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Immunotherapy drug VIR-5500 shows good results in treating prostate cancer and lowering PSA in patients.

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Ohtani Grand Slam at Tokyo Dome March 5 2026 in a 10-0 World Baseball Classic game against Taiwan. The game is called of in the seventh inning because of the large margin.

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The US booster vaccine drive is lagging behind as only 30% of Americans fully vaccinated have taken the booster vaccine, according to CDC. Only half of Americans over ager 65 have taken the booster shot. In New York City only 1.5 million Americans out of 8 million have taken the booster vaccine. This report in NYT shows Dr. Oshita's 3 urgent care clinics in Sacramento, California, and no rush of people to get the booster vaccine. It is scary, he says, of the lack of a rush of people into the vaccine centers. This is happening as the new omicron variant is spreading.

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As the European leaders Starmer, Macron, Merz gather together, huddle together at meetings in London, Paris and Brussels, as the US under DJT and Rubio disengage from NATO and perceived expansion, Ariane Chemin gives this report and video in Le Monde on the situation in classrooms, around Square in the centrer of Kviv, at destroyed power plants, and at destroyed buildings in Kviv. Russian drone attacks on Kviv are leaving residents without electricity and without sleep. This is also what Europeans in France and Germany, and Britain, are seeing on news, video and on television.  The last peace initiative stalled after the hopes raised from the Alaska meeting of Putin and the US president. Efforts to get the Russians on board with US envoys in Moscow fail when the European leaders are absent in the talks, and when Russia insists on the 20% of the Donbass and eastern regions it does not control, and limits on Ukraine defense. Ukraine modifies the proposals and Russia insists on territorial concessions. A report in Germany's DW.com from Ukraine calls this "absurd." A new element emerges in this conflict in December 2025 when one sees this in the context of European history where such struggles between European powers happened repeatedly since 1500, with some of them in the period after 1700 involving Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, France, Spain, Prussia and rest of Germany split into many states. That pattern has relevance today because when one power whether France, Austria-Hungary or Russia became dominant the other European powers acted together to keep the balance in Europe.  ...

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Vietnam rail link to Kunming China will cost $8 billion for Vietnam section in 2025. Vietnam is building 3 new rail lines in places where the old French railways built rail lines. The project has Chinese concessional loans. 45 agreements for cooperation were signed during Xi's visit to Hanoi. Xi also visited the memorial to Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. Vietnam is practicing a delicate balancing act between negotiations with the US and cooperation with China.

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Lt. Gen John Allen will succeed Gen Petraeus in leading the war effort in Afghanistan. Allen was the deputy commander in Anbar province, Iraq, from 2006-2008. He backed Colonel Sean MacFarland's efforts to get Sunni tribal leaders to join the U.S. against Al Quaeda militants- which came to be called the Sunni Awakening. Allen is close to Gen. Petraeus and has the skills and diplomacy that Petraeus is known for. He is described as someone who understands that the war in Afghanistan involves policy, politics, perceptions and diplomacy.

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Nigel Farage of Reform UK surges as its membership reaches 100,000 to Kemi Badenoch's Tories with 132,000 and split in their ranks. Tories are nervous about what is happening. Labour is trying to get its act together, and trying to get the civil service to serve the people. Starmer even goes on to warn that the civil service is "in managed decline." Every ministry is asked to save 5% through cutting waste and inefficiency, and to make good use of limited resources to deliver results to the British people. 2025 will be critical not only for Wales, Scottish and local elections, 2025 will show whether Labour can tackle the immediate problms of housing, cost of living, transport and show results in delivering on infrastructure and improvements at the NHS. Labour needs to get its execution for the goals set right and stay on top of delivery metrics at every stage on a monthly and quarterly basis. Can a lawyer like Starmer do this? It took years of execution of projects for Modi of India at the state level as chief minister in Gujarat to executi at the national level. Can Starmer/Reeves and the rest of the team learn, and learn quickly? ...

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Plaid Cymryu party wins 43 seats, Reform 34 seats in Wales, ending Labour's dominance in Wales in 2026 local elections for Council seats.

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Indian exports to China declined in the covid pandemic years when China experienced little or no growth. This has worsened the trade deficit, yet this is temporary. Imports have worsened with Chinese dumping of products into the country. This should not alter India's policy of building close trade and investment relations with the US and the European Union as its main partners. This is also consistent with the prime minister's Atman Nirbhar Bharat policy. The author of this report in Hindustan Times says policy should integrate India with China and Factory Asia, yet this ignores India's growth trajectory as it is only now building up momentum and will for the next decade see the kind of growth Japan and China made in their peak growth period, even as China slows down and forms a smaller part of the global supply chain. US policy is for India to form the major part of the supply chain replacing China at some point as the leading supplier, even though it is moving gradually to get there. India should make policy as Modi has done for 2030, then 2047, and reach its own potential acting in concert with US and EU. ...

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Operation Wetback in 1954 under Eisenhower and US immigration action in 2026 compared to Sweden and Denmark in Northern Europe. The mood has shifted and so has the political situation with new governments in Europe, the mood has shifted in Italy, Germany, France, UK, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, across all of Europe. Merkel's failure to grasp the true nature of the situation has led to a huge burden on social services, on literacy for national identity, and created dissension within democratic processes in many countries in Europe and North America.

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The DW.com's Christoph Strack says its a good sign that chancellor Merkel of Germany is opening up and showing emotions. She was decisive in the way she presented herself and what she has learned in the past 12 months since the refugee crisis erupted in summer 2015. She expressed her sense that she had "an absolutely sure feeling" that Germany will emerge out of all this better "than when we went into it." The remarks at Konrad-Adenauer-Haus for thirteen minutes were unusual and open in sharing how she felt. She said she is "fully committed" to making sure that the situation of 2015 never happens again. Don't count Merkel out, says Strack, she is down but not out, because she is going through the weaknesses in her policy, weakness in communication, and reflecting on her mistakes. And she has shown defiance and resolve, as she prepares for 2017, and its for everything she believes in.

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Nancy Faeser, says "this is a strong commitment to a modern Germany." Germany's Interior Minister is pointing to the new dual citizenship law that will enable Americans as well as the many Polish and Turkish people in the country to have dual citizenship. Germany now joins Sweden, Ireland, France and other countries where dual citizenship is allowed. There are economic reasons for this as Germany needs to attract highly skilled immigrants for its labor force. Faeser says Germany will attract the most qualified people in the world only if it can ensure they enjoy full democratic rights in the foreseeable future. The CDU and Merkel for years opposed any changes to the immigration laws. It is the SPD, the Greens and the Free Democrats that are making these changes as Germany looks to the future.

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While much of the focus is on the brief air war in the Punjab region in the media. In China, India and the US the real and major challenges are economic. As US tariffs is really about getting back its industrial base from the EU and China, China faces the challenge of adapting to this situation and loss of access to EU and US technologies for the next generation, and India with a smaller industrial base faces challenge of building a large enough industrial base for modernization with full access to US and EU technologies. This is then the study of change starting right here in Uttar Pradesh and in the city of Kanpur. New Metro in Kanpur, new power plants, and new manufacturing plants and infrastructure. PM Modi says- "There are two most essential conditions for the industrial progress of a state: first, self-reliance in the energy sector — that is, uninterrupted electricity supply; and second, infrastructure and connectivity. Today we have inaugurated several power plants: the 660 MW Panki Power Plant, 660 MW Neyveli Power Plant, 1320 MW Jawaharpur Power Plant, 660 MW Obra C Power Plant, and 660 MW Khurja Power Plant. This is a major step toward fulfilling Uttar Pradesh’s energy needs. With these power plants, electricity availability in UP will increase significantly, giving a boost to industries here. Today, development projects worth over $6.7 billion (Rs 47,000 crore) have also been inaugurated or had their foundation stones laid.” ...

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The new drug policy in Afghanistan will acknowledge the act that after continuous efforts only about 3% of the opium crop was eradicated through destruction of opium popy fields. The policy was difficult to execute because it was the livelihood of farmers and because of Taliban opposition. THe focus will now be says Holbrooke, on interdicting flow of opium, and providing alternative crops for farmers. Gernerally experts from the UN to Brookings welcome the shift.

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Foreign investment at high rates helped China build its middle class. In the first quarter of 2023 it dropped to $20 billion from $100 billion a year earlier. This means about $80 billion will be going elsewhere to increase incomes and the middle class through investments in the US itself, and in countries such as India and Vietnam.

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NYT says DJT would use tariffs "as a economic sledgehammer to nations that refuse to meet his demands" and claims not to know what they are. Saying further that DJT has been far less clear about what those demands were. NYT has clearly not followed what DJT has said time and again. It is OK to use economic power when Canada and Mexico, and China have not taken the action they could have taken a long time back that they are now taking, and will take, after years of acting as if they could not see the fentanyl flows across its borders destroying America. These countries two land neighbors of the US and the last a country which from the open door policy against European colonial Empires and through the Joe Stillwell years in the War against Japanese colonialism in China, and in the years of China's building its economy in the 1990-2010 period, offered a helping hand. It makes the victim -and one that had reversed TR's advice about carrying big stick and speaking softly to its bitter regret- the bully, in the words of the NYT.   ...

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There are 240 Norwegian and Finnish companies in India, says this report in The Hindu. Nordic countries are providing green technologies to India. At the Nordic-India Summit held in Copenhagen in May 2022, the five Nordic prime ministers and prime minister Modi agreed to intensify cooperation on digitalisation, renewable energy, maritime industries and the circular economy. Denmark is helping India with ports and logistics. Trade ministers of Norway and Finland visiting India together  Feb 9-10 describe the efforts to provide Nordic technology solution in green transition to India. Trade between Norway and India has doubled in the last 3 years and the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is likely to become on the largest investors in India at $17.6 billion. Vestre us Norway's Minister of Trade and Industry, Skinnari is Finnish Minister of Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade. 

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Congressional Budget Office analysis that shows 14 million more people uninsured in 2018 under the Republican House health care plan, this increases to 24 million by 2026.

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For a decade America's leaders remained silent on taking action on all fronts including trade on countries that were sources of fentanyl. The largest and most advanced economy in the world did not take action to protect its people when countries acted with impunity on fentanyl flows. That action is being taken now. A 25% tariff will be imposed on imports from Mexico and Canada, an extra 10% tariff on China, till the illegal flow of fentanyl and smuggled migrants from these countries stops. The new president DJT said on Truth Social media- He will impose by executive order on the first day in office tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, “on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous open borders”, which would not be lifted “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country."   ...

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Saudi Arabia continued to follow a policy of high oil production in 2016, and reported that it produced 10.67 million barrels a day in July 2016. Iran is producing at a pre-sanction level of 4 million barrels a day. 2017 oil demand prediction by OPEC is at growth of 1.15 million barrels a day. Experts says that the interests of Iran and the Saudis may be converging to reduce production as they face low oil prices. Iran needs to make large investments and Saudis face budget cuts with low oil prices. They point to this cooperation being temporary as there are issues of competing politics in the region, and beyond that both countries seek to expand their market share.

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Russia experts Robert Nurick of the Atlantic Council, and Graham Allison of the Belfer Center of International Affairs at Harvard, see a sea change in attitudes to Russia following the interventionist policies of president Putin. The Obama administration will now focus on limiting Russian influence for the remaining two years of Obama's second term. There is a loss of faith in Putin on the part of Obama and close advisors. Russia is seen as a regional power, and the Ukraine crisis is seen as having a serious impact on the Russian economy through decline in trade, foreign investment and capital outflows. Russia is a regional power because it is not the same as the old Soviet Union, it is much smaller, with a declining population, and dependent on oil revenues, and in this sense not the Russia U,S, president Truman and Kennan faced during the Cold War. Obama advisors see Putin's actions as counterproductive for Russia, as the economy is now seen as contracting in 2014, making its actions in Syria, and in Ukraine, unwise foreign policy moves that hurts Russia's economy and future prosperity. Democratically elected leaders in Turkey and Russia with control over the media and shutting down the opposition using control of the judicial process, have shortchanged democratic ideals, and in the process concentrated powers in one leader. This creates risks of arbitrary exercize of power without the checks and balances that are built into a truly functioning democracy, with foreign policy errors eventually leading to a resolution of the conflicts created as these policies are increasingly called into question. Putin and Erdogan were reelected because of economic growth- a contractionary economy or steep declines in growth put everything at risk. A footnote on Kennan, American diplomat and linguist, is appropriate. A quick reading of Wikipedia's excellent account of Kennan will show that Kennan was in favor of a nuanced approach to Russia based on changing conditions. He observed that policies that were seen as anti-Russian actually helped Russian leaders throughout history solidify autocratic type rule, which actually hurts Russia's normal evolution and development. Normal development and evolution similiar to ways Germany and other nations left behind Prussian history and traditions for a open, free society, and in the ways even the U.S. left behind older practices such as slavery in the south and limited representation democracy. In fairness to Kennan it should be said that containment of the Cold War was more a Truman-Acheson doctrine- continued under Eisenhower by Dulles-Nitze, and under Kennedy by Rusk-McNamara- which has roots in Soviet intentions of destabilizing war ravaged western Europe starting with Greece, following similiar efforts in Eastern Europe. Truman was right in aiding Greece, but the U.S. needed to be aware of changing conditions and not take a rigid stance, and get locked into supporting client states just because they were "our guys," a lesson Kennan emphasized throughout his life. Putin and Erdogan use appeals to Russian and Turkish nationalism to improve electoral support and stifle free expression of ideas necessary for growth in any society. This also provides a way to have a discussion with our German friends on engagement and economic relationships, without the rigid outlook of a Wilsonian or Acheson-Dulles kind. ...