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The importance of a gap year in education remains underutilized in Indian education because of a lack of role models. A gap year in education during the early college and postgraduate years can give a person new experiences and skills, a new sense of purpose, that he or she may carry over into further education and create additional opportunities over time. In this way the gap year actually reinforces the idea that is behind changes in the way education is being setup today, that encourage young people to try out different subjects in the sciences and the humanities to find what they are best at and where their interests lie. In the same way new experiences including travel, meeting people, trying out new activities can enhance one's personal development and growth as a person.

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India win over Australia 3-2 at the Paris Olympics the first win in 52 years of competition. A match winning save by the goalie Sreejesh saved the day for India. India is now second to Belgium in the Group. India will now play Britain or Germany in the quarterfinals. Is progress so far a draw with Argentina, loss to Belgium and wins over New Zealand and Australia. Harmanpreet scored the most goals for India.

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TSMC competition with Tokyo Electron in 2 nanometer next generation chips. Japanese suppliers once dominant in chips are competing with Taiwan's chip maker TSMC.

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UK's Starmer adopts Danish system for asylum and illegal migration November 2025 to attack the problem of illegal migration and Channel crossings by boat.

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Learning a foreign language is away to build resilience in ageing processes. The interest, the excitement, stimulating experiences in a new environment, learning new words and building  vocabulary and how to fit these words together, all can be exercises for the brains similar to a yoga routine or a sports routine biking, swimming or hiking.

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"Escalation" is the word used which ignores that more American lives have been lost to fentanyl and drug trafficking in the US over the last 15 years than in the Korean, Vietnam and First World War combined. How could this have been allowed to happen is a question for all Americans.

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Portugal sold 1 billion euros of 12 month Treasury bills at an average of 4.331%, up from 4.057% at the previous offering on March 2, 2011. Moody's downgraded the country's rating by two nothches to A3. Analysts say that these higher funding costs will lead to a bailout for Portugal. The yield spread between 10 year Portuguese and German bonds is now at 4.35%.

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Brenner of McGill University and Fridson of S&P say the Bernanke Federal Reserve in the U.S. is doing what President Truman and Treasury Secretary Snyder did in the war and postwar years- paying down the U.S. debt as cheaply as possible by inflating the money supply. There are no new monetary insights here, and even though the policy is maintained outwardly as one to promote economic growth and employment, the main focus is to keep the cost of paying down the debt as cheaply as possible with low rates. This hurts savers and retirees earning very little on savings. They cite Bernanke's writings that show he is imitating the policy of the war years when the U.S. held down interest rates and succeeded in doing this for a decade.

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Australian prime minister Scott Morrison says "global health trumps everything else," that " we need to have the information, and we need to have the transparency." Australia is seeking support from other countries in an effort to launch an investigation into missteps early in the crisis that have led to the epidemic spreading to millions of people around the world. China has rejected such an investigation. It has threatened retaliation with a consumer boycott of Australian beef and wine, and tariffs on barley. Australia tightened its laws on foreign interference and counterespionage in 2018. U.S. and European calls for an investigation into coronavirus origins is making Australia reconsider its trading relationship dependence on China. India has stepped up its vigilance of Chinese investment so that state backed entities do not acquire local companies affected by the pandemic. Japan has set aside $2.2 billion of its pandemic support package to help Japanese companies shift their supply chains out of China. ...

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Mexico replaces China as the U.S. top trading partner in the first half of 2019. U.S. imports from China fell by 12% and exports fell by 19% in first half 2019, according to Commerce Department. The total value of trade with China of $271 billion was less than the trade with either Canada or Mexico.

Mr. Trump said yesterday to China- "If they don't want to trade with us anymore, that would be fine with me. Until such time as there is a deal we will be taxing them." He went on to say he would place 25% tariff on additional $300 billion of Chinese goods on Sept. 1, 2019.

Meanwhile in first half 2019 the U.S. imports increased to 34% from Vietnam. Some of this could be Chinese goods transhipment through Vietnam. Japan, South Korea, India, Europe, all increased exports to the U.S.

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Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam describes her disappointment at the events in Hong Kong in recent weeks with huge protests against the extradition law. She feels she has been misunderstood but at the same time has not connected with ordinary people and the youth the way she felt she had connected before.

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What a change DJT's first 100 Days and actions on immigration and tariffs , Ukraine and Russia, have made in China's and World relations in Asia, and in Europe - all for the better, significantly better relations worldwide.  China has worked out a peace settlement in Ladakh frontier with India. It has come together in Tokyo with Japanese prime minister Ishiba and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi holding hands, and South Korea joining, all three nations vowing to remember history and work together. In Europe Russia is being brought back into the community of nations for big power cooperation with the US after 3 years of war in Ukraine. And Germany has removed its constitutional brake on spending that frees up $1 trillion in funding for infrastructure to replace much of its rail and other infrastructure built in 1900. One would not know this reading the NYT on democracy or the WSJ on tariffs or the Washington Post on assault on federal workforce, or the Atlantic, Politico, DW.com or FR24, Der Spiegel, nor Le Monde, much of the world media slanted on way or another. One does not hear about military exercises so often as the world realizes that so called large economies China, Germany, Japan and India all depend on American goodwill and willingness to give rather than take for most of the post war period since 1950. For the last 6 years in the latter half of the Trump administration and the 4 years of the Biden administration during the pandemic relations between China and the US deteriorated and China first retreated into its own then opened up a bit. The initial idea that it could manage the DJT trade actions evaporated as Biden continued the DJT first round of tariffs. Now Navarro, Lighhizer, and his deputy Jamieson are all back advising DJT for anew round of reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for not stopping fentanyl flows.  In 2022 in eastern Ladakh China's PLA had a big standoff with Indian forces in eastern Ladakh at Galwan and Pangong Lake. The Quad was active with Australia India and the US in Indo Pacific and China conducted military exercises close to Taiwan.      ...

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Rent for apartments declined in all major metropolitan areas in the US for each of the past 6 months as new supply comes to the rental market. Rents declined by 8% in the Seattle area since August 2022. This WSJ report says people may have maxxed out on how much they will pay for rent.

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French president Macron tells his compatriots that he thanks them for supporting him through this difficult period. "I know I have a duty towards them in the years to come." His health minister Oliver Veran said frankly- "We have also heard the people's message. There will be a change of method. The French people will be consulted."  Macron faced three crises, the pandemic, cost of living increases and war in Europe, as he fought back in the last weeks of the campaign to win the a second term for the first time in 20 years, since Jacques Chirac.

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Biden shows Xi photo of a young man at the Golden Gate Bridge in 1985. The picture is of Xi during a visit to the US.

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China's effort under president Xi to expand the state run sector by providing more credit to state run enterprises and expecting private companies to pursue goals of the state's planned economy. Tackling the coronavirus economic impact required state planning and that experience has further renewed the effort to build the state run companies as a reliable partner for the government. There is also a conviction that private companies are unreliable in a large and complex economy as China's.

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After some ill timed acquisitions Tata Sons is strapped for cash. The value of Tata Sons holdings in the group's 27 listed companies has halved in less than a year to under $25 billion. This leaves Tata Sons, the parent company of the Tata group, strapped for cash, as one way it raises cash is by offering its equity stakes as collateral to lenders. A cash crunch is evident at Tata Motors with $2 billion of debt from the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover due by June. Tata has to get its banks to roll over this debt. And this week Tata Steel whose shares are down 76% in a year stated that Tata Sons has pledged 13.2% of the company as collateral against borrowings.