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Ian Buruma sheds light on the efforts of prime minister Hatoyama of the DPJ party to create a East Asian Community and bring Japan and China closer in economic and political ties. This failed because of the tensions with N. Korea and the Obama administration's opposition to this move- which did not give the young Japanese prime minister the same opportunity to exercize his electoral mandate that was given to the young American president. The Obama administration's pivot to Asia is seen by China as keeping America's post war role as the dominant power ensuring peace in Asia. The election of a nationalist Abe from the LDP party which has promoted strong defense and political ties with the U.S. and supports the U.S. traditional postwar role is consistent with this policy. The result says Buruma is to block the development of new closer ties between Japan and China which reflect the new dynamics in Asia. Buruma says Japan looked to China during the centuries before the modern period, with both countries sharing a Buddhist civilization and culture, and depending on how one sees it the conflict in the period between the two wars would be the pattern or the aberration in the relations between Japan and China. Many Japanese are wary of further tensions between the two countries. Buruma provides an alternative look at how relations between China, Japan and the U.S. could evolve in Asia which would provide a basis for constructive cooperation. ...

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Some key features of the Iraqi effort to retake Ramadi are evident in the effort by new prime minister to keep out Shiite militias called Popular Mobilization Forces from Sunni areas. The effort to retake Ramadi involves American air support and retrained Iraqi units after the disasters in 2014 when Iraqi army units ill equipped and poorly led fled the area. By using tribal forces and Iraqi army units the effort keeps down sectarian tensions- essential for it to work in Sunni areas.

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The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare gave families of 4 with incomes of less than 125,000 or single income less than $60,000 a chance to buy insurance with federal subsidies. When these subsidies were increased under the IRA Act of president Biden the enrolment has doubled in the last 5 years to $24 million. These subsidies expire in 2025. Under the One Big Beautiful Act the policy of subsidies for ACA is not being renewed when it expires in 2025. This shows the band aid approach of Obama to healthcare and the lack of a comprehensive approach. The policy on migrants during the Obama and Biden administration also stretched public funding resources. Insurance companies now plant to make up for the los of subsidies from the government by raising prices for this subpopulation in a broken healthcare system in the US by 15-20%. This report in WSJ shows a young woman on ACA insurance in Illinois with a payment of $590 a month to Blue Cross of Illinois facing a new payment of $678, almost the size of a mortgage. ...

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Richard Haas, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, points to the need to reallocate the resources that are tied down in Afghanistan, to other needs in the area of national security. This especially true he says, considering the limited US interests in Afghanistan and the other threats in national security that the US needs to address around the world. He points to the grave threat to national security arising from the US deficit and the country's finances, with the $125 billion allocated to Afghanistan being a significant contributor to this. Savings in Afghanistan can be used to strengthen defense needs in other areas such as North Korea and Iran , modernization, and for reducing the deficit. He sees the resources spent in Afghnistan being a strategic distraction when other threats are building with nuclear developments in Iran and N. Korea. He cites the intelligence findings that the situation in Afghanistan will not improve with the Taliban connections in Pakistan, and the lack of a good partner in the government there. As for Pakistan, Haas says that the situation there is not to be understood through Afghanistan. The threats there are not external, they come from deep divisions within Pakistani society, and poor governance for most of the period since independence in 1947. The US should scale down to counter terrorism operations with a smaller force closer to the troops before the surge of 30,000, and not engage in the state-building that it is currently doing. On the efforts by Gen. Petraeus to get more resources, Haas says Petraeus is looking at the situation from the area of operations in Afghanistan, whereas the President has a different role. The President has to address all the challenges the US is facing now and will face in the near and medium term future, and he has to do this with the limited resources available for national security....

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How Obama appealed to both sides, the religious and the secular in Turkey, choosing his words with care. For the secularists the emphasis on Turkey as "a strong and secular democracy" and not as moderate Muslim which has different connotations, and for the religious references to the Muslim world and the idea of mutual interest and mutual respect. Its hard to say but it may have created some sense of comfort on both sides and created asense that these two can coexist and should coexist peacefully in contrast to the tension in the past.

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Turkey's economic success since 2002 with the economic policies of the AKP party with 6.5 % growth, compared to 2.5% in the 6 years prior to that, and booming tourism in Antalya on the Mediteranean coast, and booming exports, and $20 billion in foreign investment.

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Turkey's former minister of economic affairs and treasury on the need for IMF help too all developing countries that need help and have followed reasonably good economic policies, without simply labeling policies as good or bad in an oversimplified way. Decisions should he says reflect the widespread need for fiscal stimulus in te face of collapsing demand for exports and declining private expenditures. And here also IMF resources are close to $200 billion and the needs of developing countries are estimated between $500 billion and $800 billion. China and the Gulf states need to step in and steps taken quickly to associate them in a more substanital way till improvements are made in IMF governance.He is looking for help in weeks not months. Dervis points to the need for fairness in eligibility criteria for help with help not limited to countries with political clout or systemic importance, wheras other countries have to engage in protracted negotiations with intrusive conditions such as those which raise interest rates in the face of collapsing demand as in the past. ...

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Turkey's lira loses 34% of its value since September 2007 and its foreign exchange reserves are limited at $74 billion. It is setting up abackup facility for $10 billion from the IMF but has insisted that with its young population it needs strong growth to create jobs, and opposes any IMF requirement to scale back investment, government spending and growth targets.

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A complete breakdown in negotiations between the U.S. and Russia happens after Russia continues its bombing campaign in Aleppo. About 275,000 people and 100,000 children are in the war torn area in northern Syria. The U.S. had called on Russia to stop the bombing campaign, but Secretary of State Kerry failed to persuade Russia to commit to a ceasefire. The result has been international criticism of the Russian role in the war, and speculation on what president Putin sees Russia gaining from this intervention in DW.com and other sites. 

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Friedman describes the difficult life of U.S. air force personnel after visiting air bases in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. He talks to the pilot of a F-22 stealth fighter operating missions in Syria, a C-130 woman pilot from the Minnesota Air National Guard flying into Baghdad, a Luteran chaplain at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, and other air force men operating Reaper missions by remote control from the U.S. He sees the stress, the courage and the effort to give their best in the defense of American interests in the Middle East, and reflects on the need for similar spirit in the U.S. capital. For some years Americans had forgotten about the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and this was felt by armed forces personnel as forgetting the sacrifices that were made in the long wars.  The vacuum created by U.S. withdrawal, and the spread of terrorism as a consequence of the withdrawal, has again led to the American public having a better understanding of the importance of these missions and the courage and service of the Air Force personnel.  ...

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This report says the 1.5 million barrels a day is actually a 1.16 million barrels a day cut as Nigeria, Venezuela and Angola may just not cut production by their 341,000 barrels a day. To that Iran also has to cut its 200,000 barels a day. So the Saudis may end up having to do the cuts of about a million barrels a day with the Emirates and Kuwait. And Deutsche Bank says that it takes about 15 months for oil prices to stabilize after these cuts. So prices could keep falling well into 2009 as the recession deepens worldwide. Some anaysts say the Saudis ended up contributing to the global crisis through their minimal efforts to restrain oil prices or divert some of the petro dollars to new exploration, rather than to cheap liquidity that fueled the housing bubble.

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A poll done by the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit affiliated with the Republican party, of 3500 people across Pakistan found a couple of important things. The Republican Institute's goal is to promote democracy in the developing world. 1. Popularity of President Zardari at 9% and Nawas Sharif's at 55%. The US resumed contacts with Sharif, and Sharif is seen as able to bring the Islamic moderates to the American side. 2. Economic issues are what concerns Pakistanis most. Refugees are approaching the 1 million number according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 3. 81% said the country was going in the wrong direction, Zardari was never elected and is incompetent and this could be the reason. But military is still unpopular, 77% want democratic rule, possibly with Sharif or some sort of combination of Sharif, lawyers movement, and Islamic moderates in charge. 4. From alow of 9% in January 2008, now 37% are willing to work with the USA against extremism. Could Obama's election and US support of Pakistan's effort to heal itself be apart of this change of heart? 5. 45% support fighting extremists in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province. And 69% say having the Taliban and Al Quaeda operate in Pakistan is a serious problem. If these poll results accurately reflect shifting feeling in Pakistan, American help to help Pakistan pull itself up by its bootstraps economically and unify the country under a democratic administration of Islamic moderates and people from other areas like the lawyers movement, could work. It also improves the prospects of pulling out of Afghanistan after the situation improves, and setting up an administration that comprises Islamic moderates and tribal representatives that keeps out Al Quaeda, and works to rebuild Afghanistan after seemingly endless years of war. These efforts would require cooperation of Iran, India, Pakistan and the US, and assistance of countries like Turkey, in creating an atmosphere that promotes peaceful development in the entire region. ...

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The Obama administration makes the decision on June 13, 2013, to supply arms to Syrian opposition forces to the Assad regime and enforce a limited no-fly zone inside Syria. The decision comes as forces of the Assad regime make gains over poorly armed opposition forces and threaten the Syrian opposition's base in the city of Aleppo.