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Local media reports in China say president Xi Jinping has lost some credibility in his efforts to manage the stock market, with the prevailing sentiment that all government decisions require his approval, and the Tinajin warehouse explosion. One of the errors insiders in the Party say was to bring decisions normally under the prime minister Li Keqiang, such as decisions related to economic policy making and financial markets, under committees headed by Xi Jinping. As a result the perception that a good economic team was running the economy has been lost. Experts say the current leadership faces increasing pressure after events in July and August 2015, with sharp slowdown and efforts to use stock markets to reduce debt of state owned companies.

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With the natural disasters following one after the other as hurricanes Milton and Helene have done in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, the dire disaster funding situation at FEMA in 2024 needs to be tackled. The Nation is throwing dollars in wasted spending with capital market misallocation at a time when no provision is made for climate change action in disaster relief. To compound the insult AI billionaires are asking for the equivalent of the GDP of many European nations to fund AI for profit.

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The second wave is here in Britain with Stage 4 "exponential" increase seen in Britain. Cases could rise four fold from over 4000 today, after rising four fold in the last month Aug 20- September 20, and that could make it reach 50,000 cases a day and 200 deaths a day. New restrictions include- Masks required in all retail stores and restaurants and public places. Businesses that breach rules could be closed or shut down. Pubs, bars and restaurants close by 10 pm and only table service. Weddings and receptions limited to 10 people. Individual fines for first time breaches doubled to 200 pounds. Adult indoor team sports not allowed. This is the first response. If infection rates are not down from the over 1 R rate and the transmission increases a national lockdown is considered as the next step. To not harm the economy and strike a delicate balance all who can work from home are encouraged to work from home.      ...

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Hit hard by the pandemic the people of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico are showing less vaccine hesitancy. This is enabling this region to catch up with the US in vaccinations. The difference is that people trust vaccinations. About two thirds of people in Chile and Uruguay are vaccinated. Supplies of vaccine are coming in from US, UK, Russia and China. Brazil is now doing 1.5 million vaccinations a day, compared to 750,000 in US daily. This report says that on a per capita basis taking into account the populations US is currently vaccinating at half the rate of Mexico and a third of the rate in Peru and Colombia, Argentina. With 8% of the population Latin America had one third the deaths making vaccination urgent and essential for this region. People are taking the threat of Delta variant seriously in the region. Astonishing as it may sound after all the publicity of deaths in Brazil this report in WSJ says 88% of people in Brazil want to get vaccinated, while 67% say this in the US, poll from Ipsos. Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Chile all top the US, says WSJ. ...

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This exceptional account by WSJ's Shira Ovide on Microsoft Windows 10 looks at ways CEO Satya Nadella is changing Microsoft's culture and old way of doing business. Microsoft is changing its culture and strategy of charging for all its products. It will let businesses and individual buyers upgrade for free to the new Windows 10 product. This means $500 million less in sales revenues in 2015, but opens up new oppoortunities in sale of add-on apps and services on more devices, such as health sensors and smartphones. The failure to penetrate the smartphone business- with a meager 3% penetration for Windows in smartphones - is a problem facing Microsoft as it competes with Apple, Google and other companies. Terry Myerson describing the thinking behind this change at Microsoft puts it in a cultural perspective, saying that it should result in a more engaged user base. There is a sense that the space Microsoft is in stretches way beyond PC's to all the new computing devices now in place, including smartphones and other devices, with Windows taking up only 15% of these devices. Founder Bill Gates calls this "exciting" and is excited to see the reaction in the market....

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Democrats in the House of Representatives need about five votes of moderate Republicans to get approval for spending that exceeds the debt ceiling if no agreement can be reached with the Republicans under Speaker McCarthy. This is one of the options Democrats under president Biden are keeping open if the spending cuts Republicans are asking for hurts workers and families in ways unacceptable to values of fairness to all segments of society supported by Lincoln, Wilson, FDR and Truman that have shaped America over two hundred years. T Though it is not readily apparent in an America where about 22% of 8th graders are able to get a passing grade in civics and history in NAEP tests, a rereading of the writings and speeches of Abraham Lincoln show the same concern for the rights of all segments of society that are found in Wilson and FDR or Truman. This is also what Biden means when he calls this a struggle for the soul of America. More not less funding for education, more not less funding for health after the pandemic and cost of living crisis, more not less funding for public services at a time like this where there is a fracturing of society as well as isolating certain segments of society from others such as the growing distance between workers and families from places such as Silicon Valley and capital markets in America.  ...

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Dr. Nancy Krieger of the Harvard School of Public Health says data on health risk -including which counties have high rates of health conditions such as obesity and other diseases- should inform targeted interventions and public messaging. This is important for administrators and health authorites in each county and state as they deal with a surge in coronavirus in parts of the U.S. which have so far been only slightly affected such as rural southern and western states. More recently places such as North Dakoa which the virus missed in the early stages are now seeing a jump in cases. This report shows counties in states such as Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, particularly susceptible because of high rates of obesity and other health conditions. In all almost half of the U.S. population has one of these health conditions- obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, lung disease and heart disease.  The high prevalence of obesity which worsens all other health conditions is a result of the lack of healthy food and nutrition, exercize and healthy living habits, that were neglected in the closing decades of the twentieth and early twenty first century. The shift to processed foods is only one of many bad practices that happened in these years. The lack of attention to healthy eating and nutrition, and outdoor exercize has marked this period and created conditions in which the virus could damage health. ...

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Two years after it was launched the Jal Jeevan Mission to bring tap water to every household in India has made significant progress. Only 17% of all rural households had tap water in 2019, today even with covid disruptions 41% of rural households have tap water. 48 million more households have tap water connections added. The goal of Har Ghar Jal (Every home tap water) is now seen as achievable by 2024. Financing in 2021-2022 is increased from 115 billion rupees to 500 billion rupees, quadrupling the financial resources dedicated to providing water to all of India's people. The Swach Bharat Mission Director General, Akshay Rout, shows how this mission for water is moving as as quickly as the open defecation free ODF mission  under SBM. A household in ODF saved Rupees 50,000 a year from cleanliness and medical costs according to UNICEF. A WHO study shows 200,000 diaorrhea deaths prevented. JJM is decentralized, demand driven and community managed. Rout says that setting a deadline and aiming for saturation that leaves on one behind is a good way of tackling critical problems such as hygiene, sanitation and water. He says shoddy implementation or product can be prevented by robust monitoring and supervision systems. By 2019 India had made big achievement in hygiene and clean India campaign with ODF open defecation free achieved under this approach. ...

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Days after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore's outer harbor, a key part of the industrial and jobs infrastructure in Maryland, this WSJ report shows 8 other bridges in the same dilapidated condition and at risk of collapsing. The eight bridges are- The Verrazano Narrows Bridge  NY-NJ,             The George Washington Bridge NY-NJ, The Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland- San Francisco Bridge in California, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state,  the Lewis and Clark Bridge and the St. Johns Bridge in Oregon. Note that all but one are older than Scott Key built in 1977, and all have "fracture critical" elements according to their WSJ report, meaning that even the failure of one steel component in tension could cause a collapse. Jennifer Homendy, chair of NTSB safety authority doing the investigation into Scott Key says that there are 17,000 bridges in the US that are fracture critical, showing how much of US infrastructure is aging and in need of investment that is today being sucked up in mad sprees of venture capital investing in startups, and in misallocation of capital, that contribute little to the ease of living, to jobs and essential infrastructure for the American people.                  ...

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The former interim Speaker Rep. Patrick McHenry, Republican North Carolina, tells a University of Chicago student audience that one can hold off a majority Congressmen only for so long, that there could be a two third majority in the House favoring the Ukraine aid. That bill for $61 billion in Ukraine aid passed the US Senate 70-30 with 22 Republican Senators supporting it but is blocked for 2 weeks by Speaker Mike Johnson for a House vote. Former Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin tell a Washington Post event that House Speaker Mike Johnson has to make up his mind to be decisive and take action that get things done. Ryan served as vice presidential nominee and became Speaker in October 2015 eight years before Mike Johnson in a similar situation where his job depended on different factions. Mike Johnson's view is that he wants to be seen as listening to all members to kind of decentralizing things. Yet as more experienced members of Congress say the only way to get things done is for the Speaker to take action on his own accord and let the situation rest there having done his best. This situation is happening today in the House as about half of all Congressmen in the House of Representatives have not served in Congress before January 2019, says The Washington Post. ...

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Will a war in Ukraine affect the world's food supplies? Yes here is how. It would affect mainly the countries of North Africa that depend on wheat imports from Ukraine and Russia. Egypt is the largest importer. Many of these countries depend on imports to keep their people fed. The cost of shipping it is less from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine and Russia than if this wheat came all the way from America or Australia.  Much of Ukraine's wheat grows in the Kharkiv Oblast region in eastern Ukraine close to the border with Russia. With Russia putting 100,000 troops and prepared for an invasion of Ukraine both sides could be affected. Of the approximately 200 million metric tons of exports of wheat each year Russia and Ukraine make up about 29% or about 65 million metric tons. About two thirds of this from Russia and one third from Ukraine. Prices of wheat are already at an high of $310 a metric ton. Experts say this could double in the case of war or go up 20% even in a minor incursion. Western sanctions would affect Russian exports of wheat on top of the effects of war and devastated agriculture in Ukraine. When there are wars there are ripple effects- in this case all the way to North Africa.  ...

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The FDA has handled the importation of masks from China badly says this report in WSJ. During the shortage FDA let 3500 Chinese manufacturers selling products of wide variations in quality to send masks to the U.S. Millions of these N95 masks are now available imported from China but their reliability is uncertain. The FDA even has the same manufacturers on approved and revoked approval lists creating more confusion. The FDA gave then revoked approval for products that failed quality standards.  The WSJ found that some of the companies given approval early were just weeks old and had not completed quality review by FDA. The WSJ reports that more than 60% of foreign made masks nearly all Chinese made failed basic U.S. government quality tests that reviewed 22 brands according to regulatory data. About one fifths of the makers were just weeks old and others made claims that were simply not correct. The FDA acted in a crisis situation so bad actors could take advantage of the situation say experts.  What happens now. The states of California,Washington and Texas are now checking their supplies of N95 masks to see if all the makers are on authorized lists and not revoked. Many doctors and hospitals are going through much anxiety because of the safety of their N95 masks in close contact situations in eyecare, dental care and other care, is now uncertain. ...

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CBS'S Robert Costa:  What's your suggestion about how she (Kamal Harris) should handle that Republicans are saying she has fumbled the ball on immigration, on border policy? What's the answer for how to define her on herself on that issue? Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer:  The answer is very simple. And that is that Democrats, along with the Biden Harris administration, put together the toughest border policy that would have stopped the flow from the border that we've seen in a very long time. In fact, initially was supported by Republicans. So many of the leading Republicans said, "this is tough, we're all for it," (McConnell, Lankford, others). And then all of a sudden, President Trump says it, he said it explicitly. He said, "I don't want them to solve the problem, I want chaos at the border so I can run on it with the election." We're happy to bring that up. And case after case, when we bring that up, the voters side with us, not with their policies. We were willing to fix the border. Trump and his Republican minions said, don't fix it, we want chaos for political purposes. Who do you think's going to win the argument? ...

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The expected EU turnout in 2024 is at a high of 68 percent. Over the years since its formation the early enthusiasm and vision was replaced by dry directives issued by bureaucrats in Brussels leading to lethargy. 1979's 62 percent voter turnout contrasts with 2014's 48% voter turnout. Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have each in their way created new surge of interest in EU and the parliament in Strasbourg, says Caroline Gruyter from her conversations in France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czech Republic. Today 74% of EU citizens polled say they support the European Union. Similar numbers even in the UK as Labor party is about to come back in a big way.  What happened? The war in Ukraine, Russia and NATO, US and NATO, the UK drift back to EU in sentiment, Italy's conservative parties called Right wing are supporting the EU under Meloni. Another reason for the sense of EU coming back to life comes from my visit to Germany, where after decades of disinvestment in infrastructure the rail station in Frankfurt is being rebuilt and new infrastructure is being built all over the city. Posters all over Frankfurt for EU parliament elections show a new spirit for Respect for workers, working families, and a sense that the FDP, SPD, CDU and Greens can take the decisions to give new vigor to the German democratic process.    ...

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Rosa Chang, immigrant from South Korea, is pursuing her dream of green park space in the middle of Brooklyn's densely packed and traffic filled areas. She is unrelenting giving it her all for over ten years, and keeps this vision alive even today, says John Leland in this NYT report. Rosa Chang sees Gotham Park on 9 acres in Brooklyn that is covered with parking space and six lanes of clattering bridge traffic. Chang is trying to attract $200 million needed for this to happen to add badly needed park space for kids and families in Brooklyn neighborhoods. She has the support of Meera Joshi, deputy mayor of operations, under Mayor Eric Adams, and Dan Doctoroff, deputy mayor under former mayor Michael Bloomberg. Doctoroff who helped create other parks in New York City sees this park could bring in $290 million for local merchants by bringing in Asians, Hispanics and Blacks, Whites all closer together in this space. It would provide green park space for park deprived neighboring communities. Bloomberg and Doctoroff created 7 parks in the city including the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park. It is  people like Chang, who was born in South Korea, grew up in Toronto and visited many cities in Europe and around the world, that understand what livable spaces look like and where green space is essential for kids and families to grow up. ...

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How president Biden is listening to new voices such as Chris Murphy on what economic, social and national model America should base its future on . Tech monopolies, Big Phama, Billionaires paying 8.2% tax and resisting fair taxes, Citizens United keeping out people interested in public service who don't want to raise money from corporations asking favors (Pharma, Tech monopolies). How Biden says his model in a folksy Scranton sort of way about his grandfather saying "Joey just remember" yet has the basics right about investing in the Nation, Fair Taxes that cut Deficits yet rebuild the dilapidated Infrastructure and creates Jobs, Renewable Energy target for 2035 to tackle Climate change.  And Harris as AG bringing her approach to tackle big corporate power and specific down to earth cost of living action +child care action, + housing costs action,  and Walz bringing experience from a large upper midwestern state in implementing climate change action, wage and income improvement, student debt and educational opportunity for all. This is a strong beginning and we build from here as the foundations are laid down for the future to create an Opportunity for All Economy. Making the effort bipartisan in the spirit of the legislation that Biden has achieved with Republicans senior leaders Cornyn, McConnell, and With Lankford on immigration legislation that will be a top priority for Harris to sign into law. ...

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Kamala Harris is profoundly influenced by the Gandhian ideal of public service coming from the influence of her mother Shyamala and her mother's father P. V. Gopalan, who was a leading civil servant in the transition to independence under Gandhi in India in the late 1940's. P.V. Gopalan was 31 years old during the Quit India Movement launched by Mohandas Gandhi in 1942. In this sense what even Martin Luther King Jr experienced about Gandhiji from a distance came to her directly in ways that may be inscrutable even to Kamala herself.  Robert Draper looks at Kamala Harris at different points of her childhood, university education and work as District Attorney for Alameda County, California, and Attorney General of California. He describes her as a daughter of highly educated yet stoic parents and one with a reverence for law and order, methodical and diligent, a caring and compassionate person to the people in the communities she lived in. As one who would experience disrespect as a woman of color many times she chose not to complain but to do something about it in bringing about a better life for all Americans. Not only did she do this, Kamala Harris also was always striving to do better for the people she served, putting all her energies into that task, always keeping in mind "We the People." ...

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Watch Macron take the world on a tour of Notre Dame cathedral. "Sublime," "much more welcoming,"  "more light," are words used to describe the renovation that makes the cathedral more beautiful than before. It was become more touristic before the pandemic, dark spaces inside and cluttered outside in the years before the pandemic. The restoration could not have come at a better time from my personal visits to Notre Dame over 25 years, with the organ music lifting one's spirits in the earlier years. It was restored in 5 years, considered an "insane" challenge. The cost 700 million euros. Donations in euros raised from 150 countries raised 846 million euros. 250 companies and hundreds of experts were involved in the renovation. The organ is restored and will be heard in all its joyful music.  The stained windows have regained color and wall reflect light, dark spaces have more light, brightening up the space inside the cathedral. Pipes system with water is installed that will be used to reduce the damage form a fire. Admission will remain free at the insistence of the diocese of Paris. 14-15 million will now be welcome inside the cathedral form all parts of the world.    ...

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89% in IPSOS poll support deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, says the Washington Post. Americans both Democrats and Republicans want safer neighborhoods. There is majority support to deport all immigrants here illegally. The Washington Post-Ipsos poll in February says 51% of Americans support trying to deport all Americans here illegally estimated at 11 million. Not only this there is something in the air about building a Nation anew- that means a new effort to build cultural literacy is also taking off. Cultural Literacy is a title of a book by H.D. Hirsch, from the 1980's and is a movement about nationhood that is more relevant today than in the 1980's, as the results of three decades of education based on skills development have failed in America's school system for K-12. Content as the core of education was allowed to decline.This has created huge gaps in the nation in communication, in a grasp by succeeding generations of what this Nation was founded on and has been for over two centuries. Waves of immigrants with no knowledge of the culture and language necessary for citizens added to this situation in the educational system has not fostered the integration that happened in the 1850's, 1900's and the 1950's waves of immigration.  ...

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PM makes a point at G7- should not the 1.4 billion people of India most of whom are poor have the same access to energy as the people in the rich countries of the G7? It is to ensure this access to energy for the over 1 billion people in India that India has sourced oil from all countries when geopolitical tensions have made the price of oil to jump to new highs. Modi told a session at the G7 meetings- "All of you will also agree with this that energy access should not be the right of the rich only- a poor family also has the same right to energy. And today when energy prices are sky high due to geopolitical tensions, it is more important to remember this thing." Modi said that it was by "taking inspiration from this principle" that "we delivered LED bulbs and cooking gas door to door in India and showed that millions of tons of carbon emissions can be saved while ensuring energy for the poor." Never before in history has this been done on this scale as hundreds of millions of women have benefitted in poor areas where cooking was done by burning wood, and electricity did not exist. Water by tap water in every home, cooking gas, and electricity are now within the reach of every family in India.  Has G7 even thought of these things? And of the scale of the challenge that is being met and the future challenges for climate, technology and health that are being tackled on an unprecedented scale? ...

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U.S. Vice President Biden and Vice President Xi Jinping visited a high school in Dujianyan, in Sichuan province, China. Xi Jinping is expected to be the new President of China in 2013. This is the first time he has spent extensive time with a U.S. leader. Xi Jinping shared his experiences of meeting with ordinary citizens with Joe Biden. Xi's daughter is a student at Harvard University. He showed considerable interest in the political situation and debt ceiling negotiations in the U.S. Li Keqiang, who is close to Premier Wen Biao, is expected to become prime minister of China in 2013. Li gave a speech to students at the University of Hong Kong during the Biden visit with Jinping, and at one point talked to students in English.

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The value of the gold holdings of the Swiss central bank, the Swiss National Bank, declined by 15 billion Swiss Francs ($16.6 billion) in 2013, as the price of gold declined by 28% in 2013. The loss was much more than gains of 3 billion francs in foreign currency positions and 3 billion francs in profit from sales from a fund holding troubled assets. As a result the bank will not pay dividends fro the first time since its founding in 1907. Prices declined as the Fed announced a policy of reversing its bond buying in 2013. In 2008-2012 the U.S. Fed's bond buying efforts pushed up prices of gold holdings as a hedge against inflationary risks. Signs of economic recovery in the U.S. are likely to lead to further price declines. Purchases of gold made after 2010 are now showing losses. The Russian central bank made 30% of all gold purchases since 2010 made by central banks and reported to the IMF.

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This BBC analysis typical of media reporting that denies the need for level playing field in world trade, asking US to run $1 trillion trade deficits and its manufacturing to wither, American workers to suffer severe wage and job losses. AI won't know.

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All about fair trade with no deficits where possible.