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Ukrainian view on surrendering the 25% of Donbass it does not control for peace deal are shown here in interviews by DW.com in that region near the frontlines. The Kviv Institute of Sociology survey shown here is that 71% of Ukrainians are against giving up the 25% of Donbass. Survey in the Donbass region show 47% opposed, 29% undecided and 24% support giving up tereritory for a peace deal. About 200,000 people mostly pensioners and people who do not want to see their home being looted still live in the Kviv controlled Donbass areas near the frontlines. What about elections? If elections are held and an Ukrainian party including that of Zelensky were to agree to surrendering the Donbass how would the Ukrainian 71% opposed or undecided react. Other attitudes to giving up the rest of Donbass is that there is afeeling even among people who might favor this for a peace deal that Russian forces might continue the war at a later time. Germany's Merz is investing heavily to build up the Bundeswehr and recharge the German economy- the German response is to coordinate with UK, France and Italy and the EU to set up a bloc independent of the US to respond to the peace overtures of the US president with one's of it's own that do not include giving up the Donbass, and to create guarantees that the war ends here, no sporadic starts as in the last 2 decades. ...

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It used to be in the past that growing more food would address the problem of malnourishment. After years of decline of malnourished people BBC shows that the trend is reversing and there will be 821 million malnourished people in coming years. The reason for this is that of the thousands of crops that were known to humankind from its beginnings we are down to about 100 and about 40% of people on the planet rely mainly on 3 crops- rice, wheat and corn. The result is a lack of necessary micro nutrients in today's diet. What we plant, what we eat matters, changes in agriculture have a significant bearing on the quality of our lives, and concern all of us.

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Huge investments to make Saudi Arabia one of the three largest chemical producers in the world. See the groups and links to questions about this investment binge- will it generate enough jobs considering the size of the investments? Is this the most productive use of the money, what are the alternatives and so on. From the standpoint of oil prices the Saudis wouldn't be too receptive to oil price decreases and reluctant to increase oil production if they need the money to finance the investments described here, huge petrochemical complexes and whole new cities.

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In this WSJ column Russell Mead describes the Middle East as an opportunity when in reality it has done serious damage to the US and the European Union. With the shift to renewable energy and localized sources for natural gas and oil within EU and the US, the Middle East may no longer be relevant to the US and Europe. Afghanistan which has cost so much for the US and Europe in trillions of dollars that could have been invested in badly needed infrastructure is an extension of the Middle East. Iran is also part of the Middle East. These reserves of oil and gas in countries deeply imbedded with thinking and policy against modernization are more risk than opportunity for the US and European Union. The US and European Union need to look to bringing back manufacturing and renewing supply chains with India and Vietnam, the rest of South East Asia as an opportunity and shift mightily to renewables to fight climate change. This is the opportunity facing the US and the EU today. In a sense the chapter that started with the efforts of British oil companies in Iran in 1900 and Franklin Roosevelt's meeting with the Saudi King on an American ship during World War II is now coming to its closing and a new chapter has to be written on renewables and rebuilding US and EU strength in manufacturing in alliance with India and Vietnam, rest of South East Asia in what is called the Indo-Pacific.  ...

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DW.com's Science section provides this report that shows detailed graphs, and information on the dangerous use of pesticides that lead to poisoning  for 385 million people in agriculture every year. Farm workers in countries like India are particularly affected. The Heinrich Boll Foundation of The Friends of the Earth, Le Monde, and Pesticide Action Network Germany, supported this 50 page report presented in Berlin recently. The business of pesticides is worth $35 billion for large companies, yet brings with it many dangers for food contamination, water pollution, environmental damage.  Prime minister Modi in India has shown foresight and vision in tackling the problems from plastics pollution in cities and from pesticides pollution in agricultural areas. He has warned farmers about its dangers and the need to use some of the traditional methods for agriculture that avoid extensive chemical fertilizer and pesticide use. The alarming use of pesticides leads to the highest pesticide contamination of water, soil and air in the world happening in Latin America. In Nepal and India alternatives to pesticides are found in a mixture of herbs and cow urine put on the plants. Pesticide prevention in organic agriculture is also done by banning synthetic pesticides, and crops rotated in a way to prevent monocultures while encouraging insects and birds to thrive. French farmers promote organic farming with many methods they have pioneered that also promote biodiversity, which can be copied in India and rest of Asia, Latin America, Africa. ...

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Indian prime minister Modi appeared to suggest that Sardar Patel would have achieved a different outcome in Kashmir than what happened under Nehru is seen as going beyond what the facts support according to an aide to former BJP prime minister Vajpayee. The media coverage of the speech showed it to be Modi's way of setting the tone for the coming national election by focussing attention on the Nehru family succession scheme more than it did on Jawaharlal Nehru. Sardar Patel was deputy prime minister under prime minister Nehru and the post partition India situation required the talent of both men in tackling what must have been a nightmare after partition bloodshed, millions of refugees.

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Tim Cook is interviewed by Jenna McGregor of The Washington Post. He describes the problems he faces running Apple. He had expected Jobs to stay on as  chairman to continue leading the company even after the illness. Cook thought Jobs would "bounce" back. The death of Jobs was a big blow for Cook. Cook describes taking advice from Jobs's wife Lucerne at key moments. For tax issues before Congress he talked to Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, on political issues with Bill Clinton, and on personal issues with Anderson Cooper of CNN. The books he is reading include Mohandas Gandhi's "The Story of My Experiments with Truth," that he found at the Gandhi Ashram in Gujarat, India, on a recent visit. 

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The picture on the cost of living action is mixed. In this report some Easterners in Pennsylvania and New York are shown taking loans to pay for groceries at high prices. In Michigan trips to the supermarkets show a modest increase of 1% in prices and prices coming down. Overall the faster the situation the better it is for working people and a top priority for president Joe Biden. Biden has approached it on a macro and micro level with a range of actions to bring cost of living down for people, from action on student debt for 5 million people, from health care cost cuts setting a ceiling on what health care cost would be, to cutting costs in areas such as housing, groceries and gas through concerted action across the economy.

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The coronavirus is making implementation of the U.S. China trade deal less likely as Chinese imports from the U.S. decrease and China's exports continue to grow. China's exports to U.S. decreased by $60 billion but increased to other countries by $70 billion in 2019.

As a result the Trump administration is shifting its focus to another approach. The new multilateral approach is to combine the effort with allies Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and France. This would take the shape of a Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to replace the old Obama period Trans Pacific Partnership which becomes defunct. The goal would be to build new supply chains with allies in Asia outside of China with the help of France and other countries that are wary of excessive dependence on China and have deep reservations of China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

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The controversy surrounding the statement by Trump following the hacking of the DNC emails and putting it out on the 1st day of the Democratic National Convention was covered widely. Trump said: "Russia, if you are listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Let's see if that happens." This coupled with Trump statements that he would not assure the Baltic Republics and other parts of Eastern Europe  that the U.S. would come to their aid in the event of a Russian attack have created new tensions in Europe. This has also led to heavy criticism from U.S. military commanders, from NATO leaders, and from leaders in the Republican and Democratic parties including Speaker Ryan. Some called it "a seismic development," and unprecedented, with involvement of foreign powers in the U.S. elections generally resented by the American people, according to experts.

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Ashwini Bhide was first shown by Corinne Abrams of the WSJ, for the bold vision she was putting forward for meeting the aspirations of young Indians for a better place to live in, in one of India's largest cities Mumbai. As head of the Mumbai Metro Rail project, IAS 1995 batch, Ashwini Bhide worked tirelessly to make a dream of Mumbai residents to move quickly through new state of the art rail services with modern technology come true. A dream held up for decades in which millions of Mumbai residents put up with old, dilapidated, and incomplete rail services. Abrams called it a most audacious project to break open Mumbai's belly to make this happen. On the way Bhide had to overcome many hurdles, including a two year gap in 2020-2022 that reflected the way things had slowed down for decades. It is a top priority today for the federal and state governments and is to be completed in 2024.This is meeting the aspirations of young Indians for a better country, a better future. It is work that Mohandas Gandhi would be proud of for Young India a century later. ...

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Krugman says in NYT that inflation is receding and its causes lie mainly in pandemic related supply chain issues not fiscal efforts to fix dilapidated infrastructure, invest in fighting climate change, or help for needy workers and families.  He looks at Fed chair Jerome Powell’s discussion on inflation and this he says shows that fiscal policy or government spending to fight the pandemic and US needs for infrastructure and science/chips played at most a distinctly secondary role. What Krugman does not say is that this does not mean that inflation is not an issue for many families living from paycheck to paycheck. Harris clearly spelled out a Plan for housing costs and cost of food and this is the kind of effort needed to tackle this issue secondary or not in astatistical sense. Also not given recognition is that the government spending is changing the very nature of the US economy by creating more potential for it to grow till 2030 in a way that would not be possible if this investment by president Biden was not wisely made. One has only to look at Germany to see its crumbling rail system and failing infrastructure to see that what Biden did right and Merkel did wrong. ...

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Bjorn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus Center says about the decision by the Obama adminisration to stop contributing to World Bank financed coal power plants- including one in South Africa- does not take into account the simple fact that 1.2 billion people living in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have no access to electricity. In the sub-Saharan region of Africa (excluding S. Africa) the entire electricity generating capacity is about 28 gigawatts, or about the same as Arizona with a population of about 9 million compared to 860 million in the region. He says China was able to lift 680 million people out of poverty with urbanization and industry powered by coal. There is no alternative to low cost fossil fuels for the poorer regions of the earth. This is why the International Energy Agency esimates fossil fuel generated energy to remain about the same percentage in 2035 as it is today- 81%. Shale based naural gas can make a difference for air pollution and China is begining to make the shift away from coal- for sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, this goal will take time. ...

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Pozen calls for smaller Boards of Directors, and suggests about 6-7 directors for a board. Having closer to 11 directors, as is the norm he says, leads to "social loafing" where the directors do not contribute to effective governance. He cites research showing 6-7 is the most effective size for directors to take personal responsibility and take decisive action. This is important as Boards of Directors at GM, Citigroup and other companies failed to take action, leading to a government bailout of these companies. In other cases the situation was less dire, but the Boards failed to provide effective governance. He suggests the board be comprised of people with experience in the areas the company operates in, with one or two generalists to provide a larger perspective. The Citigroup board in 2007 was comprised of luminaries and only one independent director had worked for a financial services firm. The current practice of a board meeting in person every other month for one day, plus conference calls, is just not adequate to stay abreast of the global operations of a company. What is needed is for an outside director to spend 2 days a month on company business between board meetings. For this reason independent directors should be restricted to serving on just two boards of public companies, Pozen says. This would mean having experienced retired persons in the industry, who are over 60. Compensation which is about $200,000 for a board member would be increased to $400,000, as directors would be putting in twice as many hours. Pozen would like to see board members taking their duties seriously, and having expertise in the field the company operates in, making the board duties their primary job rather than an avocation....

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China after American and European offshoring of supply chain and manufacturing over three decades is going through a rapid reversal. People to people contacts are also falling off a precipice as it were, showing how badly structured efforts by business focused on profit and not people to people fail miserably, hurting the long term prospect of peaceful cooperation. Foreign Investment that was $100 billion in the first quarter of 2022 is now $20 billion. Tourism down by about 80%. At Zhangjiajie National Park goes from half a million foreign tourists to 50,000 last year. It is typical of this staggering change.  People are not going from America and Europe to China unless they have to. It shows the complete failure of a purely business relationship such as offshoring manufacturing when it hurts workers and families in America and Europe, who turn against it leading to a free fall in relations. American and European business and the governments allied with it failed in this sense to build a world of better interpersonal relations between Asia and the western world. China's experience with industrialization and modernization begun in 1990 is now a cautionary tale for other regions such as India and the Middle East that are planning their own modernization. Much of it happened less from a people to people relationship than from an effort by US business to seize the opening of China after Mao's revolution to offshore American manufacturing as if realizing a new opportunity without understanding its long term consequences for the American people. European business followed American business in this offshoring. It damaged the basic structure of the American and EU peoples based on locally based supply chains and manufacturing at home needed for strong healthy communities, leading to this situation today. The rancor and deeply seated discontent all across America and Europe from communities losing factories and the jobs and wealth coming from it from offshoring by business interests has created this situation.  ...

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Pierre Razoux, a French historian provides this account of the Iran-Iraq war that lasted from 1980 to 1988, at a cost of 680,000 people killed and $1.1 trillion in war destruction and money diverted from the economy. In 1980 Saddam Hussein of Iraq launched the war by attacking Iran which had just come under the Ayatollah Khomeini with the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979. The war dragged on for 8 years with Khomeini persisting in the war. With U.S. and Saudi policy to increase production bringing the price of oil down from $30 to $10 designed to bring Iran and Iraq to the peace talks, as well as the Soviet Union to withdraw from Afghanistan, all three being major oil producers. The dollar also weakened by 37% during this period. The diplomatic isolation of the Khomeini regime made it more difficult for Iran to buy arms on credit than Iraq could, leading to the war ending with Iran finding it no longer possible to continue the human losses. The Carter administration, particularly with National Security Advisor Brzezinski, tilted towards Iraq to oppose Soviets in Afghanistan, and the Saudis also supported Iraq during the early period. Under president Reagan the U.S. began covert and direct assistance to Iraq to prevent an Iraqi defeat early in the war. Rumsfeld visited Baghdad in December 1983 and March 1984 to organize the U.S. effort to oppose Iran. This may have laid the seeds for future conflicts that lasted through the administrations of the elder and junior Bush. As Razoux points out the Revolutionary Guards became entrenched from this period in Iran's history, making it difficult for election process to work or elected governments to operate. 23 months following the end of that war in 1988 Saddam Hussein launched a war on Kuwait, leading to the U.S. led Gulf war and the entry of the U.S. into a ground combat role, which was followed by the invasion of Iraq under George Bush after 9/11 attacks. The twin wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are estimated to have cost the U.S. over 1 trillion dollars. The result today is largely the division on the ground into Shia regions under the Revolutionary Guards and the Shiite government in Baghdad, and Sunni regions led by Islamic State and autonomous Iraqi Sunni tribes, ignoring the Iran-Iraq boundaries set in the colonial period by the French and the British. In all the amount spent in the Khomeini-Saddam war of $ 1 trillion being about $2 trillion in today's money, and the $1 trillion spent by the U.S., means about $3 trillion has gone into the wars in this region. This comes at a time of deficits in government budgets in the U.S. and a deep recession in the U.S. and Europe. It also explains why the U.S. public is reluctant to take even the minor action such as giving a standoff "no-fly zone" protection to the rebels in Syria, and supported the Obama administration in its reluctance to keep even the basic military force in place to protect its diplomatic mission in Libya, where the cost would be small relative to earlier enlarged military missions under the two elder and junior Bush administrations. The result is that refugees are pouring into Europe from Syria and Libya, through Turkey. Turkey itself is host to millions of refugees in camps along its border. The vacuum and the withdrawal of the Obama administration from the region has led to the rise of Islamic State with covert assistance from Sunni regimes in the region to counteract the growing influence of Shiite Iran. It also may explain the Iranian people's support for the nuclear weapons effort through years of sanctions, leading finally to an agreement with the Obama administration that relaxes sanctions in exchange for a future possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons. Lost in the conflict is the Arab Spring of 2012-2013, with the Tunisian democracy the only surviving result of that movement for democracy and awakening among Arab peoples. The Reagan administration in its aggressive anti-Soviet position made large errors- including ignoring human rights abuses and use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq war, by supporting Iraq and reversing position after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, having a disastrous effect on the entire region decades later. Much of the Obama administration's reluctance for any action may stem from the U.S. role in this period and its consequences of protracted conflict. ...

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During 2022 the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank issued 6 warning citations to Silicon Valley Bank, saying that its bank practices did not allow for enough cash in the event of crisis. By July 2022 in a full supervisory review it was rated deficient for governance and controls. At a meeting with senior leaders of the bank the possible exposure to interest rate losses related to Fed increasing rates was also discussed says this report in NYT. The Fed regulators stated that the bank was using wrong models showing that SVB bank would do better as interest rates increased. Questions are being asked about why things that were in plain sight were overlooked by the regulators- 97% of deposits were uninsured by the federal government. In the event of a crisis depositors might try to get their deposits out causing a run on the bank which is what actually happened with $42 billion attempted withdrawals in one day. Michael Barr is the vice chair for Fed supervision. A investigation report is expected by May 1. March 29 the House Financial Services Committee will hold ahearing in Congress. Peter Conti-Brown, an expert on financial regulation at the University of Pennsylvania calls it failure of banking supervision, and says it will become clear from the investigation whether the supervisors failed in their work. One of the problems is that the CEO of SVB bank, Gregory Becker, was on the Board of the San Francisco Fed. NYT says the optics of this is bad. Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont, calls it absurd that he was appointed to the Fed board of the institution that was regulating SVB bank. Another problem is that Randall Quarles, vice chair of Fed supervision 2017-2021 carried out a 2018 regulatory roll back law of president Trump in an expansive way says NYT. This law exempted banks with less than $250 billion in assets from strict banking supervision that larger banks were expected to go through. Fed chairman Powell is criticized for not  flagging these steps as potentially dangerous for the banking system in the way this was done by vice chair Lael Brainard. Brainard is now head of Biden's National Economic Council. She never favored the Trump law and had grasped early the risks of such deregulation. Sanders will bring a new law to prevent bank CEO's from sitting on Fed boards, and Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for an independent review that does not include Powell.     ...

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GM is keen to proceed with an IPO that would give it a chance to be seen as not reliant on the government, to be a legitimate company once again.

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Britain's High Court gives a ruling on November 2, 2016, that the government must consult parliament, and that parliament has to approve the plan for Brexit before invoking Article 50. This means that the government has to lay out the details of its plans which make it harder to conduct negotiations. The Conservative Party also does not have a majority in the House of Lords. Legal experts say the decision which caught the government by surprise was expected from a constitutional law standpoint which looks at whether the sovereign or parliament is supreme in making such a decision. Members of parliament in general were not in favor of leaving the European Union, making this add an element of uncertainty about Brexit. Political experts say one way out for Theresa May who earlier announced that she would invoke Article 50 by March 2017, is to call a general election. Today she has 329 seats in a 650 member parliament, with many of the MP's opposed to Brexit. May's government is expected to appeal the High Court decision to the Supreme Court. ...

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Genome sequencing is a way to tell if there are mutations in the virus. This is a very important part of the battle against the virus. About half of the genome sequencing in the world is done in Britain. 
Lessons learned are pointed out by the Science Editor of The Times.

During the first wave with the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, focus shifted to selected countries without much attention to Europe next door to Britain. Much of the mutated virus strains from Europe, from Italy, Spain and other countries cause the epidemic to get out of control. This is being repeated in the second wave.

When the epidemic surged in Kent British health authorites conducted genome sequencing for the virus to find out that there was a variant, a mutation of the virus that was causing a surge. This has helped Britain prepare to tackle the pandemic as it changes with new strains of the virus.

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This report in The Times shows how Africa is tackling malaria by using modern methods such as drones. Drones are used in Ghana to send medicine to remote parts of the country. The rollout of the world's first malaria vaccine is taking place in Malawi, Ghana and Kenya. The Glaxo developed vaccine requires 4 doses over 18 months. Gavi is a partnership that brings UNICEF and WHO in partnership with private companies to  buy vaccines in bulk and distribute them where it is not affordable. Gavi supported 66 million vaccines in 2018 for children, yet about 20 million children in Nigeria, Congo and other parts of Africa lacked routine immunizations in 2018. UPS and health service workers are joining in the effort for administering this vaccine correctly.  Software that tracks the taking of the vaccines by children is essential for success and this is being implemented with Ghanian authorites. This report shows how it is done in Dateng, Ghana, a town of 800 people 3 hour drive from Accra.  ...

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Biden tells the UN General Assembly he has seen the world since coming to the Senate in 1972 age 29. "Sweeping, aspirational, stubborn, defiant" says WSJ, 52 years later president Biden describes what was overcome- A long drawn war in Vietnam ended with America and Vietnam meeting as friends and partners this year showing there is path forward to reconciliation, to peace. Speaking out agains Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980's and seeing the racist regime fall. Peace in the Balkans and how he held Milosevic accountable for war crimes in the 1990's. And Afghanistan becoming longer than the Vietnam War, four presidents did not end it. "Four American presidents had faced that decision, but I was determined not to leave it to the fifth." How he has hope for the Middle East and Ukraine. “I have hope. It always seems impossible until it is done.”  ...

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Lingling Wei on Chinese policy on trade with the US in the WSJ and China seeking a visit by DJT to Beijing instead of APEC side meeting in South Korea. A meeting in Washington DC is seen as risky after the Zelensky meeting with DJT took an unexpected turn, and the idea of meeting in Beijing gives more opportunity for getting an organized result and show China's standing in the world of nations. This happens after XI met Putin in Beijing on Victory Day celebrations for World War II where Russian and Chinese losses were far larger than European or US losses. China's huge losses in the millions have not received much attention in the US or Europe. This is also true for losses by the Philippines, Indonesia and India from decisions made during wartime by colonial powers and the Imperial Japanese Army. A meeting of Xi and DJT in Beijing from China's point of view may also show China is ready to work with the US in trade and the economy where it has huge interests in a stable transition to where Chinese industry does not overproduce what it cannot sell and seeks a diversified market shifting away from concentration in the US. Both Xi and DJT are playing to a domestic and international audience to show they are wise leaders willing to engage and at the same time protecting their national interests. The issues of support for Ukraine and fentanyl sources in China remain unresolved. ...

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Foreign Minister Wadephul of Germany in India for talks on a free trade agreement that would double trade volume to $64 billion- September 2025. It is notable that German Foreign Minister is in New Delhi to improve relations and shift to larger trade relationship with India at the very time US under pressure from Europe and Germany, France is pushing India to shift away from buying Russian oil to other sources. Each side is aware of the complexities in the relationships. In the long run Germany under Merz will after the experience of China's support of Russian invasion in Ukraine, make the changes that never happened under Merkel- making India its major trade partner in Asia. By 2030 Germany trade's with India could exceed $100 billion.

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U.S. president Trump pulls back from a threat to pull out of NAFTA trade agreement after calls from U.S. business, and calls from the leaders of Mexico and Canada. Mexico said the threat would hurt constructive negotiations, Mr. Trudeau told Trump it would hurt jobs on both sides of the border. Canada is facing headwinds for growth as business is reluctant to invest under the uncertainty for NAFTA. U.S. businesses lobbied heavily including the American Chamber of Commerce. Trump administration aides say they had used this as an effort to get Congress to act- delays resulting from a 90 day rule and from negotiations not to start till Congress approves of the new trade representative Mr. Lighthizer. Helping the situation was the effort by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross showing Trump the states that had voted for Trump that would lose jobs, and that nothing was to be gained from the action of pulling out when constructive negotiations were possible- and when Mexico and Canada were eager to start negotiations to reach a new agreement. Mexico is also eager to renegotiate NAFTA because president Nieto faces a strong competitor from the left parties in coming national elections. ...