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Food security for India comes with the achievements of agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan. Coming from Kumbakonam Tamilnadu, the eminent scientist's father was inspired by the movement of Gandhi for independence. Swaminathan took up the cause of farmers who were the vast part of the population of India in the 1920's when urbanization was just beginning. He studied at agricultural colleges in Coimbatore and New Delhi, and at Cambridge and U of Wisconsin, before heading the Agricultural Research Institute. By the late 1960's he was a leader in India's Green Revolution supported by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in the US.

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The English loss in the 1-1 game with Italy in the Euro soccer finals at Wembley stadium, that was decided in a penalty shootout. Gareth Southgate, the English team manager, talks about his team and how they played to get so close. 

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Florida added three million people and North and South Carolina two million people over the last 20 years from domestic migration mostly from the north and northeast and midwest to south and south east and western US. Places such as Phoenix and Las Vegas in the West have grown rapidly. This has put more people at risk from climate change events across the US, from heat waves lasting 100 days in Phoenix and hurricanes in Florida and the Carolinas.

This NYT report shows maps by county and color, where the people are moving in and moving out. 

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Sharing the waters of the Indus river system means— the ‘Eastern Rivers’, namely Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, for India, and the ‘Western Rivers’ of Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab for Pakistan. Indus Waters Treaty changes proposed by India include bilateral not international arbitration for Indian dam building plans, and using water storage optimally on its side for the western rivers.

The western rivers have four times the water as eastern rivers and dam building technology has evolved over 75 years. The Indus Water Treaty was written by civil engineers but its international arbitration and three levels need to be replaced with bilateral settlement so that India can go ahead with dam building for development without Pakistan simply stalling everything, which serves no purpose for modernization.

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For the first time there is a peaceful transition to a new government in Liberia following the recent election. Mr Weah, a soccer player, won 61% of the vote.

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Even after strong action on tariffs to level the playing field and taking other actions on immigration enforcement on April 25, 2025, US president DJT still has 45% approval rating down from 52% when taking office. Reaching tariff deals with many important nations over the next 3 months will increase DJT approval ratings. The stock markets are down about 10% after strong tariffs action which will take time to yield results by 2026. After many agreements are reached the face of world trade will have changed and manufacturing will be done in the US similar to its role in the mid 20th century, bringing with it jobs and higher wages and better communities for people to live in.

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Angela Merkel said that contact tracing was "above all else" in importance in tracking down infection chains. Apps would not work in Germany because tracking movements and recording information is a sensitive subject in Germany with its history of communism and fascism. Germany still did it but very early on adopted a low tech way that so far is working. Staff from provincial administrations have shifted to do contact tracing work as other work is slow or suspended. Volunteers also have taken up the work. Germany's goal is 5 contact tracers for every 25,000 people- or about 16,000 for a population of 83 million. All the contact tracers have is the phone and a central database of information on the desktop computer as shown here in this report in the Washington Post. There is no advanced technology or software.  Most important say experts is social skills - to talk to people in a way that makes them feel comfortable to share information about how they are and their contacts in a very informal friendly setting, that even includes some humor. Here a contact tracer in Reinikendorf describes the work she is doing and a typical day. There are about 75 contact tracers for 260,0000 people in her area. When she calls someone she notes down what contacts they have had and puts them in Category 1,  2 , or 3 depending on the need for quarantine. The calling is mainly about asking the contact about his or her movements. A contact for more than 15 minutes is Category 1, less than 15 minutes Category 2. The whole conversation is for 10 minutes. Then someone from the health department will call the person contacted everyday. Reickendorf began building up contact tracing in March after an outbreak in a kindergarten was too much for the usual number of health officials to handle. The German trace and quarantine approach, home grown, low tech,  and based on what resources are available, the most important thing being start immediately, has its flaws. Yet it has worked to limit infections and deaths.  In about 65% of cases health authorites have no idea how a person was infected. Asymptomatic carriers are not detected. In some area the resources are limited.  This effort has helped control the virus first cluster in Bavaria at a car part manufacturer. Sixteen people had tested positive and hundreds were quarantined. The German approach is that testing is fine but if you are in quarantine testing is not going to make a difference in spreading. Testing with a negative result is also not helping as it could be that its too early for the infection to register because of the incubation period. ...

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Le Monde looks at falling living standards across the UK. It looks at Essex and Brentwood and other towns outside the metro region of London. The 2009 financial crisis caused by banks was followed in four blows of Cameron's decade of austerity and of not investing in Britain, the upheavals of Brexit, the once in a century pandemic, and now inflation, causing a depressing sight of all lower and middle social classes struggling to make a living. 

Since 2007 real wages in UK have fallen by 3.5%. Between 1970 and 2008 wages grew by 33% every 10 years.

The poorest 10% in Britain have 22% lower purchasing power than the poorest 10% in France, says Torsten Bell of Resolution Foundation, author of report "Stagnation Nation."

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Jack Hughes loses three teeth and yet hits the winning shot in US Olympic finals win 2-1 in overtime against Canada. His big brother Quinn Hughes says of him cited in this report in NYT- "He’s a freaking gamer. He’s always been a gamer. Just mentally tough, been through a lot, loves the game. American hero.”

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The world's first 5 minute city is in Nordhavn, in the industrial port area of Copenhagen. It is the most ambitious urban development project in Scandinavia. Everything you need from office space, coffee places, the harbor for a a swim, and apartment buildings are within a five minute distance.

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Apple shares are down 25% says this WSJ article and asks the question whether Apple's best days are past. In the fastest growing markets in Asia and Africa, Apple iPhones are beyond the reach of about 95% of the population. The number of Apple iPhones sold in India have dropped 40% in 2018 compared to 2017. Apple's market share in India has fallen from 2% to 1%, according to Canalys research firm. The $1.8 billion in Indian sales is about half of what Apple executives had hoped for when Tim Cook visited India in 2016. Some call it a rout. Tim Cook seldom mentions India now. At the center of this is Apple's reluctance to change its business model of getting the highest margins, making not a range of handsets, but a few models selling at high prices. This is the strategy that Apple has used to revive the company from near bankruptcy in 1997. Competitors including Xiaomi, the Apple for China and India, tweak their phones constantly to address local concerns for battery life, and lower prices to get market penetration. Only 24% of Indians have a smartphone and India is fastest growing market. Friction with the Modi government which cannot be favorable to Apple's plans to push a high  margin product when competitors have similar but better value packages.   In price sensitive markets of Africa and Asia most people buy phones outright and use pay as you go plans, Apple is not popular. Even in China Apple's market share is down from 12.5% in 2015 to 8% in 2017, according to Canalys. Apple is reluctant to make many models offering lower prices and to address concerns such as battery life in India. In India 39 million people will add smartphones in 2018 with 75% costing less than $250, 95% costing less than $500. In Apple's lineup the iPhone 7 costs around $550. Competitors such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo, and Vivo flooded India with smartphones costing less than $200. Unlike Apple which spurns market research these companies do extensive research work on local situation. OnePlus has focussed on battery life and gained 30% share of the premium segment to Apple's 25%. By making the devices in India these companies avoid having to pay the 20% tariff. Apple has so far not put up a new plant with the restriction that India places of single brand retailers over 51% foreign owned to buy locally 30% of manufacturing materials. The Modi government felt Apple was not focussed enough on bringing high tech jobs to India and helping local manufacturing, a perception not conducive to expansion in India where "Made in India" is the government plan. This means opening Apple stores in India is less likely now.  The turnover of Apple India executives is also increasing with 3 new CEO's 2017- 2019. Apple's strategy of targeting wealthier Indians makes it not even a fringe player in the Indian market down to 1% of the market. Just as it shrinks in the Chinese market where most customers are price sensitive and the economy is slowing.   ...