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The dire situation in Brazil with 180,000 deaths and Mexico with 110,000 deaths by December 9, 2020. Latin America has 460,000 deaths.

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The behavior of the US stock market is examined in this analysis in the WSJ. It shows that tech stocks that comprise a major part of the S&P 500 made a big surge in 2020 and 2021, dropping by 30% in 2022. Consumer discretionary stocks which also experienced an upsurge in 2020 and 2021 are facing headwinds from higher inflation and decline in demand. Retailers such as Target and Walmart are reducing inventories as demand shifts. 

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Joydeep Gupta, director for South Asia at North Pole, environmental news site, says 2050 is important but even more important is what India does now. This is why what Modi promised at COP26 Glasgow for 2030 matters- achieving 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, improvements of 45% in reducing carbon intensity, and cutting carbon emissions by 1 billion tons. Here Gupta looks at what India will be doing, the obstacles and ways of achieving these goals.

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The riots in Dublin, Ireland, covered in depth in The Times, started with a stranger approaching an Irish language primary school in Parnell Square East, and attacking children there with a knife. A deliveroo driver on a motorcycle moves to the scene and using his helmet hits the attacker felling him to the ground where he is disarmed. Minutes later the scene is replayed over social media channels TwitterX, Whats App, and far right figure puts it in a Twitter account that a "foreign man entered the school and stabbed five people," setting off marauding youth to riot on the streets A tram and several police cars, shops in the centre of Dublin, a hostel for asylum seekers, are damaged or set on fire.  In September 2023 200 people protested high immigration outside the Irish parliament. As in Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Utrecht area  housing in Dublin is unaffordable to the locals. Immigration has surged particularly from Ukraine all over Europe in 2022. It is an issue in UK, Netherlands and Ireland. With the cost of living crisis, the aftermath of the pandemic with people suspicious of the state, overcrowding in socially deprived inner city areas Parnell Square being one of them,  and record homelessness; immigration has become a scapegoat. The suspect in this situation was a naturalized Irish citizen who has lived in Ireland for 20 years and is of French-Algerian origin. The Deliveroo driver who came to the rescue is a 43 year old Brazilian Caio Benicio. It took three hours after nightfall 6.00 pm for police to restore order. ...

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By April 22 2026 a measured and careful response from the US president as the US Naval blockade stays on and US exercises patient waiting. Iran fails to save its economy from disruptions, massive loss of jobs as supply chains fail, and inflation exceeds 50%, two million in job losses. The longer the war carries on and the naval blockade remains in place purely to hold on to enriched uranium for weapon systems and ballistic missiles, the larger the economic losses.

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WSJ's Michelle Hackman, Josn Dawsey, and Tarini Parti give this in depth report on the way Kristi Noem has run the US Department of Homeland Security, and sidelined Tom Homan who headed the Border effort, resulting in the mistakes made in Minnesota and other places in law enforcement that led to strong protests. Eventually Tom Homan was put in charge and has helped to restore some of the trust lost through the actions taken by Noem. This WSJ report is critical of how the former governor of North Dakota has run DHS and taken actions to help her image as she planned to run for national office in 2028. In the process she has damaged trust in the DHS methods for law enforcement, with criticism from Republicans in Congress.

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Parent accountability in Georgia high school shooting- when parents buy children rifles is this OK? Most parents responding to this article in the Washington Post say parents should be held responsible. In this case of a shooting at a Georgia high school by a 14 year old 2 teachers and 2 students were killed, and nine injured, there was something wrong about how this happened. Colin Gray 55, was convcted for second degree murder because he gave his son a Colt Gray a rifle for a Christmas gift in 2023 and ignored his son's deteriorating mental health, did not secure the rifle. Both parents were struggling with drug addiction. Should he gift a rifle to a 14 year old?  

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See spectacular images of the Earth half lit by moon, and of the Atlantic/ Iberia /eastern South America in this BBC Pictures report of Artemis II Lunar Mission April 3, 2026. To take these pictures the Orion spacecraft did the lunar injection burn that took it out of earth's orbit and flung it to the far side of the moon. The spacecraft reaches the far side of the Moon on April 6 and then reaches back to Earth's orbit April 10. This is the first time it has gone this far since 1972. The sheer excitement and the enthusiasm reflected by the four astronauts and the people on planet Earth shows how the Lunar Mission and planetary Mission's bring people together from all over the planet.

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A very basic EV pickup truck at $25,000 financed by Amazon- with AC Cruise Control and 2 person seating that can be converted into 5 seating using a special kit. The company named Slate based in Troy, Michigan, does not depend on government incentives, bypasses dealerships altogether. It is built using robotic machinery not metal stamping machines and does not use paint but uses $500 customizable vinyl wraps. This way it avoids having paint shops and metal stamping plants like the major car makers, which are major parts of the cost. It will be made at a factory in Warsaw, Indiana in 2027. The Slate pickup truck is shorter than a Toyota Corolla. It can be driven on one EV charge for 205 miles and can use Tesla's charging network.

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Daniel Harding as LA Philharmonic conductor 2026 with parallel career as France Airbus pilot.  Having two rigorous careers is exceptional. Daniel Harding of Oxford, England, conducted the Swedish Philharmonic for many years. He now replaces Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel at LA Philharmonic. Gustavo Dudamel joins the NY Philharmonic as conductor. Of his career as pilot for Air France he says-

"[What] I love about going to work for Air France is that I put on my uniform … and I’m part of the team. And knowing another world, how other people work and having a completely different role is healthy. I’ve learned things about myself and conducting in a year that I didn’t learn in 29 years before as a conductor.”

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Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas and asks him direct questions about the border with Mexico, published Feb 2, 2024 in NYT. Why the surge in migrants asks Navarro. Mayorkas is himself a Cuban born immigrant. Republicans in the House are impeaching Mayorkas. Navarro asks can you clearly say what has gotten us to this place and what went wrong? Clearly something had happened in Latin America. Central America drove migrants north after conflicts in Salvador, in Nicaragua and drought affecting Guatemala's agriculture for over 2 decades under different administrations. Mayorkas says in response to the question that the world is experiencing the largest level of human displacement that it has seen since World War II. He says the entire hemisphere is experiencing the enormous displacement in Venezuela as its economy collapsed. During the nineteenth century after president Monroe put forward the Monroe Doctrine that created a uniquely American sphere that asked European powers to stay away from the Americas north and south, any attempt by European powers was seen as an hostile act. It was American opposition to European colonialism. By the time of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations this policy was not followed with the intervention of the Soviet Union in Cuba leading to a a wave of refugees from Cuba in the sixties. In the last decade the situation in Venezuela has worsened to the point that 8 million people have left Venezuela for neighboring nations, 2 million to Colombia alone, destabilizing the southern hemisphere. Venezuelans many from the educated middle class form the bulk of the surge in migrants across the US border with Mexico in 2022 and 2023. The problems were actually exacerbated under the Republican administration as the Venezuelan inflation spiralled after 2016 skyrocketing into hyper inflation by 2018 leading to the flow of immigrants outward that reached 8 million. This kind of hyperinflation the worst in the history of Latin America need not have happened with better managing of the crisis at that time. Mayorkas says the problem is that America's system of asylum is broken and both parties need to fix it. This is proposed by Tillis-Graham and Lankford all Republicans in the US Senate with president Biden's support. When he joined the Department of Homeland Security in 2009 Mayorkas says, US Border Patrol chief told him the real problem was that from the moment a migrant claims asylum at the border under US law and the adjudication of that claim it takes several years. This is the root of the problem the law can be fixed with the will of enlightened persons in both parties by simply passing a new law. Immigrants from Latin America are just as likely to vote Republican as Democratic and this may be particularly true for Venezuela's middle class that left the country as the economy collapsed with policies that led to inflation not seen in this hemisphere.  The other alternative is for the US and both parties to agree to what would be today's version of the Monroe doctrine- then opposing European colonialism, now opposing the breakup from within of Democratic countries in Latin America leading to waves of migration north of the border and causing upheavals all over the western hemisphere. Much less a policy of such resolution both parties have failed to fix basic policies of asylum and parole that today are being addressed by legislation being put together by Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Senator Tillis of North Carolina, three core states that are Republican since the Civil War, with the help of the White House and Senator Schumer. Yet in the House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson calls it dead on arrival simply refusing to break the status quo. ...

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Britain's parliament voted 328 to 301 to take control of the agenda on Brexit. This includes 21 rebel Conservative Party MP's including Mr. Hammond and Ken Clarke. This means parliament can now set the January 2020 new date to replace October 31, 2019, as the date for Brexit. A new general election would also be called in the event that Labour party cannot form a new unity government under Mr. Corbyn. A no confidence motion on the minority government of Mr. Johnson would be the next step after putting off Brexit to January 2020.

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Germany records over 22,000 cases and 389 deaths on a single day, November 26, 2020, as Germany passes the 1 million mark in cases.

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19 percent of China's exports went to the US in 2017, in 2024 this is 15%, but wait, the difference of 4 percent it is simply coming back to the US but through Southeast Asia. As a result some of the same issues that puzzled Trump negotiators exist today. China's exports surged 12.7% in October 2024 over the prior year. Biden was facing this situation and had yet to respond to the surge in exports to US. These exports were sent to Mexico and to Southeast Asia to circumvent the tariffs. It is the same situation revisited in 2024 with two other aspects of the Chinese economy-economic stimulus gets smaller and the housing and construction industry has imploded, the economy has slower growth. The overall price level in the US with a 60% tariff plus 10% for all countries would be 0.72 addition to the price level of 1.10 percent today- that is when including the depreciation of China's yuan by 10%. as it did last time. The result would be price level in the US at 1.82%, according to J.P. Morgan. Drag on China's GDP of the Trump tariffs in first term was 0.65% according to one investment bank GS, with 60% tariffs it would be 2%. Trump secured a return of $116 billion or 58% of the $200 billion China said it would buy of US exports. The other 42%- the deal was not completed in the end. ...

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Republicans are divided in Texas in 2023 which could turn it over to Democrats. One forgets that Texas is the state that a Democrat LBJ Lyndon Baines Johnson was from and his base of support, first vice president under John Kennedy and then elected president. LBJ signed legislation for amending Social Security to create Medicare and Medicaid. He also passed Civil Rights Act of 1964 banning segregation and in 1965 enfranchised black voters. The WSJ in this editorial sees the divisions between Republicans in the House and the Senate over the impeachment of Attorney General Paxton as signs that Texas has one party dominance for too long. It says this could turn the state to a Democrat majority in 2024 as it was under LBJ in 1960, who helped create programs revered by all Americans.

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For the last decade restrictions on sale or purchase of apartments in new buildings were being put in place by the Chinese government to make sure that buildings were for living not for speculation. With the current downturn in construction after collapse of Evergrande and other construction companies, and China depending on construction for one third of economic growth, this policy has changed. Previously couples who divorced just to buy a second apartment were not allowed to buy one for three years. People had to move to Chengdu and pay local taxes for three yeas before they could buy an apartment in the city. These restrictions are now lifted to promote new construction that had fallen quickly after some big bankruptcies and homeowner protests over incomplete buildings in 2022-2023.

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This is what our energy wars, our climate change wars are about in summary. Europe has moved faster than the US, India and China in cutting fossil fuels use over 20 years 2005 to 2025. Europe going from 1525 trillion watt hours to 792- cutting use by half. The US from 2900 to  2553 trillion watt hours just 12%. And China...China tripled its use. This has come at a price as the costs of renewables push up electricity prices beyond what homes and industry can support. UK electricity prices 80% higher than US and half of UK energy users plan to ration its use 2025. Half of electricity costs in UK come from cost and delivery, other half of costs from subsidies of renewables and other. In Germany high electricity costs are hobbling industry and reducing economic growth. Lower electricity prices make the US more attractive than Germany as a place to invest. Another way to look at it- US and Europe cut fossil fuel use by about 1100 trillion watt hours and China increased its use by 4200 trillion watt hours or 4 times what the US and Europe cut in 2024 over 2005. Adding India, Brazil this would be 5-6 times what the US and Europe saved in 2024 over 2005. The "And "strategy of combining reduction in fossil with building renewable capacity is working out compared to dumping fossil in one shove and going all out renewable. There is also the question of equity. China and India argue equity means we should be allowed to use some fossil with renewable for 2.5 billion people's needs. The other side of equity is the US saying the same as "no fossil period" strategy puts the needs of the large part of the population for lower costs of energy  pushed aside as wealthy classes say it is OK. Even when the savings through cuts and sacrifices in US and EU are cut down, cut down by 5-6 fold increase in China, India, Brazil alone. In this kind of climate change war it makes sense not to go with labels such as climate change denial DJT vs China climate change affirming, when China is diluting US-EU climate change entire twenty year savings of 2005-2024 by a factor of 4, 1100 trillion watt hours wiped out by China's 4200 trillion watt hours added. And India, Brazil taking this to a factor of 6. This is why a lot of the discussion with self-righteous indignation becomes less purposeful. What is clear is that every action to cut cost of living in US and EU for large parts of the people is an effort in the right direction as it frees up resources for the fight against climate change, the sense that we are all in the same boat and in the same struggle. The fight against cost of living is part of the long run struggle against climate change. ...

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By carrying only 150,000 passengers of its normally 42.4 million passengers and grounding all but a few aircraft Ryanair Europe's largest airline, will show a loss of 100 million pounds. It will resume operations by July when it expects about half of the 42.4 million passengers for the quarter. Routes will be cut and prices adjusted with profits expected by September 2020. It expects full recovery of the airline industry to take about 2 years. For the financial year ending March 2021 it expects about 100 million passengers for the year down from 154 million passengers normal for the year. Ryanair is one of the only airlines that was able to plan this far. It has laid off one sixth of its 18,000 staff.