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Chancellor Merkel of Germany proposed bilateral or trilateral deals between smaller groups of countries as a temporary solution till some agreement can be reached on immigration. She said "The European Council will not yet provide an overall solution to the migration problem." Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic which have opposed a quota system for asylum seekers did not attend.  Austria, Denmark, and Italy with the new government openly opposing immigration, attended the summit. Merkel said  a "lot of goodwill" was created, and leaders agreed that borders need to be better protected to prevent people from entering illegally, and reducing immigration at its source points in Africa. The migration problem has persisted as an issue long after the huge surge in immigration in 2015 has diminished to a trickle, and after chancellor Merkel has accomodated critics with new policies strictly limiting new immigration. New governments in Denmark, Austria and Italy, and the government in Hungary under Viktor Orban, have kept the issue alive by running on anti-immigration platforms. The European summit in 2018 was used by Merkel to reduce disagreement on this issue by allowing different countries to express their views and working in smaller groups for mutual benefit. It also reduces tension inside her CDP-CSU coalition after Bavaria based CSU decided to run in 2018 state elections on a platform calling for securing borders. ...

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The coverage of the Republican healthcare bill and how it affects the elderly, and people on Medicaid, people in rural areas, is likely to have changed public opinion in the U.S. about the necessity of ensuring all Americans have health coverage. The Pew survey cited here in this NYT report by Zernike and Goodnough was done in Jan 2017, and shows a shift. The shift would be much higher today after people look hard at the consequences of what were simply hypothetical positions or ideological positions taken without looking at consequences in daily living. On Medicaid that opinion by July 2017 compared to Jan 2017 has shifted 10 percentage points for Republicans to 53% who think Medicaid is important to them and their families, according to Kaiser research. There is stronger sentiment about people having benefits taken away.  [article-55059] The opinion has shifted to where people see that coverage is important and people should not have coverage denied or benefits taken away from them. Opinion remains strong in favor of changes to reduce the high premiums, but not to replace the existing health benefits and law with no law at all to replace it. That leaves 20 million more uninsured according to the Congressional Budget Office. Changes have to be constructive is the popular view today,  and this requires dialogue between Republicans and Democrats- which has not taken place. ...

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France's president Hollande says about Greece during a visit by Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, that the Greek government must move forward with economic reforms, "while making sure that it is tolerable for the population." He also said he was "saluting the Greek people for their painful efforts of the last two and a half years." Samaras says in an intervew: "Greece is like a swimmer who is underwater for a long distance and needs to come up from time to time for some air, we need to be able to take a breath."

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Amr Darrag, member of the executive board of the Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt, was minister of planning and international cooperation in the elected government of president Morsi, which was overthrown by the Egyptian military after only one year in office. Here he points to the Egyptian military's effort to return Egypt to the days under Mubarak of repression and economic stagnation.

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The vast expansion of the Indian middle class takes on a different dimension a few weeks before the election say experts, as India heads into a general election after the India Pakistan conflict in February 2019. This is because national security now has a wider constituency. It could help the incumbent party the BJP with urban voters and swing voters as the issue of security remained prominent in the northern states. In other states where caste and regional politics, farmer agricultural related issues are prominent, this could be less of a factor. Overlooked in this is the manner in which new investments in infrastructure have been pushed forward for rail, road and bridges, and in other infrastructure such as hospitals and universities. The government slogan is that what was once considered impossible is now possible. New metro lines are being inaugurated in many cities including Ahmedabad, Mumbai. The speed with which the Metro in Mumbai is being built, with the head of the project saying it should have been built yesterday, is an example of the urgency given to infrastructure. The government is pushing hard to convey the image that the next 5 years would lead to an infrastructure building boom that it has shown can be done. A recent report in the Guardian shows that China is pouring every 2 years more concrete than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century. This fact drives India under Modi as it heads into the 2019 election, the sense that previous governments had never pushed India's potential for modernization similar to its East Asian neighbors, Japan, South Korea and China.    ...

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France with about 6 million Muslims and a history of colonial rule in North African Arab countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and other countries) faces a challenge of integrating Muslims into French society. Germany with a large population of Turkish origin also faces a similiar challenge. The attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for poking fun at Islam, in a manner similiar to its satirical work on Catholicism, leads to the death of 12 journalists, a policeman and a policewoman. Erlanger and Bennhold describe the reaction of people in France. Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College , London, says about anti-immigrant sentiment increasing in Europe to the point where it is uncoupling working class families from the elites in Europe and reaching into the mainstream of society.

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The opening to Cuba in Dec. 2014 comes as a new generation of Cuban Americans have no memories of the embargo and Fidel Castro period. The increasing population of Puerto Ricans in the Orlando area also reduces the size of the Cuban American community as a proportion of the total Hispanic community in Florida.

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Robert Reilly, an assistant to President Reagan, former director of Voice of America, says don't underestimate the importance of what the younger Bush as president called "the vision thing." Efficiency experts like Hoover, and Republican candidates who had business and other professional experience but could not grasp the moral imperative in politics such as Alf Landon (1936), Wendell Wilkie (1940), Thomas Dewey (1944 and 1948) failed to convince voters. Democrats presented ideas like the Fair Deal, New Deal (FDR), New Frontier (Kennedy), Great Society (Johnson) and captured this "vision thing" to win. This is why he is skeptical about Romney as business and management consultant coming in and bringing change with a number of management consultants. Reagan also presented the choice in moral terms which were then translated into how the government would function to fulfill the moral imperative, says Reilly.

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China's president Hu Jintao responds to questions by the WSJ on relations with the U.S., the 2008 financial crisis, the 11th Five Year Plan period, China's currency Renminbi, the Korean peninsula, and China's new assertiveness in foreign affairs.

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Judge Jeremy Cook at Southwark Crown Court in London, England, hands out a 14 year jail sentence to Tom Hayes for Libor benchmark rate manipulation while working at UBS and Citigroup. He says the sentence is meant "to send a signal" to the banking industry. Cook's message to the UK banking industry- "Probity and honesty are essential, as is trust."

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France's parliamentary elections showed the Socialist party gaining 280 seats, with two allied parties getting 34 seats, giving the Socialists an absolute majority in parliament. Greens won 17 seats and the far left 10 seats. Former president Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement won 194 seats and allies 35 seats, for a total of 229 seats, down from 304 seats.The National Front led by Marie Le Pen won 2 seats. Marie Le Pen and Segolene Royal both lost their seats. The absolute majority gives Socialist president Hollande more room to implement his legislative program and make changes in eurozone architecture.

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The U.S. Senate passes a motion that allows the chamber to proceed with a debate on a health care bill. The motion passed 51-50 with Vice President Mike Pence casting the deciding vote. Republican Senators Collins and Murkowski voted against the motion. This report in the WSJ says this sets in motion a process in which debate will take place and amendments will be made. It is not clear what shape the bill will take. Under the process used only a simple majority is needed in the Senate, yet this allows for many amendments to be made.  Only hours after this motion passed by one vote, a bill replacing major parts of the Affordable Care Act failed to pass 57 votes against and 43 in favor. Senator John McCain who arrived in Washington from Arizona following brain tumor surgery, delivered strong criticism of the way the Republican healthcare bill was rushed through allowing very little debate. Experts have commented on the way the bill was rushed through with a thin majority for passage, with very little debate, first by Democrats in 2009 and now in the House by Republicans. With the same pattern now followed in the Senate by Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. A backup bill would remove just the individual and employer mandates and a tax on medical devices- the elements Republicans agree on, if no majority can be put together for the healthcare bill. ...

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France's Finance Minister Michael Sapin introduces a no-austerity budget in September 2014 as France's growth is forecast at 0.4% in 204 and not reaching 2% till 2017. Sapin says "we have taken the decision to adapt the pace of deficit reduction to the situation in the country." The government will put off large parts of the 50 billion euros in cuts in spending towards the latter part of the period to 2017. Critics on the left say the cuts are undermining the social welfae model of France. President Hollande's popularity has declined to very low levels in 2014. Prime minister Valls wins support in the National Assembly for the government's strategy to tackle the economy and growth- increase business confidence and postpone cuts till the economy recovers by 2016.

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A sense of indifference towards mainstream parties in Italy and enthusiasm for the maverick party of Beppe Grillo. Gillo appeals to younger voters who are looking for something that makes a break from the past in Italian politics.

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The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Republican healthcare plan advocated by Mr. McConnell, Senate Majority leader, is that it would add 22 million uninsured if implemented. That plan ran into opposition from Republican Senators Collins, Capito, Murkowski, Paul, and Moran, and lacked enough support in the Senate. All Democrats opposed it and with the thin majority Republicans were divided. By taking away some benefits given under the existing Affordable Care Act the plan hurt the elderly and low income people, making some Republicans listen to their constituents in home districts and not the Republican leadership. The NYT profiled two in particular who astonishingly in a sign of today's strange politics were the only ones publicly holding townhall type meetings to hear the views of people in their voting districts- Susan Collins of Maine and Jerry Moran of Kansas. Both senators were listening to rural communities and Moran stated his opposition with the words- "I am a product of rural Kansas." With it the nation takes a breather and the message goes out that it is best to listen first and then to seek middle ground, not do what both parties Democrats and Republicans did in 2009 and 2017- rush serious legislation through without support across party lines and without serious discussion.   ...

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Shinzo Abe and the LDP won a landslide victory in Japan's Dec. 2012 elections. Shinzo Abe was the first prime minister of Japan born during the post war period when he became prime minister in 2006. He is less influenced by the legacy of the pre-war period and war period. Abe is the grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, Commerce and Industry minister during the war, and prime minister when Japan signed the security treaty with the U.S. in 1960. His father was foreign minister, making him one of the rare politicians with a deep family history in Japan's government. Their views also influenced his own. Kishi is committed to changing Article 9 in Japan's constitution which limits the role of the military, and renounces the right to wage war. His 2006 book "Toward a Beautiful Nation," describes some of his views.

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Indian rating agency Crisil says expeditious settlement of stressed assets in India's banking system is needed for the private sector to play its part in the country's infrastructure development. In the last 4 years much of the effort in infrastructure was undertaken by the government. Crisil CEO Ashu Suyash, says Rupees 50 lakh crore needs to be allocated for capital investment in infrastructure for the 5 year period 2018- 2022. About Rupees 3000 crore investment per day is required. In addition to improving the banking system, other actions needed are new private-public partnership efforts, front ending of projects, and a deepening of the infrastructure financing system. Infrastructure investments have suffered from lack of investment in India and this should be a top priority for the government, say experts. This includes tapping into pension and insurance funds under new arrangements. The central government has announced a 7 lakh crore investment plan to build 83,000 kilometres of highways by 2022. Crisil has developed an "investability index" to track and measure the attractiveness of such projects.   ...