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Discussions between president Ramaphosa of South Africa and DJT center on protecting South Africa's Afrikaaner minority. DJT has protested expropriations of Afrikaaner farms by the govenrment. It also will include trade and efforts to stabilize South Africa's economy which needs US cooperation. Afrikaaners are the Dutch minority that ruled South Africa after the Boer War of 1900 ceded authority from the British to Afrikaaners. South Africa developed a multi racial state after the collapse of Apartheid segregation in 1994, yet the country has faced shortages of energy, mismanagement and minority rights issues since 1994.

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I2 is for Israel and India, U2 for US and the UAE in the I2U2 virtual summit just concluded. UAE will invest $2 billion for food parks in India, to ensure food security for South Asia and Middle East countries. Gujarat will get hybrid renewable energy projects for 300 MW.

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An extraordinary moment in history took place at Rajghat Gandhiji Memorial in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. The leaders of 20 largest nations from all over the world observed a moment of silence after devotional hymns at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. Click on original article to pull up the larger picture and take our On the Spot Quiz on which countries were paired together on either side. On either side of Modi are Widodo (Indonesia) and Lula (Brazil), next to them either side Macron and Biden, Albanese and Sunak, EU's Michel and Leyen , Erdogan and Yeong, Fernandez and Meloni, Qiang and Kishida, Lavrov and Scholz, Sissi and Ramaphosa, Rutte and Trudeau. Can you tell which countries each pair of leaders are from? Answer below for our first On the Spot Quiz. Answer: France and US, Australia and UK, EU's pair, Turkey and South Korea, Argentina and Italy, China and Japan, Russia and Germany, Egypt and South Africa. It is an exceptionally well thought out arrangement. With Indonesia and Brazil on either side of India, you have the core of the aspiring population of 1.7 billion people more than anywhere else on the planet Earth, who think alike, act alike. And next to them are leaders of France and US, Australia and Britain, and the European Union, who are resolutely backing the shift in agenda- debt assistance, tripling renewable energy, and a new infrastructure building effort for ease of living.   ...

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In the manner it has handled Omicron variant South Africa is a beacon of transparency and hope, and of scientific advancement, says this report in the WSJ. Stephanie Nolan in her reports in NYT which Lyrarc commended as exemplary, shows how South African frontline workers were fighting the pandemic, and other reports showed how the scientific community in South Africa was using its advanced labs working with the US and Europe to tackle the variant. This is the opposite of what happened with China, says Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health.

 

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Casey Phair was born in South Korea and came to New Jersey when she was one month old. She plays for South Korea and at 16 she is the youngest player in the World Cup Women 's Soccer in 2023. She plays for a Development Academy that trains young aspiring players in South Korea. More of these academies are cropping up all over the world. Then there is Giulia Dragoni of Italy also 16 years, three Philippines players are teenagers. Linda Calcedo of Columbia is at 18 years the youngest goal scorer. Alyssa Thompson in the US team at 18 years is hoping to replace older players such as Alex Morgan. More talent is coming into the women's soccer game all over the world and the US lead is shrinking. Much of this talent starting at younger ages and players getting better facilities. Countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa are drawing on young players of ethnic links to their home country practicing in the US. This was clear when the Philippines beat New Zealand, Nigeria beat Australia, and the US hung on to a draw with Netherlands. France held to a draw against Jamaica. ...

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US effort to strike economic deals and business deals that will change the direction of South and Southwest Asia in ways that are the need of the hour. DJT replaces the failures of the Republicans under Reagan, and his 1983 Middle East Envoy Donald Rumsfeld, who knowing about the use of chemical weapons intervened on the Iraqi side with arms support that led to the subsequent wars. Rumsfeld was to lead the US into Afghanistan War in 2001 and into Iraq War in 2003 by his Office of Special Plans intelligence. By contrast DJT wound down these wars and is now setting a new path to peace in the Middle East by showing the economic path that India now leads for South Asia, and South west Asia's Saudis, Qatar, UAE and Pakistan. This is a remarkable change for Republicans and the Nation, which has the support of well meaning Democrats, including Biden.

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The US central bank the Fed's Powell leaves interest rates unchanged July 30, 2025- as he waits to see what happens with inflation following tariffs action by DJT to level playing field with EU, Japan, China. A tariff of 15% is set in US Trade Agreements with Japan, EU and South Korea. Powell says the impact on US consumers will be minimal but not zero, with some effects expected even though EU, Japan and South Korea will not attempt to pass through the tariffs and risk the other benefits of trade access to the US market.

Overall both the European Union and the US have a good economy, with inflation at 2% and the the unemployment situation the best it has been in some decades near 6% in EU and near 4% in the US. 

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The ANC loses the 2024 elections in South Africa barely getting 40% of the vote. Jacob Zuma's party MK won 15% of the vote. South Africa faces high unemployment, crime, corruption and mismanagement of the economy.

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As Governor of South Carolina for two terms 2011-2017 Nikki Haley played a major role in getting Boeing to expand its operations in the state and attracting auto companies and other manufacturing industries. South Carolina had suffered from the decline of its textile industry from an earlier industrialization era. She personally helped recruit smaller companies such as Kent Cycle to set up plants in the state.  Nikki Haley's father Ajit Singh Randhawa  is from Amritsar, India, and went to the University of British Columbia on a scholarship for advanced studies in 1964. He was a professor at Punjab Agricultural University before going to Canada. His wife Raj Kaur had a law degree from University of Delhi and after getting a Masters degree in education taught in public schools in South Carolina for 7 years. Ajit Singh moved to South Carolina as a professor of biology at Voorhees College after receiving his PhD. in 1969. Nikki Haley graduated from Clemson University in 1994 with a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance. After working for FCR she joined her family's clothing business started by her mother. From 2005 to 2011 she served in the South Carolina House of Representatives. The report from Politico on Haley's career shows her to be resilient and sticking with her beliefs and principles even as she found herself to be the only immigrant  prominent in southern state politics of South Carolina. She also served as US Representative at the United Nations 2017-2018 following two terms as governor of South Carolina.  ...

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NYT interviews with Biden era officials on mistakes made with immigration - no tough enforcement on illeal migration, no clear policy to stop illegal migration, and failure to anticipate a surge as policies towards migrants were relaxed, appointment as head of Homeland Security of someone who was not tough on migration, delegation of migration to a former AG of California who had no experience in issues raised by high migration. Till it was too late and the public had lost confidence in the Biden administration on this issue and the homeless migrants in cities becoming a major local issue. The last year saw Biden negotiate with Republican Senator from Nebraska on migration which failed to get support in the Republican party and Congress. In this way Biden lost control of the narrative as migration surged and surged by 2023 and 2024. Tackling the Covid pandemic was a major distraction and cost of living affordability crisis also became a major issue leading to the undoing of the Democrats. Second generation Latino Americans from Cuba and Mexico preferred tough policies on illegal migration surges from places such as Guatemala and Venezuela. Democrats lost part of their own base. Rural America and the South, had already made up its mind. ...

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At a time when multilateral financial and other institutions are not working properly on behalf of countries in the Global South, the G20 is seen as the place where the poor countries can find a voice. The African Union was admitted to the G20 nations with the support of India and the US at the New Delhi Summit. Before this the only nation from Africa was South Africa. The other countries are the original G8- US, Canada, Germany, France, European Union, Britain, Italy, Japan. These countries represented the already advanced economies. To these nations were added the newly advanced economies of Russia, South Korea and China, Australia for 11 economies. The 7 rapidly developing nations added are India, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.

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Bruni describes the situation facing Millenials in the U.S., a group of young people who face high student debt and few job opportunities, many stuck in jobs that do not match their qualifications. A similiar situation faces young people in Italy, Spain, France, the UK and other European countries. In South Asia there is an appalling lack of job opportunities to meet the aspirations of young people for a better life.

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There is a marraige strike in South Korea. Daycare centers and kidergardens are being converted into nursing homes. Hawon Jung, former Agence France-Presse reporter in Seoul, is the author of Flowers of Fire. Here she says feminism is not the problem when it comes to declining birthrates in South Korea with the lowest fertility rate in the world at 0.79. She says feminism that gets women a better deal in raising children and better quality of married life is the solution. Violence against women in South Korea's existing culture, women doing three times the chores for raising children than men, and sexism at work that discriminates against young women who are married, are problems that need to be tackled for women to accept marraige as an attractive option, says Ms. Jung.  There is little realization in South Korea that the UN warning of South Korea's population dropping to half of the 51 million today requires solutions of behavioural change more than money ($210 billion have gone to encouraging marraige and births). She says today's response of the Yoon government leveraging the sentiment against women's activism is not going to reverse the marraige strike in South Korea.  Looking at it from the outside world from Europe and the US, from India, Indonesia and Japan, there is no room for  violent gender based violence in modern society. ...

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Map showing most deprived neighborhoods bordering least deprived neighborhoods in the UK in 2025.  In 2019 there were 65 such neighborhoods with posh-poor side by side, in 2025 this has jumped to 119 such neighborhoods. Shown on this map are the familiar areas around New Castle on Tyne and Leeds/ Nottingham in the North and in the Midlands. With fewer such neighborhoods in the south near London. Years of austerity policies of the Cameron/Osborne conservatives and Conservative administrations since have led to a growing divide in the UK. This is also more reason for the Labour Party to get its work together to take strong action similar to the socialist party in Denmark to cut illegal migrants, so that it can focus its efforts to deliver and build a better stronger economy for all people in Britain

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South Korean public opinion shows 80% of the public opposed to the release of slightly radioactive Fukushima water into the sea by Japan. Japanese public opinion is accepting this as unavoidable. This is weakening the position of South Korean president Yoon in coming elections. Yoon is a prosecutor who joined politics only a few years back and has seen his popularity drop by 7 percentage points to 35%. Yoon is known for his effort to bring South Korea and Japan closer together with the US in dealing with North Korea and China. Biden met with Kishida and Yoon at the White House only recently, and Yoon made a state visit to the US before India's Modi. Because Yoon is an outsider to politics he has been able to get South Koreans to accept the idea of settling past disputes with Japan tracing back to the colonial era and World War II, yet the Fukushima water release is opposed by the vast majority of South Koreans.

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It is important to know the cause of 0.3% contraction in first quarter 2025 for US economy. It is says WSJ because of a 5% hit from net exports, the difference between exports and imports, as importers rushed to import more before a tariff deadline. Imports by the US increased by 42% in first quarter 2025. Some include MIchigan Governor Whitmer who supports the tariffs as a way to take back America's industrial base, build factories in the US, say the uncertainty of the way tariffs were implemented is damaging confidence in the economy. For instance could the US have excluded the EU, Japan, UK, India as allies, and focused on China.  The problem with that approach is that it would single out China. It means other nations Japan, South Korea, Germany are not investing in the US, also have used trade for unfair advantage, are not called out. This would put China in an odd position. It is better to call out all who benefited from unfair advantage including China, Germany, Japan South Korea, Taiwan, because this has more credibility, giving all a honest and fair picture that they could then look at themselves in the mirror and correct. In the short run it looks messy, the tariff methods look erratic and back and forth increasing tariffs is also messy and unruy. Yet when every major trading nation knows deep inside that US is only saying it like it is asking only for fairness in trade, it will lead it to negotiate a fair trade agreement with US. ...

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As Russia makes gains in the whole Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine the UK approves use of its long range missiles inside Russia. Biden is on the verge of making a similar decision as Iran sends long range ballistic missiles to Russia according to reports in NYT. Use of American long range missiles is not expected to affect Russia's overall military position in the Donetsk region in the east. The US and president Biden has only reluctantly provided support for use of US weapons systems to not risk escalating the war. Even artillery on the Russian side was off the list of approved use till Russia used it in Kharkiv border region at which point it was approved. Russians see Kiev as the origin of the Russian State in the 1400's, and eastern region of Donetsk as Russian if western Ukraine seeks to join NATO and EU. Britain has opposed Russia since 1750 as it saw Russia as the threat to an Empire it was building in South Asia, in India that financially supported its Empire worldwide. Britain has a long history of engaging Russia in conflict to protect British trade interests and expand its imperial influence as in the Crimean War fought in 1850's against Russia with the French to gain control of the Ottoman Empire and its Arab states for its trade and imperial interests. Republicans other than Mr. Trump and his supporters are for stronger support to Ukraine following US policy of opposing invasion to achieve military goals since 1900 against the Japanese in China and the Vietnam War was fought on the same basis in the 1960's considering the South Vietnamese state as an independent republic, just  invaded by the north, by North Vietnam, just as the US had done in the Korean War between North and South Korea. In the Vietnam War nationalism played apart with the Vietnamese nationalism prevailing by 1970.   ...

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Deep polarization is seen also in South Korea. Policy issues are not being discussed with eligible voters divided evenly among progressives in their 40's and 50's and conservatives over 60 years, and about 20% of the voting public that are independents and younger voters deciding the elections in South Korea. As in the US cost of living is an issue, down to the price of onions of which president Yoon is seen as not paying attention to. Conservative People Power Party of president Yoon is expected to gain only about 100 seats of 300 seats in the National Assembly in the parliamentary election in South Korea. Yoon won in a tight race with Lee a candidate from the Liberal Democratic Party in 2022, which is expected to win about 200 of 300 Assembly seats. Yoon is building a close relationship with the US and Japan and visited the US for talks with Biden. The election is not expected to affect the close relations of US with South Korea. It reflects the polarization in South Korea, Yoon's effort for corporate tax cuts may not go through. The opposition has made allegations of corruption and abuse of power, and the cost of living, as campaign issues. About a third of 44 million eligible voters have cast votes. Younger voters and moderates appear not to trust Yoon. ...

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What would making a new vaccine for the Omicron South African variant look like? How long will it take and how does it happen? Adam Whipple, Science Editor of The Times, looks at the process in the 100 days it would take Pfizer to do this in this excellent article that anticipates and answers readers questions. New mutations are shown to be taking place in the virus, it is shown here that UK and world capabilities have also increased to tackle the problem in the last 18 months.

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The dangers to public health from Tobacco use in China are huge. About 1 in 3 cigarettes in the world are smoked in China says the WHO prominently on its site. The result high levels of cancer, lung and heart disease that could be prevented. A similar situation exists in India and South Korea. Asian countries have performed badly in tobacco use and production creating catastrophic public health risks, even countries that have adopted new technologies and caught up with Europe and the US. 

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The third or booster dose of vaccine is needed to take out the Omicron variant. The UK Health Security Agency analyzed data from 581 Omicron cases and thousands of Delta cases to calculate how effective vaccines such as Pfizer and Astra Zeneca were against the Omicron variant. This early analysis shows a third booster dose prevents around 75% of people from getting any coronavirus symptoms. The double dose of the vaccine however provides good protection against severe coronavirus that needed hospital treatment says the UK Health Security Agency. Of equal concern is the rate of spread of the Omicron variant. Here this BBC report shows graphs of UK National Health Security Agency which show the rate of spread is rapid with cases doubling every 2-3 days. For the UK which on December 10 had about 1265 cases this means says this BBC report that the number of Omicron cases could be well above 100,000 in the UK by the end of December. The BBC graph shows the curve for Omicron cases moving in a close to vertical direction upwards. Reports say the experience in South Africa where the Omicron variant was first detected is similar in pattern causing rapid spread. ...

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Eric Schmidt, former chairman of Google, says that dependency taken to this extreme where TSMC makes 92% of the advanced semiconductors needed for every smartphone, laptop and missile systems, needs to be quickly corrected. He says America's technology advantage could face serious damage with the Taiwanese production lost in the event of war or missile attack. The supply chain is already at risk with over 70% of supplies of silicon, tungsten, and gallium in the supply chain under China's control. Surprisingly Schmidt does not ask for action beyond Congress authorizing the $50 billion investment proposed for American manufacturing of semiconductors. What is needed as Andy Kessler has proposed in WSJ is to ask Taiwan and South Korea to invest in the US and allies such as  India where production cost challenges can be met with the engineering manpower and facilities as has been done in health care and vaccines manufacturing. Only token or small investments have been made by South Korea and Taiwan in the US compared to what is required. The US should ask for this to be done as part of the exchange for security guarantees that the US is already making for South Korea and Taiwan. It is also the responsibility of South Korea and Taiwan to make these and other investments in other technologies considering it as its obligation to the Free World. For too long countries in Asia that have benefited from US assistance have ignored their reciprocal obligations to the US. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China have all benefited from US technology sharing and assistance. It is only an egregious example that China has put itself in the situation where Japan found itself or placed itself in the first half of the twentieth century.  ...

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A UN Security Council ceasefire resolution passes with the US abstaining. It passed 14-0 including Algeria the only Arab country in the Security Council vote. It calls for immediate ceasefire and immediate release of all hostages. The other countries in the non permanent 10 members included Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Slovenia, Guyana, Mozambique. This resolution supports the US efforts through working with Qatar and Egypt to reach a solution with a ceasefire and humanitarian assistance to the civilian population.

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The Indian Express looks at the migration to European Union countries from Asian countries. Entry points include Serbia in Eastern Europe with tourist history built for entry. Routes that are long and hazardous. The lack of rapid industrialization and development in Asian countries leads to a flow of migrants to the EU and the US. Better management of this flow requires stable and good governance in Asian states and willingness of the EU and the US to share technology and invest in South Asian and South east Asian nations. Reports of Vietnamese or Indian immigrants in cramped spaces hidden in trucks or lorries, shows how the welfarism or handing out of government benefits is not the answer to the need for rapid industrial development and investment in infrastructure needed in South Asia and South East Asia. With accelerated development made possible with business in the EU and the US investing in manufacturing  in this part of the world. This is also part of what is seen as diversification of American and EU investment so that manufacturing is not simply concentrated in one Asian country. ...

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The Biden vaccination target of 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated with one dose by July 4, 2021 remains elusive as vaccination rates have dropped. From a high of 2 million a day vaccinations have dropped to 400,000 a day during the first week of June 2021. Vaccination skepticism particularly in the south and western part of the US is making it harder to vaccinate the rest of the US population. This poses increasing risks as the new variants of the virus such as the Delta variant found in India, and now the most widely prevalent strain of virus in the UK, remain a serious problem. The unvaccinated population in the US is too large for any degree of safety in numbers vaccinated. Consider that at the press briefing given by the White House on June 3, 2021, only 28 states out of 51 states have fully vaccinated 50% or more of their population. There is a large variation between different states with states in the south such as Mississippi as low as 34% at least one dose and a similar situation in Alabama. In Arkansas, Georgia, Carolinas, and Louisiana  it is higher at about 50% with at least one dose. Even these figures are deceiving as in some parishes in Louisiana only 20% have even one dose. Studies show that only after the second dose are enough antibodies released to protect well against coronavirus. This is why vaccine experts at Baylor College of Medicine cited in NYT foresee a second wave in the southern US because of the South so underachieving in the case of vaccination.  ...