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The Irish far economy is vulnerable and the Irish farmer at risk following Brexit. Rivals to prime minister Varadkar in the coming election say he has the M50 mentality, referring to the beltway around Dublin, not thinking enough of the Irish farm economy. A hard Brexit would have cut the Irish growth to 0.7% under Theresa May and now to 3.7% under Boris Johnson from the 6% for 2019.  This is happening as the Irish farmer depends on Britain for exports as he has for seven centuries.  Britain is the biggest importer of agricultural products from Ireland. Sinn Fein is gaining ground in this urban-rural divide with 25%, and so is Centre right Fiana Fail at 24%, with 20% for the current prime minister's party, in recent polls. Irish economy also depends on imports from Britain for machinery and trade agreement with Britain is crucial for Ireland now that Brexit has happened. All along Ireland's coast on the Atlantic Ocean for farmers this is a worrisome situation. ...

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A nuclear plant in a war zone with repeated shelling? This is taken up in this debate video of 44 minutes in FR24 which you can click on. The world has not seen this since the start of nuclear energy from plants in the 1950's. Calder Hall the first UK nuclear power station and the first in western Europe started in 1956. Eisenhower opened the first US nuclear power station Shippingport on the Ohio river in Pennsylvania, 50 kilometres from Pittsburgh in 1958 as part of the Atoms for Peace Program. The US built 54 nuclear plants that are operating today in 2022 generating 50% of the renewable energy in use today in the US. The question is what does the unthinkable conducted by the Russians and Ukrainians, by weaponizing a nuclear plant do to public perception of the safety of the Atoms for Peace Program initiated by president Eisenhower in 1954? What does this damaging of public safety perceptions after Fukushima do to the Atoms for Peace type of programs in China India, and European Union that are part of the emissions cutting programs in the world? These are serious questions at a time when climate change is not simply a word but means floods, fires, drought, and declining food production all over the world from Spain to Pakistan, from Germany to China. China and India are affected. China has 53 nuclear plants in 2021 with 50 GW and plans to double this by 2030. India has 22 nuclear plants  with 8 GW in 2021 and plans to triple this to 22 GW by 2030. How will climate change be tackled with public safety perceptions affected with another nuclear accident like that in Fukushima arising from shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. As the president of the UN Security Council Zhang Jun of China clearly stated at the UN SC meeting last week that China opposed use of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by Russia (or Ukraine) in any way that could lead to damaging nuclear safety leading to an unintended accident. China only gets about 5% of its energy from nuclear, India about 3%, and this will need to increase multiple times to tackle climate change. France gets 70% of its energy from nuclear, the US 20%, by comparison. Nuclear energy safety and clear rules to prevent weaponizing of nuclear plant zones is essential and a solution like that developed for the food grain shipments from Odessa through Black Sea to the Mediterranean has to be arranged quickly. ...

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How China is reviving memories of its struggles with Japan since 1900 and its efforts to modernize since 1950 under the leadership of the Communist Party led by Mao and Chou-en-Lai. Who were followed by 1990-2010 by a technocratic class of engineers and professionals, and now reverts back under XI Jinping -a son of one of the founders of the revolutionary armies that fought the Japanese- reverts back to its revolutionary ideologies that defined its emergence as a modern nation. Only American business interests fail to understand the China of president Xi Jinping because they like Tim Cook have not read or understood the modern history of China. In the book "Stilwell and the American Experience in China" by Tuchman, a lot of this can be experienced first hand as we see West point colonel Joe Stilwell experience China first hand since 1920's through the phase of nationalist sentiments, outright Japanese invasion, and the setbacks as North China and the Yangste Valley fall to Japan's Kwantung Army elements who run the government by 1939. Then comes the Second World War, Marshall is appointed chief of the Army by FDR in 1939 and he makes Stilwell brigadier general and responsible for China for the next 8 years. This is a China Stilwell loved and understood from daily contacts with the ordinary people of China that are on every page of this book. Jinping's father grew up in this way leading the revolutionary armies that fought the Japanese, and some of this passed on to his son even though he suffered from the Great Proleterian Cultural Revolution of the 1960's, but understood the significance of what his parent's generation had accomplished in creating modern China free of centuries of unimaginable poverty, indifference of the ruling classes, and oppression made worse by foreign powers. ...

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DJT 1.0 was led on the tariffs policy by USTR Robert Lighthizer, who had experience negotiating with the Japanese negotiators in the Reagan era. He is today respected by  Republicans, is seen in an important role in economic policy and to prepare the tariff policy actions of the new DJT administration. Lighthizer prefers to get Congress to take action with legislation. He also believes that domestic manufacturing will make gains with new and higher tariffs on Chinese imports. Lighthizer policy is falsely compared with Hoover Tariffs Act of 1930 when world trade was 9% of world GDP, today it is 63% of world GDP, and where under Hoover in 1930 the tariffs were across the board all countries 20,000 goods. Under Lighthizer on specific products where dumping is happening -steel, aluminium, autos, with Japan in 1960-70 or China 2000-2020 targeting American industries + technologies for takeover. And falsely when it comes to raising costs to each American family on average by $4000 a year by economists. The conventional view for business for 2000-2016 through Bush and Obama favoring free trade did not take into account the unusual experience of China which entered WTO in 1990, then expanded in a way unprecedented in history at 10-12% growth rates for 15 years destroying American manufacturing with dumping, having support of outshoring by companies in the US, and not giving reciprocal treatment for exports from the US to China. China also had unrestricted access to US technologies in this type of trade. Lighthizer's approach was to specifically address this problem not a general across the board tariffs on all goods (20,000 goods) on all countries as with the Hoover Tariffs Act in 1930. Lighthizer's approach adopted by DJT called for reciprocal trade response with China as the US had already done with Japan, not unilateral across the board tariffs, and when world trade had advanced to about zero tariff rates. And falsely compared to Hoover 1930 Act because under Hoover tariffs were 29-40%. raised to 60% when world trade was small, was 9% of GDP. The Biden administration has tacitly agreed with Lighthizer's vision by not reversing DJT tariffs. A new higher tariff will probably be selective based on the industry, country and what goals the US has set under the new administration for that industry. Some of the tariffs revenue may also be used for tax cuts. ...

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How the Bush presidency started with hopes in domestic policy that were never to come to fruition. Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate, reflects on the promise of the Bush State of the Union address of Feb. 2001, and the compassionate conservatism it evoked- the Bush priorities of education, setting higher educaion standards, immigration reform, helping needy and at risk children, health care access. He recalls the words used by Bush in Spanish: "Juntos podemos," we can do it together. As governor of Texas Bush had focussed on racial disparities and gaps in education, winning 27% of black votes and a third of Hispanic votes. Then came 9/11 (2002), weapons of mass destruction (from 2003 onwards), which soon overshadowed the education efforts, grants to extend health insurance coverage, initiative to encourage mentring of at-risk children. The $10 billion program to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean is a part of the Bush legacy, other areas were overcome by the distraction of wars in the Middle East....

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The story of a company and its founder in Seattle who realized that $40,000 a year is not much to make a decent living in Seattle- that people had to work 2 jobs. In the process hurting the productivity at the company, with employees putting in less of the kind of energy and motivated work that helps companies grow. The founder decides to cut back on his own expenses and extravagant lifestyle to make sure his employees are paid a decent wage. He did the math and decided on $70,000 Five years later sales of the company have doubled. It is a payments company and the payments processed at Gravity doubled from $3.8 billion a year to $10.2 billion. The number employees have doubled. For employee productivity it mattered that they were not doing 2 jobs and worrying about credit card debt. Now 70% of employees have paid off debt. The amount of money they put into pension funds has doubled. And instead of 1% about 10% own their own homes. This suggests the old culture was bad for the economy as well as employees. More housing demand, more homes built, more cars sold, more money for pension funds to manage, all translate into a better performing economy and economic growth. Simply stated the old culture has put an artificial ceiling on economic growth and worse set a low bar fro productivity in companies. Healthier employees who could spend the time doing second jobs doing exercize instead and staying fit would also bring down the money spent on healthcare.  Ultimately it us about good common sense, and honest thinking about what works and does not work. The old culture simply fails good common sense. ...

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The title of this BBC report is a misnomer as the content of the report is that India and the US are actively negotiating a Trade Agreement after some disagreements on Indian oil purchases from Russia bumped up from 2% before 2019 to about one third to 40% of its imports by 2024. This is being rapidly reversed and some estimates by consultants CLSA show India only made $2-3 billion from Russian discounted oil sales, a miniscule amount. On American interest in agricultural exports India can take in some products other than grain which it sees as important to feed 1 billion people and food security.  DJT says the "special relationship" between India and the US is important, and says "there's nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion". India has much bigger stakes in trade with the US. In fact it's growth into the third largest economy in the world means doubling or tripling its trade with the US and the European Union in the next few years. This would narrow the difference in GDP and per capita between India and China, as India and China started at the same GDP and per capita in 1950. Only in 1990 with China's trade with the US has the Chinese GDP and per capita income increased to create the huge gap with India. ...

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Hillary Clinton is diagnosed by her physician as having pneumonia on September 11, 2016. Her physician Lisa Bardack, says she "has been experiencing a cough related to allergies." She was put on antibiotics  when the cough was diagnosed as pneumonia, and told to rest and modify her schedule for a few days.

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Litigation expenses and settlements for JP Morgan Chase at $17.7 billion for 2008-2012 now exceed the $16.1 billion for Bank of America, according to FBR Capital Markets. JP Morgan Chase plans to spend an additional $4 billion and commit 5000 new personnel to help it clean up the bank's risk and regulatory compliance problems. Of the $4 billon $2.5 billion go into litigation reserves, and $1.5 billion for a 30% increase in risk control staffing and other related expenses. As part of the changes CEO Dimon has put the most senior executives in charge of separate parts of regulatory problems. These executives cannot be overruled by business heads. In another change still to be made at other banks the top compliance officer reports to the chief operating officer of the bank not the general counsel. This change was made at the request of regulators who now meet about 50 times per month with compliance executives. The total control staff for compliance and risk are now at 15,000 in 2013, up from 8000 in 2012. At a 2 day business retreat at Martha's Vineyard compliance and control officers were invited for briefings and came away with equal authority as business chiefs. JP Morgan has also provided 750,000 hours of training on control and regulatory issues to its staff using McKinsey, Ernst Young and other firms. CEO Dimon sees the effort as making the bank stronger than ever and this has become a top priority for him, reflecting a change in his views from the period when the London Whale crisis first emerged. It also shows a leadership trait of Dimon as a learner who puts his full weight behind an effort after gaining new insights into hidden problems....

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 President Trump says China is backing off in negotiations to address U.S. demands for a fair relationship on trade. He says the U.S. will increase tariffs from 10% imposed in September 2018 to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese goods starting May 10, 2019. China has put tariffs of 10% on $60 billion of American goods exported to China responding to the American tariffs in last September.  The U.S. says since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 with the approval of president Clinton it has unfairly benefited in trade with the U.S., leading to closure of factories and loss of jobs in the U.S. with state subsidized Chinese exports to the U.S. contrary to the spirit of the WTO and its rules. China has made promises to correct this and not kept them says the U.S. side in negotiations led by Robert Lighthizer. The tariffs moves are a tactic of president Trump to get China to relent and make fundamental changes in the way it exports to the U.S.  So far the Chinese response has been tit for tat. But this can change. As this report points out what is already known that China benefits far more and exports far more to the U.S. than the U.S. does to China. The $60 billion of American goods exports on which China placed tariffs represent two fifths of China's imports from U.S. With smaller exports from the U.S. to China, China has not much leverage in trade negotiations in this kind of tit for tat retaliation. It hurts China's exporters and economy much more than it does U.S. consumers. The increase in prices for U.S. consumers are also not expected to be significant, according to this report in the NYT, if China increase tariffs further. Aware of this and China's belief that past administrations have not responded is a guide to what the Trump administration can or will do, has convinced president Trump that there is no other way to get a fair trading relationship that respects U.S. interests, its jobs and workers. As Robert Lighthizer who leads the U.S. negotiating team faced this type of response from the Japanese when he negotiated with them (shoving off U.S. demands to reduce Japan's trade surplus in the eighties before accepting them), the U.S. thinks this strategy will work again. In any case it sees no alternatives to achieve its goal of a fair and balanced trading relationship. The U.S. international trade deficit in goods was up to $891 billion in February 2019 even after the tariffs on Chinese goods in September, showing that it will take a lot more to turn this as well as other trading relationships around.   ...

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Some useful comments from this discussion of Reti Samadhi by the author, the translator and the interviewer in BBC Sounds. Daisy Rockwell's translation- Reading a translation is like eavesdropping on conversations happening. On the topic of partition and how the book has no heaviness because it comes from the buried memory of the older woman, and her effort to visit the terrain she has gone through a second time. Now with some playfulness as she is trying to come out a different person with a positive frame of mind from having gone through it again differently. Sort of reinventing herself. The experience is universal though the culture and specifics are unique to where it happened.  For India and the regions of US and Europe eavesdropping on India and an Indian author in Hindi with stories to tell, the experience is a universal one of coming back a new person after getting tired of life. As Geetanjali Shree asks is the older woman in the novel tired of life and the past seen as a burden of some sort, or tired of the life she is living now so that reinventing herself is possible. It comes as India itself is looking at buried memories in new ways and nowhere more than today in Uttar Pradesh, where Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a poet and leader, set a new tone in his poetry and in "Kadam Milake Chalna Hoga." For the British, or American reader it is way to look at the language and culture of India in a new way that buries the distance the British kept from the local language and culture during the days of the Empire. Humanity and the stream of consciousness in Reti Samadhi provides a way of doing this. ...

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Britain has imposed a complete lockdown of the country with fines and enforcement including it going on a person's criminal record.

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How Walmart is trying to change its image as a retailer on the low end in terms of fashion and price to compete with Target and other specialized retailers. And how this has not fared well so far.

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Wilkins was British inventor, scientist and educator with profound unbelievable impact. Some thoughts on what it means for America to reject Science in 2024 for Climate Change in the face of sudden floods, wildfires- for Western civilization was based on Science since 1648, Eastern civilizations missing it completely. When George Washington was fighting in the Pennsylvania country against American Indians and the French, on the other side of the Atlantic a Britisher from Somerset was part of the British East India Company that had won control of Bengal in northeastern India. In 1760 Wilkins arrived in Calcutta a youth of 21 as clerk for the British East India Company, rising to examiner for new employees at the company. It is Wilkins as a printer who creates the first typography for both Persian and Bengali, and who translates for the first time the Bhagavad Gita into English from Sanskrit in 1785.  This is of interest mainly because the American colonists were fighting an Empire whose chief base of the Empire was in Bengal and which generated the funding of the British war against the American colonists led by Washington, Adams and Jefferson. This was before Bengal also funded the British fight against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal. And by the 1850's funded Britain's wars in Chinese ports including Hong Kong. Wilkins is key to this puzzle about India and China- why they succumbed to European colonialism? Gandhi says the Indians invited them in as they were mainly shopkeepers and commercial interests. It is also true that after the end of the 30 years war in 1648, the British, French and Dutch followed Science creating the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution, that India and China missed.  Imagine then what it means to reject Science in the West in 2024 on Climate Change? Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj in November 1909 on the boat Kildonan Castle from London to South Africa. In it he says Indians have to look in the mirror and accept that it is they the princes of India who invited the British sepoys of the British East India Company into Indian states for their wars and losing Bengal, then the rest of India. ...

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Novartis is taking a new approach to drug research and drug discovery. The old one which was popular in the drug industry was to go directly for blockbuster drugs for large numbers of users, with a long time in the research pipeline because the area of research was largely an unknown. This was costly and becoming less and less productive. Dan Vasella who heads Novartis, is taking a different approach which comes from his understanding of medical science as a physician, in an industry run by accountants, lawyers and business people. This is to go after wellknown molecular pathways identified by Dr Fishman at Harvard in his research, and do this by taking on problems in diseases that afflict small numbers of people. These drugs have some established medical science to work with, and the research work takes a shorter period. Once the drug proves its effectiveness in one illness, it is tested for other illnesses that afflict a large number of people but which shares some of the same underlying phenomena that cause the disease in the two situations. Dr Vasella stumbled on this approach after the development of the drug Gleevec by Novartis. Gleevec was originally approved for a rare blood cancer, but has now shown to be effective against six other dieases. Gleevec brought 3.7 billion in revenues in 2008 for Novartis. In 2002 Vasella made a bold move to discard the old drug development model. The basis of this approach was to go after new drugs that were desperately needed and where the genetics of the illness were well understood. Whereas pursuing rare dieases is considered foolhardy by most drug company leaders, Vasella's idea is to use the common genetic underlying arrangements for that drug to go after other diseases that would be good prospects for the now proven drug. The known genetics makes it possible to complete the research in a shorter time. In 2009 Novartis has 93 drug candidates in the pipeline, 40% more than 3 years ago and 80% of Novartis' drugs last year made it from early testing to late stage development. This was a 60% improvement over 2005. The new approach fits the current regulatory climate, with regulators concerned more about safety, and Medicare and Medicaid and other payor less willing to pay for treatment with modest benefits or with uncertain outcomes. The approach had to be executed in terms of organization and staffing. Vasella moved the R&D global research operation from Basel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and spent $4 billion on the move. He recruited a renowed researcher and cardiologist at Harvard University, Dr Mark Fishman, who had done research on the genetic mutations in the cardiovascular systems, to run the center and set the new direction for global research. Fishman convinced Vasella that medical research should focus on a small number of molecular pathways- the complex suquences of interactions among chemicals, proteins, and larger cell structures in the body that are behind all illnesses. Says Fishman, there are 24,000 genes in the genome, but only a few dozen pathways conserved through evolution. Fishman's theory is that you find all the links in a pathway and then locate the signals that can turn the genes on or off to develop medicines for illnesses. Bercause disease after disease share a common pathway, the knowledge gathered can then be applied across that region with more accuracy and directly, to address a range of illnesses. Fishman's approach means marketing and sales no longer make the decisions. There is a new method for doing things. Fishman focusses on clinical data and insists that commercial analysis comes after sufficient clinical data. A major restructuring in 2007 led to shedding 1260 sales and marketing jobs, as clinical science now takes precedence and medically trained scientists take senior leadership positions. The new approach is being used for a drug developed for Muckle-Wells syndrome. Computer simulations are shortening the time to late stage trials. The drug has applications for Type 2 diabetes and severe arthritis. The whole process will take many years, as its a sea change for the industry and for Novartis, a fresh approach when the approach used by the pharmaceutical industry for so long is failing. An oral drug treatment for multiple sclerosis is being developed along these lines. Afinitor. approved by the FDA for kidney cancer in March shows potential in six other diseases, including lymphoma where Afintor shrank tumors by 50% in one third of the patients in a trial. ...

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Mr. Trump has a firm resolve not to get the U.S. involved in wars in distant places so that he can focus on important economic and other issues including the current confrontation with China on trade. He has relied on advice from General Keane as he forged American policy on Iran and other foreign policy issues. Mr. Bolton the National Security Adviser holds strong opinions on Iran and this is seen as a problem that could accidentally create more tensions or war with Iran. He was passed over with the job going to General McMaster in the earlier part of the Trump administration.The use of an aircraft carrier moving to the Persian Gulf region was merely a precautionary measure says the Trump administration, and the U.S. continues to look for ways to work out its differences with Iran even as it imposed sanctions on Iran. This brings the U.S. closer to its allies in Europe.

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The UK Supreme Court rules that minority government prime minister Boris Johnson's suspension of parliament was unlawful. Judges led by Lady Hale said, "the effect on the fundamentals of democracy was extreme."  Lady Hale emphasized that the ruling in the case was "not about when and on what terms" the UK left the EU- it was about the decision to suspend parliament. She said it was unlawful because "it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification."  The decision of the court was unanimous for the 11 justices. The court also criticized the length of the suspension, saying there was no reason "let alone a good reason" for this. This makes the suspension of parliament null and void, and of no effect. Speaker Bercrow called immediately for parliament to meet today to meet without prime minister's questions to attend to important matters. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for the prime minister to resign at the Labour party conference in Brighton. The call to resign comes from the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and from Tory MP's including John Major, a former prime minister. Boris Johnson says he will respect the ruling but that Britain will still leave the EU by October 31st even though parliament has legislated for an extension beyond October 31st.  ...

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There is much uncertainty about the federal elections in Germany in 2025. Four years back in 2021 Olaf Scholz had 51% of people polled saying he would make a good chancellor. This is down to 26% in Feb 2025. Merz of CDU is at 32% and Habeck of Greens at 25%. The Greens are holding onto 14% similar to 2021 with the SPD Social Democrats of Scholz at a low of 18% down from 25% in 2021. CDU is at 32% compared to 24% in 2021. AFD moving from 11% in 2021 to 21%. The immigration issue and the weak economy with the Ukraine war has hit SPD hard. The Scholz coalition also failed to invest in the economy with the FDP of Finance Minister Lindner acting as a brake on needed investment in infrastructure. The result is that the German economy burdened with higher costs for energy and a faltering auto industry is showing zero growth. The most likely outcome is a CDU coalition with the Greens and the SPD with Merz as chancellor. There is athreshold for gettinginto parliament of 4%. At this time a breakaway faction of Left parties of Wagenknecht and the FDP are both polling below 4%. The AfD is at 21% and hoping to gain from the immigration issue. Much of the uncertaintly comes from 18% of voters not planning to vote, and the 13% of voters who have not made up their mind yet and will do so on election day. ...

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Dina Asher-Smith, Britain's greatest sprinter is bouncing back in the 200 metres sprint after the Tokyo Olympics. Here she talks to Sean Ingle in the Guardian.  Much of what she says from her experience and what she has learned is valuable for people working in all walks of life. How do you take the ups and downs (she did not do well at the Tokyo Olympics) and what is the best way to be? On the best way to be- "As a sprinter I want to be light, and bouncy and carefree. So you can't run fast with baggage. It's really unhealthy. You just gotta throw it out. What happened in Tokyo doesn't affect my calibre. It doesn't affect the  work I put in, or my potential. It was just really unfortunate timing. I'm not the first person it has happened to and certainly not the last." She says one never knows what someone else is facing behind the scenes. Nobody is truly unbeatable, and everything is always up for play, even if the odds look to be infinitely stacked against you. That is why she says she approaches every race as a clean slate. And that is why she does not bring whatever  happened last year to this year. And on that last bit of effort she says- "You have to stay focused, be humble and hungry, to keep finding those 0.01 seconds in every phase, and every step you do." ...

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PM Narendra Modi addressed a World Bank organized "Making it Personal: How behavioural change can tackle climate change" conference. Modi called it part of democratising the battle against climate change. "Simple acts in daily lives are powerful, there will be a very positive impact on the environment. The people of India have done a lot in this matter in the last few years." "People driven efforts improved the sex ratio in many parts of India. It was the people who led a massive cleanliness drive. Be it rivers, beaches or roads, they are ensuring public places are free of litter. And it was the people who made the switch to LED bulbs a success. Nearly 370 million LED bulbs have been sold in India. This helps in avoiding 39 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year." The Mission Life Modi introduced with the Secretary General of the United Nations has achieved much in India- "The farmers of India ensured the coverage of nearly seven hundred thousand hectares of farmland by micro-irrigation. Fulfilling the mantra of 'Per Drop More Crop', this has saved a huge amount of water. Under Mission Life our efforts are spread across many domains such as: Making local bodies environment-friendly, saving water, saving energy, reducing waste, and e-waste, adopting healthy lifestyles, adoption of natural farming, promotion of millets." ...

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Republican candidate Trump wins 51% of the vote in Iowa to De Santis 21% and Nikki Haley 19%. Trump won among evangelical voters with 58% support. In cities his vote declined. In Story County home to Iowa State University in Ames, it was 34%, and in Johnson County where University of Iowa is located 36% supported Trump. In 2024 18percentage points separate Mr. Trump's support in low levels of college or post secondary education to higher levels of college or post secondary education. In 2016 Mr. Trump received 29% of the vote in low college education areas to 22% of the vote in high college education areas- a spread of 7 percentage points. Iowa is a state with a large farm and agriculture sector. Other states with manufacturing in the midwest tended to move away from Democrats in 2016. Some of this momentum has reversed with union support for Mr. Biden who has taken a pro-union stance in a way that is not matched by any Democrat since FDR and Harry Truman in the 1930's to 1950's. The shift of Clinton to globalism and Obama to tech companies cost Democrats heavily in 2016 with workers in manufacturing- something that is reversed in drastic ways since 2020 with Mr. Biden on the picket line at UAW union auto strikes in Michigan. ...

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Caught in the crossfire  between trading giants U.S. and China South Korea is feeling the impact in stock markets slumping, and downgrading of growth and inflation forecasts. Korean Won has fallen 7% in 2019 and the Kospi stock exchange 4%. Relations are frosty with its trading partner Japan.

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Britain's parliament voted 358 in favor and 234 against to back prime minister Boris Johnson in his effort to get Britain to leave the European Union by January 31, 2020. Negotiation will not be extended beyond 2020. With a comfortable 80 seat majority and many lawmakers newly elected in parliament in favor of Brexit the process appeared easy compared to the problems faced by Theresa May who lacked a majority. In October Mr. Johnson negotiated a deal with the EU which stated how Britain plans to leave the EU. This covered citizens' rights, a financial settlement to leave, and an arrangement to avoid a physical border in Ireland. With another vote in parliament and passage in the House of Lords the process now appears certain to be completed before January end 2020. To get Brexit done Mr. Johnson sought blue collar support in the north of England and the Midlands, a region neglected by Labour and the old Conservatives. Too much of the focus had remained on London. This strategy worked after neglect of working class districts by Labour under Blair and Brown. Mr. Johnson's approach was to commit the Conservatives to new infrastructure spending, spending on schools and the NHS, just as Mr. Trump had done in the U.S. to permanently change the Republican party. This combined with an appeal to patriotism and the idea of Britain drew strong support across England in the election. ...

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The astonishing and strange case of wellness and productivity being linked to nicotine pouches for tech workers. It reflects on the condition of the so called "Tech" industry of today. Scientific and technological change was the basis of advanced economies since the 19th century, today's so called "Tech" has misappropriated the name for things like social media in the last 2 decades of American decline which have nothing to do with scientific advancement, and are piggybacking on existing technologies for products that actually harm education, mental health and building healthy societies.

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Washington Post's new idea of developing content for social media platforms  (Third Newsroom) to cut losses of $77 million in 2023 by earning profit on social brand exercises, comes at a time when the risks of social media platforms to education of children and to their mental health are great. Social media platforms entry into the news business has led to old news companies first interacting with them over a decade and realizing that this was leading to gains for social media platforms and losses for the old news companies. For older news companies such as the NYT, WSJ, Washington Post and others in the US this was a period in which these companies lost control over their news content along with loss of revenues. Over the last five years the companies have become profitable managing their own content and increasing subscriptions. The Washington Post has run into problems and has a $77 million loss. It was sold to Amazon's Bezos for $250 million by the founding family in 2013.  It is now trying to revive its business by doing what failed for the NYT, WSJ and others- by embracing rather than rejecting social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and others using the News Movement idea of UK journalist Lewis and Winnett. That News Movement makes content for Instagram and TikTok but has not generated profits. Under Lewis as head of Washington Post news division, Matt Murray formerly editor of WSJ would as head of Third Newsroom develop this kind of content for social media platforms. This runs the risks of aiding the work of social media platforms at a time when TikTok has raised national security concerns in the US, and along with Instagram is being cited as part of social media platforms that are affecting the mental health of children. Its disastrous impact on the health of the Nation and its future comes from reducing focus on education and studies by diverting an average of 4.8 hours each day away from educational activity for the children that make up the future generation of this Nation. ...