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A quarter of the 20 clubs in the Premier League soccer in Britain have seen managers fired. There is a lot of pressure. On managers, players and teams. Jose Mourinho says the League has lost much of the stability. Even relationships don't last, players tired of each other, tired of managers and everything is moving too fast, say managers. Arsenal follows Tottenham in changing managers after losses against other soccer teams. Arsenal is in 8th place and Manchester United in 9th place, owners see changing managers particularly in December as a way to keep their place in the big leagues. With more jobs opening up it is not particularly bad for the fired managers such as Pochettino of Tottenham who can sit at home waiting for the call.

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 Franco German differences are growing as Macron of France and Merkel have serious differences on NATO, Russia, EU expansion with Balkan countries, and a eurozone budget. Macron has called NATO brain dead. Merkel disagrees. The personal relations between the two leaders never close have worsened. 

On climate change Macron's push to cut in half greenhouse gas emissions in Europe was supported by Merkel but only after much wrangling within Merkel's own coalition government. German conservatives in the CDU fear it disproportionately hurts a heavily industrialized country like Germany. And most Germans are wary of the Macron idea of more EU integration after the experience with Greece and Italy, suspecting that Germans will have to pay the bill. EU officials say personal relations between Macron and Merkel now border on animosity.

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Life expectancy was growing in the U.S. till 2010. In the three years 2015 to 2017 it declined each year. In 2014 the life expectancy in the U.S. was 78.9 years, declining to 78.6 years today. This is contrary to the trend in all G-7 countries where life expectancy is growing. Now it is seen as systemic- a factor common to all race, gender and ethnic groups. Part of this is a result of economic distress. People with less education are more affected and young people are also hit hard.

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Citing passenger safety as an issue Transport of London (TfL) says it will not renew the license of Uber in London. Other ride apps make efforts to compete yet may face similar issues. TfL says Uber was not sufficiently "fit and proper" to have the permit renewed again. Uber lost its operating license in September 2017 and then operated on a probationary license after safety issues were raised about unauthorized drivers. 

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President Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed with near unanimous support by the U.S. Congress. The original U.S. law on Hong Kong passed in 1992 requiring yearly reports on the autonomy of Hong Kong for it to get the "special status" granted to it. This requirement for yearly reports expired in 2007. This requirement is now reinstated. The law signed by Mr. Trump requires the State Department to certify Hong Kong' autonomy annually. The WSJ describes it as a "grim trigger" strategy" which would cause damage to Hong Kong capital markets and is of a magnitude that makes it less likely to be used. Mr. Trump pointedly remarked that he had signed it "out of respect for Mr. Xi, China and Hong Kong," and Mr. Trump has shown respect so far for the protesters but also shown respect for Mr. Xi and China in the middle of the unending nature of the protests. The new Act does not give Mr. Trump any additional powers than he already has. It only changes one aspect of relations- it makes Hong Kong relative autonomy a part of permanent high level issues in China - U.S. relations, including trade and Hong Kong's status as financial center. ...

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China is still interested in a trade deal with the U.S. even after Mr. Trump signed a bill passed by Congress that it criticized as interference in its internal affairs. Mr. Trump's signing statement gave China an opening to continue its persistent effort to seek a trade deal that would lessen the effect of tariffs on its economy. It mentioned "constitutional authorities with respect to foreign relations," and stated Mr. Trump had signed the bill "out of respect for Mr. Xi, China and Hong Kong." This has credibility because Mr. Trump has consistently supported an effort to bring a peaceful end to protests and any efforts to that end that Mr. Xi has and would continue to make. Both sides see the role of the biggest economies in the trading system as too significant to be affected by different views on Hong Kong, as long as mutual respect is sustained.  

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When taking handwritten notes with pen and paper people process the information more deeply because it is not possible to write everything down. Compared to taking notes on a computer studies show show people able to grasp concepts better when they have taken handwritten notes.  

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This WSJ story provides a fascinating look at how Italy planned for too long, but failed to finally execute the final step of using the submersible steel floodgates that were already built to tackle just the kind of flooding that happened recently.  Problems include the use of submersible steel floodgates that would go back under water  after use in a flood, causing an additional complication to building the floodgates. The city itself was not entirely behind the plan so that execution was delayed. The politics and corruption added additional delays that astonishingly delayed the plan for over 10 years. About 80% of Venice was flooded with waters rising 6 feet above normal levels on November 12, 2019. It is hard to believe that 78 yellow steel barriers stayed on the seabed instead of blocking the three points at which water could enter from the sea into Venice. Most of the area has normal land barriers and the steel gates were designed to block water from entering at the smaller points that separate land barriers. It is also unbelievable that the plan started after a bad flood in 1966, construction beginning in 2003 after approval by over 12 public bodies, expert panels and courts on the complicated design. Costs went up as years passed from $1.7 billion to $5.5 billion. Ordinary Italians say Rotterdam has similar problems and has dams and no flooding, that the underwater design of the gates did not make sense just for aesthetics. Some experts say the underwater design doomed the project by making it costly and difficult, bureaucratic delays did the rest. The longer the delays and higher the cost the faster it eroded support in Venice and Italy, leading to this improbable result of building the flood gates with the underwater design, testing them but not making it operational in the final step, and not authorizing the use on November 11, 2019. The gates were in disuse astonishingly for so long that rust was discovered at one point.  Venice is now losing much of the population near its canals with only 50,000 remaining from a one time population of 171,000. The latest flood damage is over $1 billion and inexplicable after so much effort building the 74 yellow floodgates under water. ...