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Scientific American says 8-11% impact larger emissions under the One Big Beautiful Act than the 61%-66% emissions cut under Biden IRA in 2035 over 2005. What is the reasoning behind DJT Republicans approach? 

Remember that the wealthiest House districts are now in the Democratic party and the working class, rural and poorer districts are now in the Republican party as shown in the recent WSJ analysis.  In this situation after  30-40 increase in the price of groceries, new and used cars, and housing costs 2019-2024 the argument is that American working families need relief. Another factor was the grasp of the fact that for climate change action to work China could not be allowed to build one coal plant a week (95GW of coal electricity capacity in 2024). In 2024 US represented only 12% of global emissions and EU only 6%, China, Russia, India, Brazil etc emitting the rest of 82%. 

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China sees a principal peacemaker role for Ukraine peace settlement with its economic benefits in US/EU trade as foreign policy. NYT's David Sanger reports from the G-7 meetings in Italy in June 2024. He says the G7 sentiment is changing about China in the last few months of 2024 compared to 2023. In 2023 China was seen as a nation that had more in common with the US than Russia considering historical differences between the two nations. As the US veered round to the view China's indirect economic support and its technology was helping Russia in escalating attacks on Kharkiv and the border regions of Ukraine, Europeans were skeptical. No longer, the Europeans now see China's relationship with Russia in the same way. Another change observed is that China is not pursuing a peace settlement participation to end the war by not joining a Swiss effort. Instead says Sanger China is seen as wanting to wait so that at some future date it would be the principal actor in bringing all parties to a peace settlement for Ukraine. With Ukraine facing escalating attacks in the Kharkiv region the mood has changed and China is now seen differently from just a year back. This as shown in the adjoining article in NYT on student exchange for US and China and China's view that racism exists towards Chinese students in the US is affecting the effort for closer understanding between the people's of the two nations sought by the two nations since 1972, and in the interwar period with Gen. Joe Stilwell fighting the Imperial Japanese Army alongside the Chinese people. ...

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The idea here of promoting biodioversity by turning backyard lawns into places of biodiversity. Bringing back natural backyards where biodiversity takes root. A movement to encourage private owners of backyard plots and lawns to corporate campuses to create homegrown national parks. It envisions turning over 40 million acres of lawns in the US to imperiled native plants and trees. The idea is that of a land ethic- we abuse land because we think of it as something we own, not something we share with the rest of humanity just for a while. This way we treat it with the love and respect the land deserves. One way to do this is to design native landscapes as formal gardens so that they do not look so biodiversity plots not look messy. Intentionaly designed elements delineate larger messy wilderness in such biodiversity inclined garden spaces. Do this one small patch of land at a time.

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A nostalgic look back at Sachin Tendulkar and Indian cricket in the Indian Express. A batsmen for the ages. 

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 Donald trumps economic plan would worsen the country's economy through extravagant borrowing and lower economic growth in the long run. Because it lowers taxes by 15 percent without any paired cuts Trump's plan would worsen the deficit, so that large debt would hurt the economy in the long run. Clinton's plan would increase taxes by 4  percent largely on high incomes so as not to hurt consumer spending, with paired spending to help lower income households. Because Trump's tax cuts benefits go disproportionately to higher incomes the benefits in terms of consumer spending are slight or insignificant. In the current state of weak income gains of the last ten years it would take some time for the middle and working class to recover. Clinton's plan carefully nudges that recovery forward without aggravating the debt, so that as incomes and net worth recovers across broad parts of the population, the U.S. is poised to go forward with strong growth as in the postwar years. Trump's plan frontloads tax benefits to higher incomes at the expense of worsening debt and enlarging future debt. In the process it worsens income disparities already aggravated by the 2008 financial crisis. Reducing the chances of a broad based recovery for all parts of the population, necessary for a strong recovery.                       ...

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Redford's "Downhill Racer" and the Sundance Film Festival's origins for low budget films that can be produced by independent producers. Redford learned from his experience in this early film and set about setting up a new location for struggling filmmakers to experiment in filmmaking at Park City, Utah. This was a period in which Redford bought land in Utah's mountains away from the Los Angeles and Santa Monica of his childhood days. With more of the city going into concrete and less green space Redford felt he could not relate to this sprawling city of highways and congested living.

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With America's 11th aid package to Ukraine what are America's goals in Ukraine? "I want be clear about the aims of the United States in these efforts" says president Biden in this extremely important article on June 1 in the New York Times. "It is not the ouster of president Putin."  "It is not to inflict pain on Russia." "We want to see a democratic, independent, sovereign Ukraine with the means to deter aggression and defend itself."

"We are sending a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so that it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table." As Mr. Zelensky has said "this war will only definitively end with diplomacy."

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Inflation is receding as an issue in the 2024 elections as the CPI index dropped below 3% in July as reported by the Labor Department. It was 2.9% lowest since 2021. Greg Ip says when Trump is saying bacon costs 5 times more now he needs to find another supermarket. That is the joke as Trump is really getting ripped off. Ip says bacon prices are up 18% since 2020 when Biden took office. Trump says at rallies grocery prices are up 70%, Ip says fact correction -up 21% since January 2021 not 70%. Trump says gas prices are $5.00 a gallon. Fact correction- gas prices are $3.75 a gallon and falling, says Ip. Trump wildly exaggerates. Trump says he will cut energy and electricity prices by 50% in 12-18 months. His answer "Drill Baby Drill." Experts cited by Greg Ip say even if new offshore and onshore leases are given, increase in supply is marginal and years away. Gas prices are determined by the world price determined by OPEC and Russia, says Ip.  Trump will increase inflation says this report because of tariffs he plans of 60% on imports from China and 10% from other places. That would increase inflation by 1.4 to 1.7% say analysts. Greg Ip of WSJ offers more clues. Inflation linked bonds see inflation dropping to 2.2% in 2025 instead of 2.6% predicted earlier. Jerome Powell at the US central bank the Fed and president Biden hav done their job well and are not letting up, continue to work on it diligently every day. ...

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NYT's Thomas Edsall does a great service to America by pulling together different views on the causes of the alienation of the rural population in the US from the Democratic party. The situation in Wisconsin with Ron Johnson winning in that state on the back of resentment of the rural population is shown. It all started say experts with the the so called Third Way that turned out not to exist of Tony Blair in Britain and Bill Clinton in the US that quietly accepted the Reagan view of the world and moved the Democratic party in a different and unknown direction. Obama made things worse by embracing Tech and tech companies into the Democratic party, and ignored the concerns of rural and agricultural parts of the US. The Obama period continued the Clinton policies of letting China takeover America's position in manufacturing, and allowing the offshoring of much of American industry to China. By not closing the chapter of America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq president Obama lost many critical years. Mr. Biden now has the extraordinary challenge of not meekly accepting what has happened knowing that it is not in the spirit of the party of FDR and Truman, that the Democratic party will stand or fall with the common man, that it will take some time to recover from these missteps, that it is in the interests of America and the American people, and for what America stands for in the world. It is all embodied in what Carl Sandburg once wrote- "The People, Yes!" ...

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Ramachandra Guha comments on the selection of Institutions of Excellence by the Government of India- ten private and ten public institutions- that can be turned into world class leaders in the education field. He says IIT Madras would be a better choice than IIT Delhi, IITMumbai and Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore are considered good choices. The choice on the list of Jio Institute is seen as strange because it is has no students and no campus and still at the concept stage. KREA is a better choice for an education project at an early stage, says Guha.

Institutions not on the list that deserve attention are Ashoka for the best social science departments, Jindal for infrastructure, Azimji Premji for research on policy issues, and Ahmedabad University for innovative trans-disciplinary approach.

 

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The world depends on rare earths supplies for automobiles, mobile phones, and jet planes. The Washington Post says the US can take up the strategic vulnerability challenge presented by rare earth's supplies 80% control by China in 2026. The Washington Post looks at the US Rare Earths planning- US government as buyer, faster permitting and predictable rules needed to setup US supply chain by 2030. China's Rare earths monopoly can be loosened but not in 2 years says the Washington Post. It will take 5-7 years by 2030 or 2032. Countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Brazil are resource rich places where rare earth can be mined by the US. for the US government and US companies. Australia's Lynas is the largest non-Chinese company It has a $96 million contract with the US War Departent. America's MP Materials is building domestic supply and is expanding production at Mountain Pass, California. MP Materials is building a rare earths magnet manufacturing plant in Northlake, Texas for $1.25 billion. MP Materials has a "transformational public-private partnership with the US War Department. As long as the US remains the buyer private companies can step up their development of rare earths around the world in the best locations. European Union and India have a separate plan for rare earths supplies of their own with large investments that should further diversify and create new supply chains for rare earths in Asia, Africa and Latin America. ...

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German Heath Minister Karl Lauterbach says vaccine mandates are the only way out of this pandemic. Speaking to German daily Welt he said, gaining immunity through infection was a "dirty vaccination" that made little sense as it would not protect one against a more harmful variant. He saiid that it "would be naive to think that omicron is the end of the pandemic." Omicron would not make one immune to the next viral variant. "No one can guarantee that a variant will not develop soon that is much more dangerous."

Lauterbach says 25 million doses of the Moderna vaccine have been procured that would be enough for 50 million booster shots to be done in the first quarter of 2022.

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This analysis in The Guardian says prime minister Sunak's strategy in Britain to water down net zero goals and gasoline car phase out deadlines is not likely to prove popular with voters. Mr. Sunak is looking for ways to revive Conservative fortunes after 13 years in power and Labor under Keir Starmer 15-20 percentage points ahead in polls for much of the year. It also comes as Liz Truss is gaining some support inside the Conservative party, leaving Conservatives divided after Boris Johnson's departure.

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Hundreds of thousands of American children are missing after the pandemic. Many are not accounted even when increase in home schooling and private schooling is considered. The Associated Press, Stanford University Big Local News Project and Prof. Dee of Stanford show in their study that 240,000 students in 21 states absence from school could not be explained. In 2023 missing students have become more of a budgeting problem to secure federal and state funds. The actual number of missing students is much higher as this study found that public school enrollment inthe US has fallen in the 2 school years 2019-2020, 2021-2022 by 710,000. Much remains to be done to locate these students so that they are not forgotten. Voice of America ran this story on its Learning English site. The WSJ has an editorial on these missing children today.

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Eminent climate ecologist Nicholas Stern says India's commitment by 2070 demonstrates real leadership from Mr. Modi of India.The Guardian says India's commitment to net zero emissions by 2070 is realistic considering that it is decades away from its peak in economic growth and energy consumption compared to US or even China. Energy consumption is expected to grow faster than any other country in the next few years. India's population is also expected to pass that of China as the largest in the world. The Guardian says climate experts who did the modeling have said this was the most realistic scenario for India - to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. This also means India's peak energy emissions will be reached by 2030. Eminent climate ecologist Nicholas Stern says - "This was a very significant moment for the summit. This action might mean India's annual natural greenhouse gas emissions could peak by 2030. This demonstrates real leadership from a country whose emissions per capita are about one third of the global average."  Also significant is Mr. Modi's pledge to deliver on 5 commitments 1. 50% of India's power to be generated by renewable energy by 2030. 2. Increase of 500 gigawatts of renewable energy including solar by 2030. 3. Reducing carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030. 4. Reduce carbon intensity of the economy by 45% by 2030. This relates to how efficiently energy is used to generate 1 unit of economic GDP. With 1.3 billion people India is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide- at about 3 billion tons- after the US and China. In growth terms this means India is going to grow very differently from the way China did in 2000-2020 with its many highly polluting industrial plants. The head of the US Renewable Energy Agency Mr.Birol says in a BBC intervew that the cement and steel plants alone of China have more emissions than the whole of the European Union's total emissions. Much of this comes from old plants and old technologies with surplus production of steel from what is now a bygone era of excess, inefficiency and chaotic growth. India plans to bring climate change emissions and energy efficiency through renewables into its Gat Shakti master plan for the country's economic.development. ...

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Most Ameicans 60 plus years plan to stay in their bigger homes and not downsize surveys show. These older Ameicans occupy 28% of these homes. Millenials families with children occupy only 14% of homes with 3+ bedrooms. Boomers don't want to give up their lower rate mortgages. They own about 50% of $32 trillion home equity in the US. The result is to make housing supply for families with children tighter than it would otherwise have been.

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The former Surgeon General of the U.S., Vivek Murthy, has tackled issues such as the opioid crisis, obesity and poor health outcomes. In his new book "Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World," Murthy looks at the loneliness he says is pervasive in the new culture of iphones and social media that have perversely reduced not increased social connection and the feelings coming from good relationships and social concerns.  A 2020 Cigna survey shows 61% of American adults are lonely, up from 54% in the 2019 survey. It is not about having a lot of people around you, it is about feeling a genuine connection and the quality of relationships. Murthy finds this lack of genuine social concerns and social connection as fairly pervasive from his conversations with people all across the country. Normally it is felt in the fifties as life changes, and in the eighties with loss of mobility. Today the tech devices and what is called scoal media that appear to have increased communication have actually reduced the level of quality connections and interactions. Dr. Murthy suggests volunteering, and service in the community or larger communities worldwide as a way of breaking this. Capitalizing on informal day to day contacts, including with people one has not known before, is another way. This shifts the focus to the people around us and brings a new dimension and quality to our lives.  Saying hello often and smiling genuinely, says Murthy. Improving the  quality of time in day to relationships is another. This can also give us the confidence to connect with people on a regular basis.  ...

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Why self compassion is so important not just for mental health, but also for resilience and success.

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JN.1 is the latest mutation of the Omicron virus. it is spreading in France and other countries. The NYT looks at this new variant and the threat it poses in November 2023.

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French president Macron makes remarkable efforts to bring Rouhani of Iran and Mr. Trump together for new negotiations. French technicians set up the phone connections between the two leaders at the Millenium hotel where Rouhani was staying in New York for UN General Assembly meetings and Macron personally went to the hotel to get the two to talk. Mr. Trump made the call to Rouhani after talks with Macron. Rouhani however did not accept the call as he said the U.S. had to agree to some preconditions before this could happen.

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The Observer in Britain says Jeremy Hunt's Tory tax cuts will result in further cuts to essential public spending in health and education, and public services to the disadvantaged. Without the funding to improve public infrastructure Britain is getting locked into a painful low growth future. Households are on average 1900 pounds poorer by the end of this parliament compared to December 2019, and weekly earnings will not reach 2008 levels till a full twenty years later in 2028, says The Observer. This is the extent of the damage done by the Tory governments of Cameron, Johnson and Sunak.

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Russian emigration and moving people to the warfront has led to shortages in the labor force. This is creating serious problems for its economy. The number of employees under 35 years dropped by more than 1.3 million to the lowest level since the 1990's according to one estimate. Hundreds of thousands of young people left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Sustaining the war requires huge manpower losses because it is on Ukrainian territory. This acts as a considerable constraint to increasing production in factories says the governor of the central bank, Elvira Nabiullina.

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Strong economic performance means that the US Fed's Powell is "not in a hurry" to raise rates. Powell said "The economy is strong. We see very strong growth." Powell also said about the Fed- "Integrity is everything."