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President Biden gives a rousing speech to the unions and the AFL-CIO, reminiscent of Lincoln's speeches as he debated Stephen Douglas in the struggle for the emancipation in the 1850's.

"Wall Street did'nt build this country, the middle class built this country. And the unions built the middle class. I'm not joking, without unions there would be no middle class. That's a fact."

Recalling the long lines for food during the pandemic-

"Ordinary people waiting in line for an hour for a box of food. And the policies in the past created more billionaires in the past than never before in our history." 

"Laying a strong foundation for the future of this country is more than having strong roads and bridges. It is about making sure, that here in America, folks who work hard can live their lives with dignity and respect."

 

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President Trump says he is considering restoring funding to the WHO, but reduce the overall funding by 90%. He told Lou Dobbs of Fox News he would reduce the funding to 10% of what the U.S. was paying, to bring it to the level China was paying. China pays only 10% of what the U.S. pays and has a much larger influence on the WHO. In this crisis this has affected the normal WHO response to virus epidemics as much of the pre crisis development was missed by the WHO, and the WHO failed to ensure transparency from all its members so that international cooperation could happen very early to prevent the virus from spreading quickly. 

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DW. com looks at the controversial effort of privage equity firms Blackstone and Carlyle to buy stakes in Bundesliga soccer clubs. Approval of 24 of 36 clubs sets out a plan to attract 1 billion euros of funding for digitalization, internationalization, in return for an 8% share of TV rights revenues for a period of 20 years. Experts say any effort to take international preference for the Premier League will be difficult. There is also the 50+1 rule in Germany where the ownership stays with the clubs not investors, so that the ticket prices are affordable for the club fans and the clubs belong to the fan base. For the fans and locals the situation is better without private equity.

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Paris Olympics organizers want this to be the smallest footprint on climate at 1.58 million metric tons of CO2. This is half that in 2012 London Olympics of 3.4 and 20% less than in Tokyo Olympics of 1.96. No rhetoric, actual facts is the goal even with 13 million spectators from many countries.

It was an opportunity for us to stage this Games in a different way, both for us to prove that the Games can be done differently, but also to leave a legacy,” says Georgina Grenon, Paris 2024’s director of environmental excellence." It is not that difficult to get 50% cut in emissions by using wood or low carbon cement. New construction is a big source of emissions. Paris organizers plan to use existing or temporary infrastructure, and also reuse what is built, and build some facilities in underserved deprived areas to use later for affordable housing. It is a remarkable and commendable effort.

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The 10 year distribution contract between Walgreen Co., Alliance Boots, and AmericsourceBergen Corp., for distribution of generic and other drugs worldwide. The higher volumes as a result of the distribution contract gives it leverage in negotiating better prices from generic manufacturers.

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iCET Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies is a new program that was agreed to between president Biden and prime minister Modi at the Quad Summit in May 2022. It has the focus of building the US relationship with India for advanced and emerging technologies in the competition with China, and also as a way to expand India's role in the US and EU supply chain arrangement. Its first inaugural dialogue happened this week between Jake Sullivan NSA for the US and Ajit Doval NSA for India. The goals of iCET are To seek to build supply chains which increase co-production and co-development between the countries  To increase linkages between the countries startup ecosystems To broaden defense innovation and technology cooperation To build resilient semiconductor supply chains  Space cooperation STEM talent Next generation 5G and 6G telecommunications cooperation The US will speed up approval of GE Engines making of engines in India for light combat aircraft manufactured in India. ...

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Rottgen says that the low point of the Copenhagen talks was reached when it was becoming clear the China was not even willing to accept unilateral pledges of the industrialized nations to reduce emissions by at least 8% by 2050. The Chininese he says said that was too little for them. At which point the Europeans said we could perhaps offer 100%, but that would have to be the end- for mathematical reasons. and Rottgen points out that at that point he and others realized that the Chinese were not concerned about agreeing on CO2 reductions, but rather with preventing them. It was at that poit that US President Obama went in for face to face talks with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Rottgen also faults the US where he says the elites realize that something has to be done about Co2 but cannot get the majority of people to support the changes and sacrifices required because of political reasons. Says Rottgen about the Americans "they prefer to have cheap money to consume, and they don't want to limit their CO2 emissions, so that they can continue to do things their way." Rottgen also sees the CO2 targets as away to get Germany and other nations to develop the most advanced technologies, and because of the German lead in this area he sees it as a way ensure Germany's economic future....

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As the push for biodiversity increases the idea of passive rewilding or letting nature and its chaotic way take its course is getting increased acceptance. It allows natural processes to restore themselves and do the work. A certain amount of chaos is accepted as forests reclaim territory, different species come back and fires, floods return. This is seen in the Peneda-Geres National Park in the northern mountains of Portugal. Here Mr. Pereira at the University of Leipzig Center for Biodiversity Research says it is about letting wildlife return, letting fires, floods return and most importantly letting plants and animals move around.

The issues of biodiversity and restoring landscapes to the ways of nature are the topic of discussion at the UN COP 15 summit this week in Kunming, China. Pereira's idea is that if you love something, just set it free, for a biodiversity setting to take shape.

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This article is from The Guardian, September 6, 2019. Kevin Rudd, former Australian Prime minister on Murdoch's News Corp. and antagonism towards Australia's Labour party and towards climate change action, and to Australian broadband speed. Some creators of content are also unwittingly adopting strategies that pose other dangers to society, to competition, to an educated public, including News Corp. News Corp. (owner Fox News) strategy is to create affinity, to create communities for content. When actively done and pursued in excess by powerful creators of content such as News Corp. this leads to the fragmentation of civic society into groups not generated by honest discussion among civic minded people, but by revenue generating artificially created groups where the affinity is exploited by the creator of content as an outsider. This is inimical to society, education, honest discussion of civic minded people, and of democracy itself. ...

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The Guardian looks at Lachlan Murdoch's career and how he differs from his sisters and from his brother James. He is seen as closer to his father in his thinking than James which is why after leaving Fox News following differences with Roger Ailes his father tried to get him back. This happened with an absence of ten years. The family trust set up for Murdoch's four children shows all jointly share in the family stake. This means the others will also have an influence in the future and the direction prospects of this media business left by Rupert Murdoch. As the world moves to the internet and new ways of learning news this marks the end of an era in which a few people were able to move public opinion- Beaverbrook and Murdoch belong to a different century, the twentieth not the twentyfirst.

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Maureen Dowd's conversation with Donald Trump in Jan 2016 just after the seventh Republican presidential debate in which Trump opted out. She describes him as a person who can be sensitive himself, and yet not be sensitive to what he says about others and how that is seen by the public, especially for his comments on women. He feels that Fox News is pushing him around, not that he made comments about Megyn Kelly such as "bimbo," and "lightweight." Couldn't Trump just withdraw these words, asks Maureen. Trump says he doesn't have to make up because he is enormously successful. Yet when Maureen tells him about Newt Gingrich's statement to Fox News that Trump was acting with petulance in his response to what Gingrich saw as a poorly worded newsrelease from Fox News, and that it would "shrink" Trump, Donald sounds like he feels offended.

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Hard Brexiters include Boris Johnson who insist on this at any price. Soft Brexiters include Treasury Secretary Hammond, who want to minimize disruption to the economy. Liam Fox and Michael Gove just want to make it work, that is all. A list of ministers on either side is shown here as prime minister Theresa May faces a split in her Conservative party in June 2018.