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DJT announces actions on Liberation Day, April 2, 2025 freeing America on attacks on its manufacturing base and its workers for 50 years since the 1970's. He announces reciprocal tariffs on all nations with large trading imbalances with the US, a 34% tariff on China and a 20% tariff on all imports from the European Union. These nations he says have taken advantage of the US and looted and pillaged the US workers and communities for decades mainly because of the presidents who sat in the White House executive room and allowed this to happen. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advised all trading nations-  "My advice to every country right now is, do not retaliate." His advice- "sit back, take it in.... Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation". The US is in no mood to be lectured or retaliated when these countries including China, Japan, South Korea and the EU, Taiwan, India a list of about 20 nations have taken unfair advantage of the US in trade for 3 decades. ...

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Even with a 2024 2.4% general pay raise and 10% for junior enlisted in US military 25% of servicemen experience food insecurity or need food pantries. This WSJ report looks at the problem. It is simply outrageous that this should happen in 2025.

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GE Appliances now owned by China's Haier Smart Home to invest $3 billion to modernize US factories after DJT Tariffs. It shows that Tariffs are leading to reshoring to the US by Chinese companies along wiht Japanese and European ones.

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Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is shown to be 90% effective in results from Phase 3 trials. The findings come from a preliminary look at the first 94 infections in a group of 44,000 people in the trial. The vast majority of the cases received a control instead of vaccine. A vaccine is considered effective if it works on 50% of cases. The Pfizer vaccine is based on an experimental "mRNa" technology.

Britain has ordered 5 million till the end of 2020 and another 20 million for 2021. In total Pfizer plans to make a billion doses of the vaccine by 2021.

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This article in The Guardian on the lifting of the ban on a kind of risky research on virus in labs that involves increasing the power of pathogenic virus, first appeared on March 9, 2016. It is called gain of function research. The ban was lifted in 2018. It shows how fiercely this decision was opposed in the scientific community, even as some virologists and bureaucrats went ahead. An agency National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, going by the acronym NSABB would make the recommendations to National Institutes of Health or NIH agency, and the Health Ministry in the US called the HHS.

 

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The Swachh Bharat mission on the 150th anniversary of Gandhi, ODF Gandhi@150 mission with target date of October 2, 2019. This report in the Indian Express looks at how this was achieved and the way it was implemented with 1 lakh crore funding, participation and partnerships, leadership at multiple levels, and 1 lakh Swachhgrahis trained to implement this.

Mohandas Gandhi always looked at open defecation as an insult to human dignity and this has been a transformatory challenge for India, and one of the key successes of recent years showing that things that should be done can be done in India.

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Chloe Kelly of England soccer plays a key role with her self belief, energy and pace in Euro Finals 2025 against Sweden in a come from behind second half, against Italy, and now in a come from behind against Spain in the second half. She makes the pass that Russo heads into the net for 1-1 going into after time. She comes in after Lauren James ankle injury and immediately makes a difference with her pace attacking with Hemp and Bronze the back line of Paredes and Batlle of Spain.

England beat Spain 3-1 on penalties with Chloe Kelly making the winning penalty kick.

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New graduates 22-26 years are facing a tough job market in June 2025. The US job market deteriorates for new graduates in the first quarter 2025. Companies are hesitant to hire new people with no experience.  The job market for 26-34 years and 35-44 years is a lot better. In fact for 35-44 years it is about 2% unemployment and for 26-34 years it is about 3% unemployment rate, compared to 6.6% for new graduates.

For high school graduates 18 years old unemployment rate is 14.5% and most high school graduates live with their parents.

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A new covid variant from South African province of Gauteng with an unusual collection of mutations is leading to UK and Israel shutting down flights from South Africa.

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German chancellor Merkel imposes a partial lockdown in Germany starting November 2. This is followed by an announcement of a lockdown across France by president Macron. On October 28 German daily cases went above 14,000. Only 25% of intensive care beds are now available, creating a very serious situation. Meetings in public will be restricted to just two households of up to 10 people total. No crowds at sports events. Restaurants and bars will close except for take away. Schools and kindergartens will remain open. Church services and protests will be allowed to continue. Shops will remain open with one customer for every 10 square meters or 108 square feet. Merkel called it a "very serious situation," and said "we must act now to avoid an acute national health emergency." She told Germans the number of people in intensive care units has doubled in last 10 days, and in many areas it was no longer possible to track and trace infection chains. In 75% of the cases the source of infection is unknown. People are encouraged to work from home and companies encouraged to make this happen. Companies with less than 50 employees and self-employed will get support from the government with  about 75%% of the income. Companies, institutions and clubs will also get federal aid. About $10 billion euros are set aside for this aid. ...

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PM Modi makes changes in his cabinet of ministers with new ministers brought in and some ministers in the current cabinet asked to leave. Javadekar  in Information and Broadcasting ministry, Harsh Vardhan at the Health Ministry, and Ravi Shankar Prasad at IT and Law ministry, Ramesh Pokhriyal at HRD were replaced. Seven cabinet ministers were replaced including social justice and empowerment, and chemicals and fertilizers. Jaishankar at Ministry of External Affairs, Rajnath Singh at Defense, and Sitharaman at Finance, Amit Shah at Home are in the core of ministers who will continue in their roles. Dharmendra Pradhan is new Education minister, Mansukh Mandavia in charge of Health and chemicals and fertilizers, Kiran Rijjuju is Law minister, Giriraj Singh new Rural Development minister. Ashwini Vaishnaw from the IAS is the new Minister of Railways. The main idea of these changes is to bring in younger ministers and give them 3 years of experience before the next parliamentary elections, and to replace ministers who have not accomplished much. Some appointments such as the civil aviation ministry went to persons who supported the state government in Madhya Pradesh, and similar appointments for Bihar. A Dalit leader Virender Kumar is the new Social Justice and Empowerment minister, and this is a way to increase the support in the OBC or backward caste communities which get greater participation.     ...

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Set a big goal, achieve it and set an even bigger goal- this is the way the PM is setting out to tackle the challenge of Vikshit or Developed Bharat by 2047. 2024 is next step followed by plan to 2030. PM Modi highlights important aspects of the Budget in his comments on the Indian Budget for 2024. The detailed Budget will come after a new government is formed. This provides an outline of the government's key priorities and investment in priorities. The focus is on the youth the next generation for opportunities, the farmers, the poor and the middle class. Investment will increase by 11% in 2024 over the prior year with expenditures of 1.1 million crores. Targets are set for delivering in housing from 40 million houses delivered to add 20 million more houses, for women setting up small business from 20 million lakhpatis to add 10 million more lakhpatis.  For the youth research and innovation budget capital allocation of $1 billion. Manufacturing of 40,000 railway bogies or railcars for the new Vande Bharat trains. Roof Top Solar campaign will give 10 million families free electricity as well as income of Rs 18,000 to sell surplus energy to the electric grid. Income tax remission for 10 million families. ...

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This Biden Xi meeting at Woodside, California, November 19, 2023, sets the stage for US- China relations to 2050. It is a momentous event.     Biden: "We have a responsibility to our people and the world to work together when it is in our interest to do so. And the critical global challenges we face, from climate change to counter narcotics to artificial intelligence, require our joint efforts."                                                                      Xi Jinping: The China-U.S. relationship, which is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, should be perceived and envisioned in a broad context of the — of the accelerating global transformations unseen in a century.  It should develop in a way that benefits our two peoples and fulfills our responsibility for human progress." "I am still of the view that major-country competition is not the prevailing trend of current times and cannot solve the problems facing China and the United States or the world at large.  Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other."     ...

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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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For eight long years for event after event, rally after rally, and debate after debate the US journalism community failed over and over again to correct misstatements and wild exaggeration made by the first candidate and then former president Trump. David Muir and Linsey Davis maybe remembered in history for setting the record straight for the first time in 9 long years as they corrected every false statement or exaggeration in the Pittsburgh Harris Trump television debate. NYT reports Trump stated that a governor had supported killing of babies. Linsey Davis- “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”  Trump painted a portrait of an America besieged by migrant crime. David Muir- “As you know, the F.B.I. says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.” Time and again during the debate Linsey Davis and David Muir corrected misstatement of facts. Something amazingly- and a huge comment on the way reporting has been practiced in America on its very real problems and opportunity, on its frustrations and its possibilities- that amazingly had never happened till September 10 in Pittsburgh. Global literacy, cultural literacy in America, can only grow and thrive when statements are made by correct observation as in a society based on science and technology. ...

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"Favorable" District courts are now being used to support illegal migration into the US that was rejected in the 2024 election. A District Court in DC makes a ruling on ending asylum "invasion" of US southern border, by questioning that millions of illegal migrants entering in one year alone is an "invasion." Even though it is publicly known that over 2.4 million people crossed the US southern border in fiscal year 2023. These District Court rulings are being given high priority by the US Supreme Court.  In the most recent ruling from last week the SC stated in a 6-3 decision written by Justice Coney Barrett on birthright citizenship that the law on the lawsuits can apply to the individual case not  be converted into a national injunction.  The situation of asylum seeking deteriorated in three ways, the Mexican government of president Lopez Obrador, Alejandro Mayorkas as Biden's selection for Homeland Security, himself an immigrant from Cuba, and the Biden administration not grasping the true extent of the crisis at the southern border with the unsettled situation in central America and the economic disaster in Venezuela. For the first time in the 400 year history of this hemisphere since the Spanish colonization by 1600 and American independence by 1800 the ideas of the Monroe Doctrine of the US protecting this hemisphere were ignored leading to the disastrous situation at the US borders, leading to fentanyl and illegal migration of such proportions. As a result of the election of 2024 and the public view of illegal migration the DJT administration is taking the approach taken by president Eisenhower in 1952 in Operation Wetback, seeking to return illegal migrants to their home countries.   ...

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Venezuelan illegal immigrant lawsuit reaches US Supreme Court for birthright citizenship. What did the US Supreme Court rule? Alongside we provide the summary of the US Supreme Court landmark decision which is coming in two parts, this being just the first. Simply stated the US SC ruled that district courts can give the plaintiffs relief in their individual circumstances but do not have the authority to extend this to into a "universal injunction." Three states and a Venezuelan illegal immigrant allowed into the US under the asylum policy make the case. And each case may have individual merits but does it apply to a whole geopolitical event? Yet the sheer numbers, the scale running into millions of people, amounting to it being an invasion, a geopolitical event resulting from Bush-Obama-Trump-Biden failures to assert the Monroe Doctrine and prevent intervention by foreign, specifically European powers in the affairs of the American continent. Yet at no point in the administration of the last 9 years has this situation been anticipated or this situation been singled out as one that no asylum policy of any nation is designed to tackle. The efforts to fix things as far away as the mountains of the Hindu Kush have frittered away the important resources of the US military to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. It can be said that the basic error was not to see president Monroe's policy for what it was - an effort to prevent the French, the Spanish or some other European power to bring back colonial rule or in some ways unsettle the affairs on this continent. The US Supreme Court is aware of the surroundings of this event as it takes up the issues of immigration and efforts by foreign powers to unsettle the fabric of the Nation. ...

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Dina Asher-Smith, Britain's greatest sprinter is bouncing back in the 200 metres sprint after the Tokyo Olympics. Here she talks to Sean Ingle in the Guardian.  Much of what she says from her experience and what she has learned is valuable for people working in all walks of life. How do you take the ups and downs (she did not do well at the Tokyo Olympics) and what is the best way to be? On the best way to be- "As a sprinter I want to be light, and bouncy and carefree. So you can't run fast with baggage. It's really unhealthy. You just gotta throw it out. What happened in Tokyo doesn't affect my calibre. It doesn't affect the  work I put in, or my potential. It was just really unfortunate timing. I'm not the first person it has happened to and certainly not the last." She says one never knows what someone else is facing behind the scenes. Nobody is truly unbeatable, and everything is always up for play, even if the odds look to be infinitely stacked against you. That is why she says she approaches every race as a clean slate. And that is why she does not bring whatever  happened last year to this year. And on that last bit of effort she says- "You have to stay focused, be humble and hungry, to keep finding those 0.01 seconds in every phase, and every step you do." ...

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Two professors from Northwestern University from Slavic Languages and Literature, and from Economics, look at the cultural outlook of Russians in the recent period of the Bolsheviks and of Putin, that takes on a attitude of ruthlessness in the Bolshevik period writings of Sholokhov and Lenin. They contrast it with the works of other writers in Russian literature such as Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekov, which provide the basis of humanism and concern for individual suffering. Morson and Schapiro say Russia is different in that unlike the US and to some extent Britain and the Netherlands which are commercial societies based on a shopkeepers mentality of trade and commerce, Russia tends to look at the state in a different way. Individual interests are not paramount according to this view in Russia, it is the state that matters.  Yet this has limited use as theory because it is also true that a lot is shared by all human beings and societies. There is a English saying that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Leaders start out differently and change over long periods of power, the power tends to isolate them and corrupt them. Mistakes are made after decades in power that can push back the country's development. The Russian president is no exception and may have understood history and literature in a Russian context but long periods of power may have led to the kind of isolation that led to the severe miscalculation in Ukraine leading to a prolonged war and so much destruction on all sides. This has extended to the effects of the war in countries that depend on wheat from Russia such as Turkey, Egypt and much of the Middle East and Africa.         ...

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The reference Bazooka man comes from Scholz's hard work putting together the 750 billion euro funding package to help German businesses and workers survive the coronavirus pandemic. At the time Scholz said-"This is the bazooka that's needed to get the job done. We are putting all our weapons on the table to show that we are strong enough to overcome any economic challenge that this problem might pose." Scholz gets high marks for his hard work during the Covid crisis as finance minister putting together the funding packages. This BBC report says Scholz chaired cabinet meetings when Merkl went into self-isolation as a precaution. BBC says it gave Scholz the platform he needed to go back to his roots as Mayor of Hamburg when he stood up for social cohesion and help for workers and families. Before he announced his SPD candidacy when asked if he would run he would say - "we need to work, not indulge in vanities." Scholz also played an important role in European solidarity. He was the lead architect with France of the European Union 750 billion euro recovery fund. This brings him strong praise from France, and also support from Italy, Spain, Portugal and other countries in the EU. French foreign minister Bruno Lemaire has praise not only for Olaf Scholz but also for his brother Jens Scholz, who airlifted 6 critically ill French patients to an hospital in Kiel. Says Lemaire "It really is a great German family." Scholz grew up in Hamburg, becoming a Socialist youth leader and studying labor law. He was Mayor of Hamburg from 2011 to 2018. In 1998 he entered the German parliament, the Bundestag.   ...

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David Gelles interviews heads of companies in his column for the New York Times called Corner Office. Here he talks about CEO's frquently bringing up the topic of meditation in his interviews. Gelles practices meditation and mindfulness since his college years when he spent junior year in India at Buddhist monasteries and retreats as part of the Antioch Buddhist Studies Program. He is also the author of columns in the NYT on meditation and mindfulness.  The head of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, tells Gelles that meditation practice helps him step back and listen deeply with a beginners mind aware of the present moment. Benioff has set up meditation rooms in Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, and invites Buddhist monks to his house.  After a skiing accident in 2004 Marc Bertolini, head of insurance company Aetna recovered using meditation practice. He setup mindfulness classes at Aetna and says this has changed the corporate culture for the better with efforts for improvement and people coming up to him with new ideas.  Designer Eileen Fisher practices meditation and this has helped her in business as she set goals to improve factory conditions for clothing workers in China. The head of Hyatt Hotels says mindfulness is helpful in bringing empathy in relations through the practice of being in the present. He made mindfulness the key part of the company's Wellness programs. Google, Ford and McKinsey now offer meditation programs in the office. Similar trends are taking place in Europe. When asked about a company's responsibility to society, Benioff of Salesforce says his company is part of the whole that includes society, that we are all connected and part of the one.     ...

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Mark Hulbert points to the comparison of financial ratios in Dec 1999 when the Nasdaq Composite Index reached 4000, with the situation in November 2013 when the Index again crossed 4000. He cites the changes from P/E ratios for trailing earnings at 30 in 1999 compared to 20 in 2013 for the Nasdaq Index, Shiller cyclically adjusted P/E ratios at 44 in 1999 compared 24 in 2013, Price/Book ratios at 5.1 in 1999 compared to 2.6 in 2013, and Price to Sales ratios at 2.4 in 1999 compared to 1.6 in 2013. The broad market could still be overvalued says Hulbert, but the Nasdaq index shows tech companies not speculatively driven up in the way they were in 1999.

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Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand have redefined citizenship so that it is along blood lines, and not birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution was passed by Congress in 1866 and ratified by the States in 1868. It uses the words-"All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction therof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."  The US Supreme Court will have to interpret this language and intent of the Amendment whether they intended it to apply to children of unauthorized migrants coming illegally into the country. At the time it was passed after the Civil War it was intended to emancipate freed black slaves and give children of freed slaves citizenship and rights. Congress, the States and the Supreme Court will have to consider whether the situation intended to be addressed in 14th Amendment was slavery and not the refugees and economic driven illegal migrants flowing in at the rate of 1-2 million a year as happened in 2021-2023. The Supreme Court in its Wong Kim Ark decision in 1898 supported the 14th Amendment at a time when illegal entry into the US was a tiny fraction of what it is today.   The 14th Amendment included under Section 4 on Debt the words- "Neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void." The 14th Amendment was  in its intent designed to complete the work of the Civil War to free black slaves and give them the rights of citizenship. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution Section 1 says- "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." ...

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How a small Vermont town with fall foliage gets inundated by tourists when social media gets into the picture. Cloudland road is now closed to tourists from other states.

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The US Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland file the second lawsuit against Google seeking the breakup of Google. It is joined by 8 states in this lawsuit including the states of New York and California. The lawsuit seeks the divestiture of Double Click and other acquisitions that helped Google establish its monopoly in online advertising. It covers the ad brokering business that makes up 12% of Google revenues. 

In filing the lawsuit Attorney General Merrick Garland said:

"For 15 years Google has pursued a course of anticompetitive conduct that has allowed it to halt the rise of rival technologies, manipulate auction mechanics, insulate itself from competition, and forced advertisers and publishers to use its tools.

Google has engaged in exclusionary conduct that has severely weakened if not destroyed competition in the ad-tech industry."