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The Interior Minister of Lower Saxony, Boris Pistorius, takes over from Christine Lambrecht as the new Defense Minister of Germany. His first priority will be to resolve the issue of German tanks for Ukraine. Chancellor Scholz is under pressure to approve the sending of German tanks after the British decision to do so. Lambrecht was one of three female defense ministers in Germany, after Von der Leyen and Karrenbrauer in the Merkel years. She came under much criticism for not making the decisions for reinforcing German armed forces in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

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Plans for the Quad countries to launch a new effort in the last quarter of 2021 to produce 1 billion vaccines in 2022 for adding to supplies in the Indo-Pacific region that includes Indonesia, Malaysia Thailand and Vietnam. Japan would provide the financing for the manufacture of vaccines in India using American technology and raw material supplies. Australia would help with delivery in the Indo-Pacific region. The foreign ministers of the Quad countries, US, Japan, Australia and India, will meet on June 29 in Matera, during a G-20 foreign ministers meeting in Italy. 

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With Chinese overproduction of  electric vehicles and solar energy panels China needs the EU and US market for its economy. Now that it is more dependent on manufacturing for jobs and the economy, as its construction industry is in decline. The Biden administration by not adding new tariffs yet investing in production at home provides China and the US with a win-win relationship, that China seeks to maintain. This overrides regional tensions for the vital interests of the US and China to compete on a level playing field.

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Kirill Dmitriev who has a BA from Stanford and MBA from Harvard was educated in the US and worked for McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. He worked for the US-Russia Investment Fund funded by USAID during the early years in 1990's after fall of Soviet Union. And helped sell off media properties bought at that time for that Fund to the new government. He is now the head of the Russian Sovereign Fund.

He will be a key negotiator to be similar to Witkoff in the Trump team who has a background in real estate deals. 

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A new test for Prostate Cancer, a test with high accuracy being developed in Britain- in it are proteins shed by prostate tumors in urine are tested.  This test is planned with testing of 200,000 people in Britain with funding of 42 million pounds. It has 0.92 accuracy compared to 0.62-0.75 for the conventional PSA Test. This test tests a different set of proteins. PSA Test is known to have false positives and is not accurate. This will revolutionize the testing for prostate cancer, one of the main cancers affecting men.

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This report shows the level of coronavirus testing as of March 27, 2020 in different states in the U.S. The U.S. testing program and supplies of tests are being ramped up quickly. About 65,000 tests are being done on Americans each day. The need is for 150,000 tests a day say public health officials. Testing is slow in California compared to aggressive testing in New York which has 60% of all coronavirus cases. California with twice the population of New York has done 77,000 tests compared to 122,000 in New York. Texas has done only 21,000 states by comparison. Every week new testing technology is being developed in different labs, medical companies, and universities. Including tests that can be conducted quickly and not requiring health workers or health workers with protective gear. Speed of processing test, least point of testing contact, and the protocol for quarantine, are all part of the testing and isolating of clusters mechanism to tackle the virus. This is critical in the coronavirus action plan being developed by Dr Brx of the U.S. White House team. ...

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Sindhi sentiment in Pakistan. Behind the calls for democracy and elections sentiment is gathering in the Sindh that supports looking after Sindhi interests. Because the Punjabi majority in Pakistan has dominated the bureaucracy and the military and looked after the interests of the Punjab. The nature of the Pakistani state not providing safeguards and devolution of power to the provinces, there is some basic underlying tension even without the problems that have been piled on it by the migration of Pashtuns and Punjabis into Hyderabad and Karanchi, and the killings of 2 popular Sindhi politicians in the Bhutto clan, and the army's suppression of a Sindhi revolt in 1983 with harsh treatment of Sindhis. Now the aftermath of the new Bhutto killing is taking a new turn with calls for Sindh and its 38 million people to go its own way. The Bhuttos have not supported it but the sentiment is now appearing to take a life of its own, disregarding Zardari and Bilwal, spouse and son of Benazir, who are said to be of Baluchi descent. The large dam on the upper reaches of the Indus river benefits military officers who own land there but shrinks water supply to the Sindh which is on the lower reaches of the Indus river. This further aggravates tensions. The province is now run by Punjabi associates of Musharraf and this does not help matters as Sindhi interests may have been ignored. If there is sentiment for a separate state, the state of Pakistan that was built in 1947 and how it has shaped itself with Punjabi military running things is not designed to handle that kind of upheaval very well. It lacks the checks and balances, devolution of powers to provinces enough to keep local representation strong, and the avenues of expressing sentiment being kept open for local ethnic communities. The Pakistan military is strong and there are nuclear weapons, but how effective is that if the goodwill and sentiment of the Sindhis is lost. In the long term the only hope may be for an economic union much like that of the EU in South Asia in which the Punjab, Baluchistan, and the Sindh could coexist with India and among themselves in whatever form the political aspect of states takes shape, making the politcal shape of states less relevant, and like the EU putting the years of internecine strife behind them. Looking towards a better economic future, open trade, investment, communication and infrastructure links in Southern Asia and parts of Central Asia and Iran. ...

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Britain's National Health Service IT initiative failed because of a top down emphasis and focus on procurement. The project was started by Labor in 2002 and budgeted for 12 billion pounds. Lohr talks with Dr. David Brailer, and Dr. David Blumenthal, who headed the program for health IT in the Bush and Obama administrations, and with Richard Alvarez of Canada Health Infoway, which is the nonprofit corporation setup for conversion to electronic health records in Canada. Dr Brailer says the program in the UK was forced top down on doctors and nurses, and seen as a procurement program, ignoring the human aspects related to doctor preferences. Dr. Blumenthal empasized the need for collaborative effort all the way with doctors and nurses in a program of this kind. The confrontation that resulted from the lack of participation by health care professionals led to failure. Britain's new Cameron government ended the program.

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These scathing remarks by Rob Mudge of DW.com about Angela Merkel as bringing change or modernization to Germay come as Germany votes on Sunday. He says of Merkel's CDU that its core base is over 65 years voters. Mudge says CDU should modernize itself first before attempting to modernize Germany as it says in its slogans around Germany. He says the constant eulogizing of Merkel in the media is pointless. CDU party he says is mired in Merkel's sedate weiter so (keep it up) politics. Most of CDU is staid and unadventurous at a time when Germany needs to move forward with new ideas and invest in its future. He faults the CDU, both Merkel and Laschet, with spreading meaningless fear mongering about the SPD and Greens, at a time when the SPD vice chancellor has devised most of the anti covid economic packages for Germany and the European Union. Social Democrats Olaf Scholz, as vice chancellor, brings the very stability Germans look for, with the efforts for modernization and bringing together all sections of society Germany desperately needs today. Annalena Baerbock of the Greens party brings youthful energy with a new openness to invest in Germany and the people of Germany. ...

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Efforts by president Macron to setup a meeting between Rouhani of Iran and president Trump in New York to reduce tensions of miscalculation and disproportionate response after the attacks on Saudi oil facilities by drones and missiles. Macron says the "maximum pressure" sanctions placed by the U.S. are resulting in Iran placing "maximum pressure" on its neighbors. The Yemen civil war is fought by proxy.  One outcome appears to be the Houthi rebels backed by Iran in Yemen announcing a unilateral ceasefire. And the Saudis announcing a ceasefire of their own. This gives the European Union, the U.S., Saudis, Iran, China and Japan, time to consider the implications of the counterproductive approaches of the different sides to give enough room for new talks. Iran nuclear deal, U.S. relations with Iran, and any new talks on these issues are now seen in a different way. The nuclear deal is now linked with other issues in the region, including building peace in the region. Countries that depend on oil flowing through the Straits of Hormuz such as Japan, China, South Korea, and India are now also involved as silent partners pushing for peace in the region.  ...

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With U.S. crossing the 300,000 mark in infections on April 5 the country enters a new and critical phase in the fight against the global pandemic. Globally cases of infections jumped by 100,000 for the first time to 1.2 million. Health experts say the next 2 weeks are critical for winning the war against the global pandemic. White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx urges people to isolate themselves, avoiding even the trips to the grocery store or the pharmacy. Models show the infections peaking in New York, Detroit, and New Orleans in the next 6-7 days Birx says. In Europe the pandemic may be reaching a peak in Paris area and eastern France. High speed trains transferred patients from eastern France to western France as the fight continues. In Italy and Spain strict containment measures are now bringing in results with rate of infections increasing by less than 5% from the previous day. Daily deaths are less and pressure on hospitals is beginning to ease, with number of patients in intensive care decreasing. Queen Elizabeth II will address the British nation in a prerecorded address, the fourth one in seven decades of her reign, to thank health care workers. ...

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GST is to India what land sales were for China in its phase of rapid development and accelerated growth. It consolidated capital that could be then invested at the national and state levels on infrastructure, logistics for exports growth, creating a virtuous cycle of capital growth that could finance ever widening scale of development projects from metros, subways, rail, roads, bridges, airports, ports, logistics, tech related improvements. This was done in 2017 through a midnight session of parliament that passed the legislation needed. Years of endless discussion were turned into one session of implementing a single major tax system for India, transparent, digitized with new IT  Infosys playing a key role, and providing the pool of capital that has financed 5 years of development to take India past Britain as the fifth largest economy. Its pace of growth over 11% and accelerating with Maharashtra's GST growing at 24% in 2022-2023 over the prior year suggest that this will play a critical role in giving India a large pool of capital for growth. To be supplemented with foreign investment to make New India as a modernized nation. With an economy that will be exceeded only by the US and should catch up to China over the next 10 years. ...

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President Biden launches the US Asian Economic Framework during his visit to Tokyo. Biden's main achievement on his Asian trip is to lay the foundations for the economic framework of the free world democratic countries drawing in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, countries from ASEAN, in addition to the core of Japan and South Korea. India, Australia and New Zealand are now seen as part of the core group in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. By 2030 and 2040 this trip will be remembered for laying the foundations for the new economic relationships and supply chains in Asia, policies similar to that of Harry Truman after the Second World War that set the policies of US for the rest of the twentieth century. It is similar to the US EU Trade and Technology Council in setting a economic union of friendly free world countries in trade, technology, capital and supply chains. Four pillars are set by president Biden- digital policies, climate change action, supply chain renewal action, and transparency plus good governance. These are also the policies pursued by the Modi administration in India, which has set priorities in these four areas. The other aspects of the policies of president Biden are to set policies friendly to working families and set to promote worker incomes and conditions. ...

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Automakers will have to ensure that 40 to 45% of a car's content is made by workers in the U.S. earning at least $16 per hour. If this is not met automakers pay a 2.5% tariff for cars brought in from Mexico. Mexico makes 2.3 million cars and Canada 1.8 million. Automakers invested tens of billions of dollars in Mexico turning it into a lower cost export hub. This has led to job loss in the U.S. Mr. Trump's efforts in the new trade deal with Mexico are designed to increase investment in the U.S. auto industry.

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EV makers in US offer about $5000 in discounts to replace $7500 lost in government EV tax credits. The hurdle for electric vehicles is the lack of charging infrastructure and the cost of home chargers, in addition to the limited range in miles. The big jump in inflation centered not just on groceries in 2019-2024, there was a 34% increase in the cost of new cars and 50% increase for used cars, and a jump in maintenance costs. Reducing affordability for young people and making car ownership costlier. This turned into a cost of living crisis with groceries up 31%, that affected people's enthusiasm for climate change action when China was building one coal plant a week (adding 95 GW in 2024)- underlying the need to provide immediate relief to American working families and elderly through tax cuts, benefits and shifting tax dollars from climate change action to working families in the next 4 years. This is the approach taken under the DJT One Big Beautiful Act of 2025. Basically what the DJT side of the story is on emissions- US has only 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, cut this by half to 6% and assuming the EU which has 6% of gas emissions also cuts by half to 3%, the saving just 9%  while the 82% of emitters China, India, Russia and Brazil etc not making the cuts needed the impact on climate change is not significant. If China and India want relief US working families also need relief.  ...

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Food security for India comes with the achievements of agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan. Coming from Kumbakonam Tamilnadu, the eminent scientist's father was inspired by the movement of Gandhi for independence. Swaminathan took up the cause of farmers who were the vast part of the population of India in the 1920's when urbanization was just beginning. He studied at agricultural colleges in Coimbatore and New Delhi, and at Cambridge and U of Wisconsin, before heading the Agricultural Research Institute. By the late 1960's he was a leader in India's Green Revolution supported by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in the US.

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The pace of fundraising for the Sanders campaign picks up pace in the 48 hours after the virtual tie with Hillary Clinton in Iowa- raising $3 million in small donations most well below $2700 maximum, and 40% from new donors. The Sanders campaign gains momentum with about 80% of the vote from young people going to Sanders in Iowa.

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Scholars and experts on the Middle East have offered their assessment and understanding of the Middle East seen through its long history. This includes Bernard Lewis at Princeton, Ramadan at Oxford, and Efraim Karsh of King's College, London. Karsh's new book "The Tail Wags the Dog," describes the story of British, Russian and American involvement in the Middle East in the 20th century and into the 21st century. Karsh offers a corrective assessment to many myths about the Middle East in 2015 with sectarian and religious conflicts, and historical volaltility- that the events in these countries are dependent on the foreign powers and influences. Karsh shows how the people in the Middle East have influenced their own narrative thorugh passions, conflicts and failure to bring together different opinions and strains of thought for peaceful progress. He sees the surge of Islamist politics in the midst of the Arab Spring as stemming from the way large parts of the population remained unaffected by the changes of twentieth century technological developments and modernization. The religious conflicts of the seventeenth century in Europe that took place just as Europe began to open up to new ideas and influences and the modern period, show how religious conflict can take place for long periods covering a continental region, before it recedes into the background. Ultimately it is the actors in these countries that have to find a way forward without engaging in continuous strife and violence, sectarian conflicts, and pulling together for a consensus around pushing economic development and progress. ...

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NY Times analysis shows upper and middle income groups support 33 year old Zohran Mamdani,  black and Hispanic residents support Cuomo for NYC Mayor. Mamdani has a good ground presence with 50,000 volunteers knocking on 1.6 million doors in an unprecedented effort in one American city as it became less and less affordable (WSJ). Paradoxically large numbers of higher income resident and middle income residents favored Mamdani over Cuomo, and Cuomo did better in black and minority neighborhoods. Mamdani promised better housing, freezing stabilized housing rents and going after landlords who do not fix rental properties, free buses, and city run lower cost grocery stores, free child care. For the funding Mamdani says $5 billion by making corporate tax 11.5% similar to New Jersey, and by a wealth tax of 2% on incomes over $1 million (which at $20,000 would not affect their standard of living), as the property owners supported Mamdani. Mamdani is a immigrant who came to America from Kampala, Uganda at the age of 7 with Indian parents. His father taught at Columbia University, Mamdani attended Bowdoin College in Maine. ...

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The U.S. Australia, China, India, Canada Britain, Sweden and other countries in Europe have growing trade and other tensions with China. Gradually a new situation is evolving for world trade as each country looks at its own interests in the trading relationship with China.

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Defense spending under the new Obama 2012-2013 budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, 2012, is $525 billion, and an additional $88 billion for Afghanistan. This is $6 billon below the $531 billion budget for the 2011-2012 budget of $531 billion approved by Congress, $22 billion less than the Obama administration's proposed budget. An additional $115.1 billion was for Afghanistan. In a move to bring financial discipline to additional appropriations for foreign conflicts, the Obama administration is proposing in the 2012-2013 budget proposal a limit to "overseas contingency operations" appropriations. The total proposed is $450 billion for fiscal 2013 to 2021.

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The contrast between modernizing, developing East and South Asia ( from Mumbai to Shanghai) with war torn desolate West Asia (from Tehran and Baghdad to Kabul and Islamabad) is so striking today that it is something to reflect upon for wisdom and understanding. UAE support for Sudan's RSF Rapid Strike Force and Saudi support for the military - fracturing of Sudan, errors piled on errors led to the civil war in Sudan. A civil war in a country neighboring Saudi Arabia just across the Red Sea. Saudis and UAE were on opposite sides briefly after UAE pulled out of Sudan, UAE acting in this way to object against Saudis requesting US sanctions on UAE.  Once close partners have moved apart as they spread their influence in different conflicts in the Middle East.  This has not created a region that can grow economically without the disruptions of conflict in the way other parts of Asia have emerged to modernize the countries as in Taiwan, Korea, China and India. In neighboring Pakistan another conflict has emerged as partners split, with looming conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yemeni Houthis are in conflict with the US and affect the Persian Gulf shipping lanes.  Iran with it's pursuit of weapons programs and nuclear weapons is using capital that is badly needed to improve the economic situation on arms buildup for the regime and for allies in Lebanon and Yemen, leading to protests and crisis. In this way the Middle East has failed to use oil wealth to modernize the entire region. Much of it was wasted in Iraq and now in Iran by policies that led to war and regional conflicts not modernization and technological transformation that has happened in Asia. The US has inadvertently becoming a partner to this as when the Obama administration helped fund Iran's economic rebuilding which was instead used to fund the military, and before that the Reagan administration support for Iraqi socialist ideology regime. The challenge for China was how to modernize after the Japanese invasion and civil war. In Korea it was how to modernize after the civil war. In India it is how to modernize with a smaller neighboring country Pakistan promoting terrorism and wars now with China's support. In Asia all these challenges were and are being met to steadily and persistently modernize to European standards with a singleminded focus and determination to meet the aspirations of the people with the US business working alongside Taiwanese, Korean, Chinese, and Indian governments and private industry. In West Asia various ideological (Iraq), military (Pakistan), religious Shiite (Iran), religious + modernizing (Saudi +UAE) with erratic leaders and little representation of the people, has destroyed the tranquillity of the region and destroyed democratic forms of government, destroyed bottom up education and health of the population except for priviliged groups in countries in the region of West Asia. Involvement of US and Europe or Russia in West Asia has led to distintegration of Soviet Union (Boris Yeltsin) and deindustrialization of US and Europe (Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama administrations) with business shipping out manufacturing to China while wars engaged the attention of American and European elites in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan. The entire west Asian scene for 1950-2030 has been a disaster, one massive disaster for all involved. The contrast with East Asia and South Asia reminds one of the words from Robert Frost of New England in Mowing- that reflects on the enduring value of honest labour. "My long scythe whispered to the ground. What was it it whispered? It was no dream of the gift of idle hours, or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf: anything less would have seemed too weak to the earnest love that laid the swale in rows. The fact is the sweetest dream that labour knows. My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make." ...

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U.S. CFTC head Gensler favored a rule that would require asset managers like Vanguard and Pimco to contact at least five banks when looking for a price on a derivatives contract. The idea was to foster competition among the banks. Gensler failed to get the third vote from Democratic commissioner Wetjen on this requirement and settled for a requirement to contact at least two banks. The new rules for derivative contracts are being set to meet the rule making requirements set by the Dodd-Frank legislation in the U.S.

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Labour party leader Corbyn reflects on his years as leader, the 2019 election, his effort to get Britain to spend more money to fix social wrongs made worse through austerity programs of the last decade. He tells BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, that he was denounced in the election for advocating spending more money  than Britain could afford. He sees himself and Labor vindicated in its proposals for spending vast sums, to invest in the state, as this is what the Tories are now doing under Johnson. He sees Britain as ill-prepared for the coronavirus pandemic after ten years of austerity. The result of the Labour party election will be announced on April 4, a contest between Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long Bailey, and Lisa Nandy. Mr. Corbyn is resigning after Labour's defeat in the 2019 election. He says the divisions over Brexit which led to a vote at Labour's conference to negotiate a new deal with EU and put it to another referendum, clearly did not win the election. Reflecting he says he did his best with an expanded level of membership for Labour party, and shifting the party to an interventionist economic policy that was anti-austerity investment led economy. He made his share of mistakes says Corbyn, as he was just human. And urged new Labour party leaders to spend time listening to people in all parts of the country, and recognize the strengths and good in the people.  ...

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Canadian steel and lumber industries get government aid, as talks to end US tariffs are halted over an ad on Reagan misrepresenting him on tariffs by Ontario state.  Canada's steel and lumber industries will get the aid in the form of railway costs cut in half with rail subsidies, and tariffs on US steel imports into Canada to reduce domestic steel costs for other industries. Stellantis shifts car production for a new Jeep from suburban Toronto to Illinois, GM cut a shift at a pickup plant and closed a electric van plant in Ontario. Not all imports to the US from Canada face tariffs. Other products enter the US from Canada under a free trade agreement USMCA that went into effect July 1 2020. Canada is also shifting policy under Carney's Liberals on climate change, as it seeks to reorient its economy to export oil to China and India- a new pipeline is now approved for oil and gas to be shipped across the country from Alberta. Since it's independence with Dominion status in 1867 Canada's economy has struggled with the idea of building a economy separate from the US so that trade between the northeastern Canada and Northeastern US which is next to each other is foregone for trade with distant provinces in the western states such as Alberta and British Columbia. In Brazil Lula's Worker's Party is also slowing efforts on climate change for the economy as it approves oil and gas projects in the Amazon, at the same time as it holds COP30 at Belem port in the Amazon. Even Biden had shown flexibility on the economy to support cost of living measures that are in conflict with climate change action. In DJT's second term climate change action has taken a back seat to cost of living concerns when a large majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck. ...