean India, clean water, electrification, and made it available to all 1.2 billion people, in its own version of SDG. Introduced into Japan by 2016, this badge is now so popular that there it is everywhere says this report in NYT. In children's playgrounds, in comic books, on NHK broadcaster's video with about 1 million views, on Buddhist temple websites, and used by businesses. In 2016 it was made official national policy by Mr Abe's government and a task force established on them by the government. In 2017 it was adopted to its charter by Keidanren, the business federation.  In the US very few know about S.D.G.'s but in community oriented Japan it has been taken up with zeal. It is part of the conversation and one survey shows 40% of Japanese business were working towards the goals in 2021. It has been adopted by Education Canada Network and it is a good way to bring this idea in education to schools and colleges in North America, Britain, EU, India and China, as well as Africa and Latin America, other parts of Asia. In India some of the SDG's are already the focus of campaigns by the Modi government Goal 0  Clean Nation one that has not been coined yet one that is called Clean India or Swacch Bharat Goal 1 Zero Hunger was taken up during the vaccination for covid campaign to get free foodgrains and vegetables to all 1.2 billion people. Goal 2  Clean Water and Sanitation or Har Ghar Jal getting clean tap water to all rural homes by 2024. Goal 3 Infrastructure, Industry, Exports Goal 4 Renewable Energy The sequence is different from the UN SDG's. The difference is it is a goal set for universal meaning everyone and delivery meaning by a specific date, and the priorities are set in the numbering. The Indian SDG campaigns under the Modi government and at federal and state levels are unprecedented in history for a population of this size, and now present a model for all nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America on how to go about doing the SDG's in practice. ...

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Mr. Trump told Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar at the White House he is disappointed with the way Brexit has evolved in the three years since he supported Brexit during the election campaign. Trump said "it is tearing the country apart. Its actually tearing a lot of countries apart."  After a series of votes in the British parliament Trump told reporters he gave May some negotiating advice. "I gave the prime minister my ideas on how to negotiate. I think she would have been successful., she did'nt listen to that." So what happened? What advice did Trump give on negotiating? There are only some hints on this. Theresa May told the BBC in an interview after Trump's visit to London in July 2018- "He told me I should sue the E.U. -not go into negotiations., Sue them."  Trump made a prediction a day after the referendum to Leave saying "the E.U. is going to break up." This was at the time of the financial crisis in the European Union with problems in Greece, Spain and Portugal. Since then the economies of these countries revived. Spain has 3% growth for three years even though it faces fresh elections. In his 2000 book "The America we Deserve" Trump pointed out his sense threat the U.S. should pull back from the E.U and save millions of dollars annually. In recent years he has suggested that the E.U was "a foe"  and "it was formed as a consortium so that it could compete with the United States." The problems in Europe happened in the period 2016-2018 with divisions emerging on the issue of immigration. This wave of immigration was a result of Arab and African conflicts and lag in Africa between development and the rapidly rising population. Chancellor Merkel was ill prepared to handle this wave of immigration and in retrospect her policy did little to address the roots of the problems of immigration from North Africa, a policy later adopted when popular support for immigration of this kind and scale declined. It affected the vote for Brexit playing into deep seated doubts about the benefits of EU membership in parts of Britain.  Mr. Trump supports no-deal Brexit which was defeated by large margins in the British parliament and lacks support across all parts of society, business and political parties in Britain. Trump own sense that Brexit has divided many countries and his dialogue with the Irish prime minister must show an awareness of the views of Ireland about the hard won peace and E.U. borders in Ireland.     ...

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The EU summit under the presidency of Germany completes its task for setting up the European Recovery Fund and providing nonrepayable aid to countries hardest hit by the pandemic that would otherwise have to spiral their already high debt levels to unsustainable levels or provide little assistance to their suffering public. These countries include Italy, Spain, Greece mostly in southern Europe. Also needing aid are eastern European countries Hungary and Poland. For the first time the European Union is jointly taking on this debt of nonrepayable aid to member states most in need. This is a historic step. The Dutch prime minister, almost ruined the solidarity of Europe with his continual effort to cut the amount of funds and place conditions. The Dutch have favored austerity in Europe but at what cost and at what does it say about the Dutch in Europe. Reports show the Netherlands have gained back billions of dollars that would have gone in taxes to the governments of France, Spain and Italy by setting up tax haven. The Netherlands population 17 million, Sweden population 10 million, Denmark population 7 million, together make up less than half the population of any one of the major countries of Europe, Spain and Portugal, France, Germany, Italy. The combined population of about 350 million people in southern, eastern, and western Europe was arrayed against these 34 million northern countries in the long negotiations, that show solidarity but are also a sign of the changes in Europe as these countries in northern Europe were always guided by their own personal or country interest. Rutte fought hard because of elections he faces a second time against the far right wing parties, for a second time since the 2017 election. It could not get more personal than that. Even Britain if it was still in the European Union is likely under Boris Johnson to have reversed policies of Cameron to support solidarity in Europe and aid for recovery, considering how the government has tackled the pandemic in Britain. Setting conditions would only go part of the way is the reality today. The bigger part of preventing mismanaging of funds comes from the individual experience and hardship of people in southern European nations of Italy, Greece, Spain and other countries after the missteps in the eurozone finances in the last two decades. This provides the necessary dose of internal financial discipline. Not acting quickly in solidarity today would have been a serious mistake for Europe. Still Mr. Rutte and the Dutch have cut the European Recovery Fund's nonrepayable aid by 110 billion euros from the initail target set by Macron and Merkel of 500 billion euros. The agreed target now is $390 billion euros. ...

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This story by Asa Fitch of the WSJ shows how NVIDIA co-founder Jensen Huang, built NVIDIA into a major semiconductor company. He did this by developing faster chips for graphics and other uses using parallel processing instead of sequential processing. It is now a rival to Intel as it plans an acquisition of ARM Holdings in Britain. Huang started NVIDIA in 1993 when computer users wanted faster computer graphics.  NVIDIA has about $10 billion in sales compared to larger rival Ital with $72 billion in sales. With its efforts in AI and other tech fields NVIDIA now surpasses Intel in valuation. Softbank bought ARM Holdings in 2016 for $32 billion. It is now looking to sell ARM to NVIDIA or another buyer. Problems it faces in the acquisition is British laws that may decide to prevent approval for sale of the company and the loss of jobs. ARM based in Cambridge has 6700 employees. ARM makes the chips for smartphones. The trade war between the U.S. and China and the sale of ARM chips to Huawei are also factors that will be considered in British approval or disapproval of this sale of a British company owned by Softbank of Japan.  ...

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Britain recorded the most deaths in Europe. Brazil and Russia have over 10,000 cases of coronavirus each, and the U.S. records cases close to that in the peak in April. Cases were up worldwide for May 6 to 92,000 with a quarter of these cases or about 24,000 in the U.S. The jump in cases takes the total to 3.77 million with a third of them in the U.S., according to John Hopkins database. Russia and Brazil had a slow start but are now registering large numbers of cases showing that India and other countries with limited testing could face the same situation. Russia has ramped up testing, and so have the U.S. and the UK. Moscow's mayor Sergei Sobyanin says for example that about 300,000 of the 12 million people in Moscow have the virus based on sampling surveys, more than 3 times the confirmed cases. Restrictions remain in place in Moscow beyond May 11.  Countries that were hit earlier by the virus such as Spain and France are reopening gradually after May 11. France will use red and green zones to handle restrictions so that the restrictions are customized to each place in the country. ...

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This report in the Times says there are divisions in 10 Downing Street, between Mark Sedwill, the top civil servant, and the prime minister, Boris Johnson on implementation of a coronavirus plan, Mr. Sunak the finance minister and Mr. Johnson on reopening of the economy and the spending plans. There are also frustrations among Tory MP's, women, and ministers, who are left out of the centralized decision making where only a few people around Mr. Johnson- Gove, Hancock, Sedwill, Sunak, Cummings - know what is going on.  Mr. Johnson has not rested well says the Times and Mr. Sedwill also had the virus it is reported. Mr. Hancock is not trusted by Tory MP's to execute the plan correctly for testing, tracing and isolation of clusters, crucial to controlling the pandemic and restoring confidence in the economy. Mr. Johnson also face the prospect of an inquiry into nursing homes- he responded to Keir Starmer of the Labor party in parliament that he"bitterly regrets" what happened there. More money is being poured to control this. There is a sentiment of acceptance that Brexit talks are going nowhere and Britain simply walks out with no deal.   ...

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Without government aid about 12 million more people would have fallen into poverty in the US during the pandemic in 2020-2021. This is evident from census figures analyzed in the WSJ and NYT. The Supplemental Poverty Measure -which takes into account a broader range of income and expenses including hundreds of billions of dollars of pandemic aid -shows that poverty actually declined, dropping by 2.9% to 9.1%, as a result of government taking action in the US under the Trump and Biden administrations. The $400 billion  dollars of stimulus checks and aid during the Trump and Biden administrations in 2021 have made a real difference in the lives of not just poor Americans but Americans in the middle class and all sections of society. Similar aid was delivered in the European Union and Britain. In India government aid was distributed by depositing money directly into hundreds of millions of bank accounts of poor and marginal income people. Aid included food aid in grains, lentils and vegetables directly provided at subsidized prices or free by the government. Right wing or left wing government designations were meaningless as governments of different persuasions acted decisively to provide direct and timely help in US, Europe, and India. ...

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Even though Brexit is seen as bad for the British economy from a a loss of trade with the EU of as much as 40% and the gains from Brexit that were expected from free trade deals and deregulation too small or illusory, the pro Brexiters soldier on unswayed by this. Prime minister Theresa May is seen as being able to take this deal with the EU through parliament in a second vote after losing the first vote. Behind this thinking are thoughts about how the opposition under Labour and gains made by Labour in a future election could bring together disparate parts of the Conservative party to get this through parliament. The abolishing of free movement between the EU and Britain, is cited as a gain from Brexit. Yet it is this loss of free movement and losses in trade with the EU that are expected to lead to a loss of 3% in GDP per head for every British person, making ordinary British people poorer. In the absence of a Brexit vote Britons would have an additional 2% of GDP per head, according to the Centre for European Reform, a think tank.    ...

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After years of austerity policies from the Conservative Party, Britain is looking at new ideas to reorganize the economy and society. The 40% of the British vote taken by the Labour Party has given new impetus to think tanks looking at ways to reshape the British economy and society in coming decades. At issue are the effects of austerity in increasing poverty, rising inequality, and fewer protections for working class people.  The new think tanks include Common Wealth which aims at making changes to British business to provide more representation for labour and provide share of ownership to workers in an enterprise. Common Wealth came up with the ideas and policy for the Labour Party's plan to give 10% of ownership equity in large companies to worker owned funds. Mr McDonnell, chief economic policy maker of the Labour Party, has suggested a trial of a universal basic income, which has led to policy ideas and economic framework development from think tanks. A key idea is to frame how these new ideas can be implemented under a future Labour government, now that there is public disillusionment with the Tories under Theresa May.  ...

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This article gives some simple answers to questions about how the NHS test and Trace system setup by Baroness Harding could go so wrong. It was setup as a separate agency and ignored some of the vital information of how contact tracing should be done close to local area coming out of Germany. This information was available early and was also on the Lyrarc site, as Germany had effective contact tracing as early as March-April. First Britain wasted time waiting for some brilliant App to do the work. The when this was going nowhere the NHS Test and Trace was setup but ignored the need for this to be done locally and followed up with personal visits to the homes of those needing to be visited to isolate. Most important- the local knowledge and the persons doing the calling having human skills to get people to cooperate and feel reassured. Less important or not at all- sophisticated equipment, a simple desktop, national database to which data is connected and sourced and a desk, a skilled motivated local person the key. Germany resorted to using the underutilized state or local employees who were diverted to these tasks but extraordinarily effective.  ...

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Most of it is because of Donald Jr. and his affinity for Vance, a bonding that developed once the former president left office. Donald Jr. championed Vance choice over Burghum and Rubio. For the former president the choice was natural because his style fitted that of Vance of saying directly with candor what he thought. Vance's criticism that a second Trump administration focused on tax cuts and not investing in the American economy would not lead to economic growth still rings true as shown in the adjoining article on the US dollar, on inflation moving up with tariffs and job growth affected by lack of the government investing in the economy and American manufacturing. Even in the Depression years Republicans stuck to their idea that governments should stay out, are they likely to change that today? Vance's criticism was made before he became senator, in 2016. It would lead to another lost decade for the American economy and people, and put America just where the Tories have left Britain today so that Keir Starmer's Labour cannot bring immediate relief to the British people struggling with cost of living in 2025, with the mess the Tories have left behind.  ...

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Nizhar Mhani, a 30 year old oral surgeon in Cardiff, Britain, returns to Libya in Febrary as democracy protests erupted in Tripoli. Here he decribes his activities in the Tripoli underground resistance movement. He used a satellite dish to inform people in the capital. His activities included draping the old black, red and green Libyan flag on bridges at night and painting it on roads, and set up loudspeakers on street corners broadcasting the old Libyan national anthem.

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George Bush's legacy in a strong US-India relationship built during the years Bush and Manmohan Singh were the leaders of the two countries. A relationship that owed much to Bush's conviction about the value of partnership with real democracies, with much of the traditions and features common to Britain and the United States and the English speaking peoples. Manmohan Singh's genuine respect for Bush and his policy of building India-US relations, including the nuclear agreement with India.

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The transition for forming Great Britain Railways after three decades of privatization and failed results is now taking shape under Labour. 

The aim is stated in the transition team's messsage-“make the railway simpler and better for everyone”. The GBR website reads: “We are focused on supporting organisations across track and train to work better together to start creating a railway that is easier and better to use; lower cost to taxpayers; better at supporting local and national ambitions; and a simpler sector to work in and do business with.”

The privatization was a mess with failed franchises, delays, and industrial disputes.

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Areddy describes the choices facing China's president Xi Jinping as he faces protests in Hong Kong demanding the resignation of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Protestors are also calling for canceling of a plan to limit nominations for chief executive to a committee loyal to Beijing. Xi Jinping has experience with Hong Kong affairs as he held the portfolio for Hong Kong affairs as part of the leadership when he was vice president. There are precedents where Beijng has changed course, as it sees it important to put memories of Tiananmen protest suppression behind. In 2003 six years after Britain handed Hong Kong to China -under an agreement for "one country, two systems," that granted separate status and system of government to Hong Kong- an anti-subversion law was pulled back. And the unpopular Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, a shipping magnate, resigned after 18 months. Beijing has to balance its concern for the "contagion effect" of protests on other parts of China, with the need to maintain the right climate for business and investment in Hong Kong and other financial centres. With slowing growth and limits to overexpanding credit, a crackdown in Hong Kong would further exacerbate problems with the international community, and create tensions in Taiwan about future reintegration with China. China warned foreigners not to interfere, and the American Consulate in Hong Kong stated it "strongly supports Hong Kong's well-established traditions and Basic Law protections of internationally recognized fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of the press." The British government also pointed to Hong Kong's "fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to demonstrate," which were in the spirit of the 1997 transfer agreement....

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President Macron shows flexibility on pension age being raised from 62 to 64 after two weeks of crippling transport strikes in Paris and on national railways. Some aspects of the pensions reform consolidating 42 different pension schemes into one national pension is broadly supported by the public and the CDFT union. The raising of the pension age for transport employees who often retire in their fifties is also broadly supported. The strikes by the CGT union have about 60% support and Mr. Macron's approval ratings have dropped to 33%, leading to Mr. Macron giving ground.

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The French system what works and what does not work compared to the Anglo-Saxon systems of Britain and the USA. Health care works, public transport and high speed rail works, nuclear energy and the energy industry works, education works for small elite universities but fails in the larger system. The large public projects are executed well, and France has done well with its long tradition of the state building infrastructure projects. But when it comes to individual initiative and starting up new companies such as in computers and high tech of that kind, France does not do so well. And the state collects a larger proportion of taxes than in other countries to finance these benefits. France is also good at rule making, which serves it well in controlling the kinds of bubbles that regularly hit the Anglo-Saxon countries. And with 21% of jobs of all workers in France in the public sector and government, with 49% when one includes related sectors protected from economic downturns, the French workers are much better protected than workers in Britain, USA and other countries from economic downturns. Unemployment stays high in upturns and at 8%, and in downturns does not go too far above 8%....

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Landler and Barry say in this report in the NYT that the situation of government paralysis in the U.S. parallels the one in the UK with no-deal Brexit around the corner. President Trump wants a border wall (steel or other kind) on the border with Mexico as a campaign pledge. In the UK Conservative party faction supporting Leave from the European Union, including supporters of Boris Johnson, seek Leave at all cost. Johnson called the shortage of Mars bars a small inconvenience, as the Theresa May government prepares to push its own Brexit deal through Britain's parliament. In a separate report the NYT tries to show that over 80% of the drugs come in through entry ports and the border crossings are largely families or unaccompanied children. For the first time -since the 1950's and the segregation struggles in the U.S. -populists battle the elites in the large cities, say Barry and Landler. The rural urban divide, is seen in both sides of the Atlantic, in Europe and the U.S. ...

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This report calls for more vigilance on the part of intelligence agencies in Britain even when it comes to referendums and electoral processes, that the intelligence agencies themselves do not want to affect in any way. Only six lines of text could be obtained initially from M5 the UK intelligence service on its vigilance during the EU referendum. Intelligence agencies see this as something of a "hot potato." Staying away from this, though the 55 page Intelligence and Security Committee Report now says the agencies need to be involved to protect the democratic process.