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

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

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Close all asylum hotels in orderly way, says former Justice Secretary under Blair, Charlie Falconer Home Office minister Angela Eagle says: “We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions. This government will close all hotels by the end of this parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of £9m a day.”

Labour has to act decisively to meet the shift in the views of people in the UK and because it is plain common sense- UK citizens have no place being in asylum hotels in China or India paid for by the government, it is not even thought of as an idea that makes any sense, and the reverse is also true. Asia has pulled itself up by its bootstraps, Japan Korea, China and India after centuries of colonialism for billions of people only by building up at home.

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The U.S. Education Department in its report on American universities says foreign funds were often not disclosed, comes with strings attached, and the contacts without transparency or oversight by the U.S. In one instance Cornell University initially failed to report to U.S. authorites more than $1.2 billion it received, says this WSJ report. The U.S. government is concerned that this kind of foreign money gives improper access to U.S. technology to foreign governments, including China. "The U.S. universities are a technological treasure trove in leading internationally competitive fields. For too long these institutions have provided an unprecedented level of access to foreign governments and their instrumentalities in an environment lacking transparency and oversight," says the Education Department report. The report went on to say that "institutional decision making is generally divorced from any sense of obligation to American national interests, security or values." In one instance it cited work that the WSJ says is identifiable as Georgetown University work with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China deriving $2 million from the arrangement. WSJ says one institution identifiable as Cornell failed to document its institution in Qatar. Multiple schools received millions of dollars from Huawei whose equipment has become a security concern for the U.S. government. Schools being investigated include Harvard, Cornell, Georgetown, Texas A&M, MIT. After the Education Department crackdown U.S. Universities self-reported about $6.6 billion and an additional $1.05 billion recent period, from Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia, and U.A.E., says WSJ.  In other situations the Education Department report says China sought to "leverage its relationships with American universities to dominate a global market- in artificial intelligence." ...

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US trade with Germany now exceeds China's trade with Germany. With the change in supply chains, slower German economy leading to lower imports and a slowing Chinese economy, this is likely to lead to US and Germany having increasing trade relations and two way trade from now on.

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Tensions on the India China border as India builds roads and infrastructure in the mountainous Himalayan area close to the border in Ladakh to match the Chinese buildup of roads in the region over the last decade. India has also built up its troop presence in the region to match China's troop presence along the border in Ladakh.

India has supported a call from Australia for an investigation into the early origins of the coronavirus. The call was supported by many countries around the world and by the U.S., Japan and France. The 350,000 deaths from coronavirus and the 5.5 millions confirmed cases, the economic damage, most of them in western nations in North America and Europe, have  led to growing tensions between China and the rest of the world. 

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China's State Internet Information Office chief Lu Wei, 54, is a Communist Party official who assumed office in 2013. He attends many of the internet conferences and gatherings in China and overseas, loudly explaining China's Communist Party line that "respect for national sovereignty" on the Internet should be adhered to. Mozur and Perlez reveal the vigorous personality of Lu Wei as he argues for this view of the Web at gatherings, in sharp contrast to the way younger generation social media users and business users see the internet. Lu Wei spent his early years as bureau chief of the state owned Xinhua News Agency in southern Guangxi Province. He was promoted to positions as secretary general and vice bureau chief at agency headquarters, and to vice mayor of Beijing in 2011, chief of the city's propaganda department. He came into prominence following an article in the Communist Party journal "Seeking Truth," after pointing out that China needed to manage the way information about the country and the Party is presented using the new information technologies. He also perceived the risks posed by distorted or incorrect information to financial markets, and economic security. This was confirmed the following year with the rapid spread of reports about a high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou, China, and in numerous other incidents following this, as social media reports that could not be confirmed spread quickly in out of control fashion. He now is the director of a new Central Internet Security and Informatization Leading Group, headed by president Xi Jinping, with the task of coming up with a policy for balancing views of openness needed for the economy with government views on internet oversight. This is not only a political matter, as Chinese officials face the challenge of how to get the public to vent views on critical matters such as public anger about pollution, food contamination, contractors and badly constructed housing in a recent earthquake, mismanagement in the railways ministry, and a whole range of issues related to economic development, health and public safety. ...

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Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent are entering the banking field by offering money market like accounts with interest rates over 4%, much higher than state owned banks in China. Loans are also being provided to small business. New economic policies in 2014-2015 make deposit insurance a top priority to encourage private banking, offer better rates to savers and for more lending to small business.

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Of the nine positions on China's Politburo Standing Committee, which effectively runs the country, only Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang will remain as China moves to a transition in leadership. There is considerable uncertainty about the direction in which Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang will take the country- whether continuing the status quo or making efforts to introduce democratic processes in the country and shift away from the export model for the economy.

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The Economist magazine says China needs to find a way for Chinese citizens to participate in governance without risking the kinds of upheavals that have happened in the past, including Tiananmen. One way to do this is to see Hong Kong more as opportunity than threat, and allow an experiment to happen in a place ideally suited for this with its long traditions of free expression. Jinping is faced with a chance to do his country a great service.

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A new review of defense policy undertaken by the British government is outlined in paper, "Global Britain in a Competitive Age." The 100 page report points out that Britain faces a different world situation today and redefines the situation in which nuclear weapons would be used to include biological or chemical weapons attack. It sees the need for Britain to be able to respond to threats of chemical and biological weapons attacks coupled with cyber attacks from countries without nuclear weapons. The report also says other countries "are increasing and diversifying their nuclear arsenals." It identifies a "developing range of technological and doctrinal threats." In response Britain will increase its Trident nuclear warheads to 260 from 180. The report says China presents the "biggest state based threat" to Britain's economic security, and a "systematic challenge" to its prosperity and values. It says China's military modernization and increasing assertiveness in the Pacific region poses "an increasing risk to UK interests." Britain will make more secure its critical infrastructure, including hospitals, power plants and water systems, so that it can confidently trade with China. ...

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Dr. Zhong Nanshan, China's leading epidemiologist and head of the Guangzhou Institute for Respiratory Health, talks to doctors in the U.S. at Temple University Hospital and Harvard University, about China's experience tackling the coronavirus. Other collaboration is happening between John Hopkins doctors and 80 other American doctors with Wang Jian-an president of the Second Affiliated Hospital at Zhejiang University. This hospital in China sent about 170 medical workers to Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus in China.  Three areas of interest for American doctors are the clinical course of the virus, what treatments work and what does not work, treating pregnant infected women, and preventing infections among medical workers.

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Latest data from the U.S. Treasury shows it has collected $63 billion in tariffs over the preceding 12 months. Even though there is no agreement on trade with China, president Trump says the U.S. is benefitting from higher tariffs by tens of billions of dollars. In May he estimated tariff revenues could reach $100 billion.This report in the WSJ says this could happen if the the new tariffs of 10% on additional $300 Chinese goods imported to U.S. goes into effect on September 1. This is likely considering that China sees this in different terms than the U.S. such as its sovereignty, whereas the U.S. sees it simply in terms of fair trade. With new elections China may be simply putting things off till the election is decided as Mr. Trump has pointed out. The tally of what the U.S. Treasury gets annually if $100 billion is generated in tariffs goes something like this. Of this $30 billion was generated previously for the U.S. government, so the incremental amount is $70 billion. Of this about $16 billion goes to offset the effect of loss of farm exports to farmers, mainly soyabeans exports to China, through a rescue fund. This leaves additional $54 billion for the U.S. Treasury. Money that could conceivably be put back into infrastructure that the U.S. badly needs in mobile and fixed to improve internet speeds and move up from its low rankings compared to China and other countries. A WSJ report this week shows Germany in worse shape than the U.S., both countries having dismal status in mobile infrastructure- the U.S. at No. 37, and Australia No. 4, Canada No. 3, and even Croatia No. 9. This throws some light on why this trade dispute has become intractable, for China the right of a sovereign nation to move past middle income status even as its telecom technology with Huawei 5G is top class, and for the U.S. the right not to fall behind in advanced technologies such as Telecom. It is also why one hears so much about Huawei and why it has become a flashpoint of the conflict in trade and trade practices. It is thought Mr. Trump is conducting this trade dispute. Yet less known is the fact that prominent Republicans in Congress such as Senator Warner have stated on television talk shows that they are concerned Mr. Trump may give up too much in negotiations that lead to the U.S. not being able to compete in telecom advanced technologies that matter for competitiveness and for national security. What was treated by Bush and Obama administrations routinely without much attention to the consequences is now a top concern for Republicans and others in Congress and business. ...

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Taiwanese contract manufacturer Hon Hai is moving quickly to address higher costs for workers at its manufacturing sites in coastal regions of China. After extensive media coverage of conditions at Foxconn factories, a number of suicides, and Chinese government policy that encouraged higher wages for workers in foriegn owned plants, Foxconn has moved to sharply increase wages at its plants. By the end of 2011 production in cities in the interior of China- Chengdu, Chongqing, and Wuhan, where costs are one third less- will be 25% of production, up from 10% in 2010. By 2012, this will be up to 50% of Foxconn's production, according to Yuanta Securities of Taipei. Hon Hai is lowering dividends to finance the shift. Fourth quarter 2010 earnings of Hon Hai were $742 million, down 26% over the prior year, even though revenues went up by 56% to $33.1 billon- reflecting the higher costs. Hon Hai's stock is down 20% in the past year on the Taipei stock exchange. Other locations being considered by Hon Hai are Brazil, Turkey and Slovakia. Brazil's President Dilma Roussef, said that Foxconn is considering a $12 billion plan for Brazil. Hon Hai is the only manufacturer of Apple iPads and one of two manufacturers of the iPhone....

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A German reporter questions the value of the G20 meetings following the violence on streets at the last Hamburg meeting. He says the first G20 during the global financial crisis was useful but later meetings have not lived up to the hope for discussion and search for solutions to world problems. Global trade is at the top of the agenda following the tariffs dispute between China and the U.S. Divergent interests of participants are a problem. Would going back to G-7 in private meetings be a solution asks this reporter.

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China's population decline and fewer working age people is likely to reduce the high capital accumulation that sustained rapid growth in the past. China's dependency ratio- population of children and elderly relative to the 15 to 64 year old age group went up to 46% in 2021 from 34% in 2010, says WSJ. This means less savings accumulation, and less of the enormous pool of cheap capital of the last 2 decades that led to fast growth. That period is ending. This makes the subsidy based approach to push key industries such as chips and solar panels in the past much more difficult in the future, says Nathaniel Taplin in the WSJ. 

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With Hong Kong affected by the protests, then the crackdown by China, the pandemic, large companies that used it as a base for operations in China are now shifting to Singapore,Shanghai and other locations. Except for finance, retail and other industries are moving out of Hong Kong. Shanghai is seen as more connected to the Chinese economy. And for others Hong Kong is no longer as global now with its integration into China.

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Based on certain criteria of the number of seats and number of states India's Election Commission says the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and Punjab gets status as national party. The Trinamool Congress or TMC of West Bengal, and the NCP of Maharashtra, the CPI, are no longer considered national parties. India's evolution as a modern industrialized country following the pattern set by Japan in the 1960's, South Korea in the 1990's, China by 2019, is at stake. The regional parties based in one state are a new phenomenon. Under Jawaharlal Nehru India lacked a pool of capital and techological resources large enough for this kind of industrialization similar to the situation in China under Mao. Non alignment under Nehru and Communism under Mao deprived India and China of the resources and foreign investment of the west including the absence of infrastructure and policies that would encourage foreign investment. China set about removing these obstacles. Yet one obstacle would not stand up against these efforts in China as it would in India. There was no prospect of coalition governments that would be indecisive and be built on various compromises damaging to rapidly building infrastructure. In India coalition governments would emerge because of the 22 language structure in its makeup and the language based division of the country that Nehru was forced to make by linguistic demands. As a result without a core philosophy of principles common to all parts of the country rapid development could not happen over a period 1990-2014 when the party of Nehru lost many northern states and when states in the south such as Tamilnadu, Andhra and Telengana, and states in the northeast such as West Bengal, Orissa, states in the west such as Maharashtra moved into language based regional identities and parties running these states. This is the significance of the changes since 2014 of one strong party in a number of northern states and in the west and northeast of the country that is making rapid industrialization and infrastructure building to attract foreign investment similar to China's experience happen. In India this core of common principles has evolved around the Ancient Path of Vedanta and Buddhism that has provided essential aspect of good governance and the discipline for finding a path to the kind of rapid infrastructure development that has happened in neighboring Japan and China. ...

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The issues China faces as it plans the next phase of massive urbanization. Urbanization is a major priority of prime minister Li Keqiang, which was also the focus of his postgraduate work in his student days. In the early 1980's about 20% of China was urbanized, this has changed over three decades to where the figure is 47%, plus 17% for workers working in the cities but classified as rural, a total of 64%. China's plan is to fully integrate 70% of the population or 900 millon into cities by 2025. In 2013 only 35% of the population has a urban residency permit, or hukou. The permit is needed for residents to register their children in local schools or qualify for medical programs in urban locations. One of the problems is the huge cost of doing this which it is feared could lead to inflation and higher debt levels. Currently local governments bear these costs using land sales, and central government transfer payments, but without added financing and unable to issue their own bonds, the local governments strictly limit the use of local school and health services to their own residents keeping out rural newcomers. Local government taking over farmer plots, often without enough compensation is highly unpopular in China. Other problems are- providing a steady stream of earnings for new urban residents from farms, if no employment can be found. So they can sustain themselves- especially as they get past 40 years of age when factory employment is harder to find. The government planners see the larger urban population as a way to shift from a largely export based economy and slowing growth, to a consumption based economy. But critics say the risk is that for this to happen new residents from the farming villages have to find jobs, something the government will have difficulty accomplishing. A permanent underclass of unemployed and other financially strapped citydwellers living around major cities, as has happened with the progress of urbanization in Brazil and Mexico, is something the government would want to avoid. ...

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WSJ interview with Narendra Modi before he meets Joe Biden at the White House. This interview talks about India seeking larger role in world affairs, about Indian democracy. Seen from inside India the perspective is different. India is at the same stage where China was in 1990-2000 with the rising aspirations of a billion people, Japan in the Meiji period in 1900. It is all about jobs, investment, technologies and manufacturing on a scale that surpasses China in that period with newer technologies to meet the rising aspirations of 1.4 billion people. China's trade with the US was three times higher than the Indian trade with the US in 2022, India desperately wants to catch up and fast. The Danish ambassador to India was asked what he saw in India today and he said it was the rising confidence of people that struck him most. The digitalization that has changed the way government benefits are provided to 1.4 billion people and opened bank accounts for all, provided delivery of services to all parts of the population. The infrastructure that is being built at breakneck pace, and new colleges and universities expanding access to quality education, healthcare.   ...

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The Biden Xi meeting brings together the leaders of the two countries for normal stable relations that as Mr. Xi says are for "the benefit of the two peoples and fulfill their responsibilities for human progress." Both leaders have learned from the errors of the past two decades that hurt both the US and China with excessive dependence on trade, supply chains and manufacturing on China that devastated American communities and manufacturing. The relationship was not managed well and left to business to determine and chart out that resulted in failure. Business simply pursued its own interests company by company not putting uppermost the common interest of the two peoples. Today there is new respect on both sides for the other ,and a cautious assessment of relations without the over enthusiasm and the rejection of the past. Now replaced by working in the interest of the two peoples and for the world.

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China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, reduces the capital reserve requirement ratio for the largest banks by 1% to 18.5%, on April 19, 2015. This move is expected to free up $200 billion for new lending by banks. China's securities regulator also acted to curb margin financing, the using of borrowed money to invest in the stock market which faces bubble conditions. China's economy is reported to be slowing making it uncertain whether the 7% annual growth target can be met.

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China's dollar for dollar retaliation on $16 billion of U.S. imports with 25% tariffs set to take effect August 23 excludes oil which was on the original list. China takes in about one fifth of the total U.S. oil exports, and in the space of 2 years has become the largest importer of U.S. oil. Experts say China could be shooting itself in the foot if it decides to place tariffs on oil imports from U.S. China is dependent on foreign sources for 70% of energy needs and this trend continues. Another reason say analysts is that by keeping oil out of this trade dispute there is more chance that China can continue importing Iranian oil through a waiver  after U.S. sanctions on Iran go into effect in November.

The U.S. also exports higher quality oil that is less polluting and a grade which is used in newer plants.

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Seib cites a career foreign service officer, William Burns, who says that China is offering its model of government as a competing model to that of the U.S. and Western Europe for Asian countries. He says he cannot recall a time in the last 40 years when China was doing what it is now in showing China as role model. Here Seib also mentions the Electoral College and the shift in demographics as creating strains for American democracy. The electoral college does not give enough weight to the largest states in deciding who wins the presidential election as happened in 2017- which gets worse in future years as people move to the west and southern states.

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The European Union's trade relations with China, and the trade and industry relationship between Germany and China built during the Merkel years is a part of the overall trade setup of the Free World that is likely to be questioned by Habeck, Baerbock of the Greens and chancellor Scholz after Mr. Biden's launch of the IPEF economic alliance for Asia. During her period in office Merkel also built the German trade relationship with Russia leading to Germany being dependent on Russia for 51% of its oil and natural gas supplies. The German dependence on Russia for energy is now being reversed by the efforts of Economy Minister Habeck of the Greens party in the Scholz coalition. The supply chain renewal and redesign by president Biden is likely to be followed by Germany and France and the EU. With it more investments will be shifted back to the US and the EU and allies in Asia such as India that offer a large pool of well trained workers similar to China's. In this sense the IPEF arrangement will be repeated in European Union's new relationships with Asia under the Greens SPD German coalition's leadership. ...