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Andy Burnham, Mayor of the Greater Manchester region in Britain wins the Makerfield by election for UK parliament, and is now set to take over the leadership of the Labour Party, to be the next prime minister of Britain. In the election he won with 55% of the vote far surpassing the 44% of the Reform party, Restore party and the Conservatives combined. 

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This Politico report looks at the political career of Nikki Haley, 52 year old former governor of South Carolina. She comes across as a woman of resilience who did not at all let her situation as an immigrant's daughter in a southern state in the US faze her. Her parents come from highly educated background in India, and this may have given her that extra layer of resilience at home.

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This editorial in the WSJ points out that it is not enough for a country to vote to leave the European Union. It must be ready to leave the EU, as it says happened in the case of Greece. Greece was willing to leave the EU but not capable of going it alone. This is true of Britain as Britain cannot bear the economic cost of losing the advantages of trade and commerce without serious consequences. Mrs. May's deal for a permanent customs union, a trade deal that mimics Norway's one with the EU, is not fully supported within her own party. Preserving relations with Ireland and Northern Ireland are important and some Brexit Leave leaders have alienated the Irish.  As the WSJ puts it GDP growth obscured regional disparities and shortfalls in productivity and innovation- so that businesses are right to warn of the consequnces of a hasty Brexit or a no deal Brexit. In short, Britain cannot afford to lose the trade benefits of EU membership. This should have been known from the beginning on all sides to avoid what has been a 2 year long fiasco which will affect Britain's future. A strategic error has been made by Brexit supporters in not thinking things through before launching out into the referendum. ...

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Maroes Oldenburg of Netherlands stays calm in the final micro seconds taking a cue from the British rowers on the previous day as the Netherlands quad women rowing team win gold Paris Olympics 2024 by a fraction of a second- 0.18 seconds to be exact. Jonathan Liew of The Guardian shows the spirited Dutch effort in the final seconds. Maroes Oldenburg is recovering from a bicycling accident while traveling in Austria breaking her back, when she had to have a 6 hour surgery and was told she may not make it. It took 1 month for her to walk. “For anyone who needs some inspiration, break your neck and you can win Olympic gold,” says Maroes.  Glover who came in second has three children. Liew laments the lack of investment in childcare for woman athletes with small children, 124 years after women were admitted into the Olympics. Paris Olympics has a small investment in childcare, a nursery for the first time. Liew is right in saying throwing flowers from a distance at athletes is the easy part, giving working parents the tools to do well and childcare comes down to choices that we make. ...

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At this point in May (May 22, 2026) a glimmer of hope appears for settling both the crisis in Hormuz and the Ukraine war. Pakistan, Turkey and China following DJT visit to China may be pushing Iran to lower the scale of the conflict. China's first priority was to be accepted by the US at the Beijing meeting as an equal power with the US, and keen to show its willingness to bear responsibility for peaceful resolution in conflict zones as a sign of its maturity as a world power. Much of this is not shown in the media as it is mostly done behind the scenes in communications that the media knows nothing about. Note that even in the depths of the Cold War during the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and Soviet action in Budapest, the US and the Soviets when their economies were not intertwined as the US and China are today, were still talking to each other to limit the conflicts to low level conflict. Hong Kong takeover, China's actions near Taiwan, China's presence in Latin America, Chinese cooperation with Iran, and Russia on Ukraine, China's economic competition in rare earths, are relatively smaller levels of friction considering 1950's Soviet's and the US. At the same time China and the Us are aware of a new bloc emerging in Oslo in May, where India is merging its economy with the Nordic economies of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and of the European Union and Germany, creating a new bloc of 2 billion people that can only grow rapidly with India's potential to exceed growth rates of 20% in the 600 million Eastern region for a decade. EU would make the shift to strategic partnership with India displacing the vital role the European Union has played in China's growth and economy. This would create new pressures for Russian president Putin to decide it is time to listen to a friend India and de-escalate lower the level of conflict with an initial peace deal that would lead to more talks on a final settlement. Because Russia would have a harder time tackling both India and Germany at the same time. NYT shows on the same day May 22 a report on Russia and a report by the Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Sonegard that say the elites in Russia and Putin were by January 2026 having very serious discussion to change the administration, bring Igor Sechin as negotiaor to end the Ukraine conflict before serious, possibly irreversible damage, to the Russian economy. Sweden's Sonegard says that between 2020 and 2024 Russian economy declined by 8%, not grew by 13% as official figures show, inflation is much higher than 5% as official figures show, and credit is tightening, bankruptcies expected, growth even with oil prices up down to 0.4% for 2026. During 20 years running Russia Putin's No. 1 priority, his life's mission was to restore, then exceed by a large margin the living standards of the Russian people. Having at such great cost accomplished the goal of gaining recognition as a Northern Power in Europe, having gained much of Russian speaking eastern Ukraine, Putin could wisely with self respect wind down Ukraine conflict for good. The US gains something similar to Northern Power status for Russia in its recommitment to the Monroe Doctrine, with Russia withdrawing from any involvement- and China tacitly doing the same-  in the western hemisphere. With that the US can tackle its own losses that match Russian losses in lives- loss of more American lives than in the Korean and Vietnam and WWI combined to drug smuggling from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and restoring rule of law in Cuba, Venezuela, and through drug cartel free Mexico good governance in Mexico.  ...

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Lecornu and Macron operate differently now with Lecornu making the decisions for negotiating with Socialists and putting aside pension reform. After his ouster Lecornu set conditions for his return - to have latitude to make decisions if he was to take the job of PM and to consult with Macron but make decisions to negotiate with socialists, to set aside pension reform, to use Article 49.3 when he thought it would be wise, on and on. Macron to be useful in his last year has agreed. Macron has dropped his Jupiterian presidency says Le Monde in favor of consultation and discussion and letting others make decisions to govern. One should not misread Macron's new style of opposing DJT- it is a way for him to bring all French parties, the movement of Melenchon, the Socialists, and the Le Pen National party, to agree on something, when even passing the Budget was difficult in a frayed political environment. Macron having lost trust and with low popularity, Le Pen and the Melenchon movement at odds every step of the way- an inability to govern. ...

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One way to ease the supply of oil cutoff from the Middle East to Asia (to India, Japan and South Korea) is to ease sanctions on the oil on tankers on the sea (large inventories at sea) and from Russia. US president DJT says -“We have sanctions on some countries, we are going to take those sanctions off until this straightens out. And then who knows, maybe we won’t have to put them on because there will be so much peace." 

Treasury Secretary Bessent says the same thing that “waiving certain oil-related sanctions to reduce prices," would be good way to ease the impact of the war on prices.

This will help Russia balance its budget and who knows it may make it possible to open up new discussions for peace in Ukraine as the US acts as an intermediary in negotiations to end the war. From the larger interest of US, China, India + Indonesia, of Russia and Ukraine, and of Europe,it makes sense to end that war.

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Guardian's Essay on the War and how it has undone Iran pushed it back by decades with internal suppression of dissent, the diversion of vital resources that could be used for building the economy and standards of living, failing to build a sovereign investment fund like Norway and other countries setting aside money for a rainy day. Much of the young educated voters and business in markets is in the cities in Asia and this class has to be integrated into development to create advanced developed nations instead of a small class of people controlling the nation's resources under an ideological or religious sectarian leadership. It failed in Spain in the Franco years, and now in Venezuela and Iran, Pakistan, because it does not grasp what happened in Asia- in China, in India, in South Korea where even under communist (China), military (South Korea), the integration of the students, middle class business, all sectors of society, leads to all sections of society building advanced societies improving education, healthcare, and modernization infrastructure, joining Europe and the US to build the future of science and technology. ...

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One example of how the appearance of divisiveness in the media may be misleading is how all sides are coming together on the toughest problems. On housing supply a genuine change has happened. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act biggest bipartisan legislation before the midterm elections is passed in Congress. The most comprehensive and consequential housing legislation in a century as the president DJT calls it, passes both Houses of US Congress by big majorities, in the House by 358 to 32 and in the Senate by 85 to 5. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott from both parties worked together to get it done. It addresses both rural and urban needs for small towns and large cities, creates more funding, cuts approval time, and provides incentives for builders. It also limnits institutional investors in how much of housing they control as this worsened the supply of housing and housing prices in recent years. The extent of the housing supply crisis can be seen by the 54% climb in housing prices since 2020, costing 5 times the median income far above historical standards, according Harvard Center for Housing Studies. ...

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Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms gets words of praise for her short 4 minute but effective speech finding just the right words to protesters on the night of May 29. By 9.30 pm the protests became violent.  She is a first term Democrat mayor and had so much at stake in keeping the city of Martin Luther King peaceful that night. She went up to police headquarters and setup a press conference. Everything had to be done right. So she just said it the way she read the situation, her gut sense combined with self discipline and the long view- and said it directly addressing the issues head on- alway keeping the goal in mind of restoring peaceful protest in the spirit of the black leader in Atlanta of a generation ago alive for future generations.  Her directness and poise showed- "You're not going to outconcern me and outcare about where we are in America. I wear this each and every day. I pray over my children each and every day." Washington D.C Mayor, Muriel Bowser, also a first term Democratic mayor, showed poise and directness, a sense of calm amid the storm, as she talked to reporters at a press conference. Her situation being critical as this was in the nation's capital city, only blocks away from the White House. She had a plaza in the city painted yellow and named for black people facing daily struggles in their lives to live their aspirations in society, on June 4. A quiet yet lasting statement. ...

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Tokyo has the reputation for being the city with the longest working hours. Overwork leading to death has a term for it in Japan- "karoshi." But this is changing. Recent studies show Mumbai as the city with the longest working hours per worker per year at 3315 hours. The Japanese government had a law passed this year limiting legal overtime work to 45 hours a month, with an extension in busy periods to 100 hours for a maximum of 6 months. Yet the culture is taking time to change, even though long hours often leads to low productivity. It does not mean productivity is high in Mumbai or Tokyo. Dublin, Ireland has one of the highest productivity scores, workers in Dublin worked 1856 hours a year and still created $84 in GDP every hour- compared to this in Mexico City the third hardest working city had only $18 in GDP per hour. This is calculated by dividing GDP by the hours worked. Occupational health psychologists say working longer hours can be less productive because of the drain on performance, resulting in poor concentration, memory and compromised problem solving and creativity. The lack of rest means resources are not replenished with rest, and can deteriorate physical and mental health. Singapore a fairly liveable city has the highest percentage of people working more than 48 hours per week, in a Kisi study. Suggestion for work life balance include taking holidays and short breaks, and switching off from work mentally, using mindfulness and meditation. Practicing self-compassion and prioritizing self-care is needed. ...

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Der Spiegel interview by editors Christiane Hoffmann and Christian Reiermann  with Finance Minister Schauble of Germany in June 2016, on Britain's exit from the European Union. Schauble points out that crises also present opportunities, citing the euro crisis which today is different after six years of tensions, and the Euro currency the second strongest reserve currency in the world. He says politicians would be deaf not to learn from the Brexit referendum, and to come up with better ways to bring Britain's active participation in the European Union. He says the more Britain is part of Europe the better things work. On defense and foreign policy he sees Britain playing a role with Germany and France so that the European voice can be heard in the world. Schauble says Europe can be sluggish and slow at times, but it can come up with solutions. He agrees with Britain that bureaucracy hurts Europe and needs to be tackled, more autonomy is also part of the foundation to build for Europe. It is not essential that all be part of the Schengen area or the monetary union, flexibility matters exceptions can be made, but active participation is vital. In Schauble's view Britain's "pragmatic rationality" is hugely valuable for Europe. ...

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It is no surprise what we see in the US today- the loss of the middle class, the unaffordability crisis for education, healthcare, childcare, and poor, broken infrastructure. Over 10 years the US trade deficit with China has led to loss of about 25 million jobs and $250 billion in taxes that support local infrastructure and public services. Where 20% of the people do 80% of the spending, 80% of the people only 20% of spending (Moody's Analytics). This is how the uneven trade led to the destruction of manufacturing centers and communities across the 51 states in America, devastating families and young people. This is no longer Washington's, Lincon's or FDR's land of opportunity. Each $1 billion in additional imports to the US costs 4252 jobs. (CPA) This can be read as how many jobs are being lost in the additional trade of goods when one side is exporting more than the other.  There are three levels of losses. There is also an indirect job loss in the number of jobs created by that one job in manufacturing to serve the needs of these factory families in communities. This can be estimated at 1 job that depends on 1 manufacturing job. Together this means 8500 jobs lost for every $1 billion of goods in a trade deficit. US trade deficit of $295 billion in 2024 with China translates into about 2.5 million jobs lost every year. Over 10 years this is about 20-25 million jobs, enough to decimate America's entire manufacturing capabilities and manufacturing infrastructure, whole communities and towns disappearing or suffering destruction across the country.  With the loss of these jobs comes a third cost, the taxes paid that maintain small town infrastructure and public services like libraries, schools and health centers where these factories are located. At $10,000 in taxes lost per job, for 8500 jobs lost per $1 billion in uneven trade there is a loss of $85 million.  For the $295 billion deficit the US has with China this loss adds up to $25 billion per year. Over 10 years this means taking out this much in local infrastructure and public services like libraries, schools and health centers worth $250 billion.  ...

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Aryna Sabalenka describes her experience with the death of her father and going though it by keeping on playing tennis, and then with the loss of aclose friend finding that this no longer worked. An injury gave her time to pause to take care of her mental health. This has helped her regain the confidence in her game. This situation is something we all face keep going through a emotional crisis with the loss of a parent or family member, then thinking that the best way is to continue with whatever we are doing. Then something else happens, a health crisis or more stuff to tackle, and this time it makes sense to pause to give oneself time to recover. This is important to come back with the right frame of mind, the feeling of health and wellbeing essential for the next step. 

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Disney world faces tough time operating in Florida and other countries as the pandemic throws up many hurdles. The coronavirus surge in Florida takes place just as Disney operations restart in Florida July 11 complicating life for the company. The entire Disney business model is up for huge uncertainty and will never be the same. Disney reopening is being questioned by the public, and the sight of people entering the theme parks are jarring when one sees the huge surge in cases in Florida and numbers of cases per day of 10,000 to 15,000.

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In this interview of very personal remarks made to business groups and revealed by Reuters, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, says she would be relieved greatly if she quit. She called her actions unforgivable given the mood of most of Hong Kong people today in 13th week of protests. "What I did was unforgivable," she said.  Carrie Lam had a good reputation in Hong Kong as a dedicated civil servant when she assumed the office. She had not anticipated the turn of events from the push into Hong Kong sovereignty by Beijing since the umbrella movement leading up to the extradition bill. In her words- "For a Chief Executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable. It's just unforgivable." In this rare conversation remarks, Lam comes across as someone who was caught in the middle between protestors and Beijing. "The political room for the chief executive, who unfortunately has two masters, the Central People's Government of China and the people of Hong Kong, that political room for maneuvering is very, very, very limited." What is her ideal situation. "The first thing I would do if I had a choice, is to quit, with a deep apology. I make a plea to you for forgiveness." For Hong Kong people, especially the young it was about the rule of law, for Beijing a sense of the Hong Kong region as being a part of the neighboring area of Shenzen and of China. She says she sees no intention of China to send in the People's Liberation Army from her own feeling the pulse, from her discussions. She says China is playing "a long game." There is just too much at stake for China. "They care about China's international profile. It has taken a long time to build up that sort of international profile, and having a say as a big economy, as a responsible big economy, so to forsake all those international developments is clearly not on their agenda." For her personal life this has been very difficult as she can rarely go out in the middle of these protests, not even for a haircut or shopping. Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under formula of "one country, two systems." With the Hong Kong system, rule of law, free speech guaranteed under that agreement for 50 years transition period.  ...

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Gail Collins of the NYT describes the Hillary she came to know during the period she was Senator, a liberating time for Hillary Clinton, when she could be more of a private citizen, free of the publicity and attention as an active First Lady.  She chose to take up her assignment as New York Senator by visiting constituents and getting to know New York state, coming from Illinois and settling in Arkansas with her husband Bill Clinton in the early years. As Hillary herself said that was the first time she had lived in New York, and it was a time in which nobody cared in a nation having gotten tired of hearing about the Clintons, a welcome moment for Hillary who chose in her inimitable style to get to knowing her constituents. Collins tells about the enthusiasm of middle aged women in those days when women used their husband's name just to get a credit card, and it was harder for women to get a job than men. Bill Clinton talks about the Hillary he knew at law school and the years in Arkansas at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, and describes a real person that he came to know, not gregarious and easy with strangers as he was but with something deep inside caring for other people. One time he tells her that she could run for office, and she tells him in the courtship days that he was being silly that no one would vote for her. Americans must appear to Hillary as not caring much for First Lady or presidential spouses getting deeply involved in government, and American men not really passionate about women in key roles in government,  and as time passed and women in the thirties had grown accustomed to the newly won rights that Hillary and others had fought hard for to the point of looking for something new- throughout this Hillary was tested as never before. As the nominee of the Democratic Party for president she now had to prove that the old was also part of bringing in the new, that a passion for new encounters, experience and learning, combined with patience and perseverance, were also needed in the tasks of regenerating and renewal. If only she looked more carefully she would find that the first president having fought a long and difficult war for about ten years with men "half starved and often in rags", George Washington, also faced skepticism and doubts about him, which he alludes to frequently in his letters.      ...

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RFK Jr's views on reducing the overuse of pesticides and agricuture that harms human health are positives. Will the RFK noimnation for Secretary of Health and Human Services make America's health and well being worse? WSJ and business thinks it will if it makes people skeptical of all vaccines. Covid vaccine being made compulsory brought RFK Jr. to public attention as some states closed too soon for too long prolonging the economic effects and not leaving an option for some groups to not get vaccinated. WSJ points out that RFK skepticism for all vaccinations is dangerous. It points to polio vaccine, and to the local areas where measles has increased where vaccination was turned down. Other risks are in betting so much on organic food that the benefits of the green revolution of adequate food supplies from the use of fertilizer for output increases per acre are lost. Sri Lanka is an example of a nation unable to feed itself as it bet everything on organic overnight. ...

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US president DJT in his State of the Union made immigration a major issue saying Democrats could not be trusted with Borders after the disasters of recent years. The president told Congress in his State of the Union address 2026-

“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens—not illegal aliens."

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Japan has 254 days of oil reserves says PM Takaichi Sanae with daily consumption of 3.1 million b/d. China has 100 days. India has 74 days of oil in government and privately held reserves with daily use at 5.6 million b/d.  In addition 100 million barrels of oil have accumulated on tankers parked on the oceans because of sanctioned oil waiting to be delivered.