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Air pollution over New Delhi, India, and Lahore, Pakistan, is at "hazardous" levels, with a large surge in respiratory illness for people in the region.Some hospitals in the region are seeing triple the number of patients with breathing problems. The problem is aggravated by burning of stubble from the paddy crops by farmers in the nearby region of Punjab and Haryana. The levels of fine particulate matter PM 2.5 that are bad for lungs are hovering at dangerous levels of 300.  World Health Organization guidelines say 25 is the maximum level of exposure over a 24 hour period. Delhi administration responded by increasing parking charges in the city, and banning entry of commercial trucks, banning construction activity. This is a constant part of the news with many commentators critical of the way the central government, the Punjab government, and the Delhi government are tackling the situation, unable to enforce the ban on farm burning of stubble in the fields. Lancet medical journal points out that about 2.5 million lives in India were claimed in 2015 from air pollution. WHO puts 12 Indian cities in the top 20 for air pollution worldwide. ...

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The latest news from Catalonia ahead of the Dec. 21, 2017 election shows a hugely divided region in Catalonia, as prime minister Rajoy of Spain campaigns in Barcelona. The head of the left wing ERC party which is likely to win the largest share of the vote according to a poll in newspaper La Vanguardia was arrested along with fired ministers in the Puigdemont government. This time unlike the 2015 election ERC party says it will not join Mr. Puigdemont in a single pro independence bloc. Mr. Puigdemont is in exile in Brussels after declaring independence for Catalonia. Barcelona's mayor Ada Palau who won in 2015 on a platform showing support for people who suffered after the financial crisis and real estate meltdown, says she does not support the independence movement. Palau says Mr. Puigedemont and others "tricked the population for their own interests." She is critical of the way prime minister Rajoy handled the crisis including invoking Article 155 to dismiss the elected government for new elections. Palau has broken the pact with the Socialist Party. This shows a fragmented and divided population when it comes to independence. This BBC report says about half of Catalans today do not support independence for a complete break with Spain. ...

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A Taiwan based correspondent of BBC News reflects on how China has changed during the Singles day 11.11 on November 11. This is a huge promotion event for online retailer Alibaba. It was originally a day used by male college students without girlfriends, showing with the 11 their desire to have relationships. Alibaba has used it as a promotional day for online sales with discounts of 30% or more. About halfway though the day sales were larger than 2016 sales on Nov. 11.  Many retailers from different countries took part. and the sales reached $25 billion. Many people used it to buy household supplies for 6 months using the discounts, or apparel and clothing which could be delivered to their home. The old ideas of frugality are now replaced with a willingness to try new ways to live in a different period.  Use of mobile phones for ordering is widespread as a new urban middle class in China shifts to a materialist culture of buying on credit.

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Former intelligence chief James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan are critical of president Trump's statements that Russia did not interfere in the U.S. presidential election. Putin and Trump met briefly during the Asia-Pacific summit. Brennan says he finds it "puzzling" because of the "national security problem." This report in the BBC News says U.S. intelligence agencies see the interference in the way there was hacking and release of emails damaging to Hillary Clinton. Special Counsel Mueller is investigating whether there were links between Russia and the Trump campaign.

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Roger McNamee, an early investor in Google and Facebook, writes this opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper saying that there are very serious problems in the way the "addiction" created by Facebook and Google products is affecting children. Lyrarc.com also points out that the reading and literacy scores in the U.S. and other countries are affected by how the new technology is used by digital gatekeepers. See our FAQ. Tim Berners Lee calls this a massive distraction for learning and youngsters. Melinda Gates has cited this as a problem she has faced in her own effort to raise her children.  Here is the main problem as stated by McNamee- of the millions of content pieces that can be shown the digital gatekeepers show only the content that is fit for their business model, and the best content from an educational point of view whether literacy, reading skills, civic literacy, all types of literacy and knowledge, is not only not the priority but is for the most part absent. He points out that that if not for the advertising business model this would be different- the focus could shift to experiences that educate, enrich and inspire users to better lives and better lifestyles. The smartphone has become pervasive in everyday lives to an astonishing degree- about 150 times a day with 2000 swipes and touches- to the point that it is changing the way people live and think without their realizing it. With it come new risks to the way we live and what we believe, like never before in history. ...

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This report in DW.com show the level shopping spree has reached in China. A 24 hour Singles Day on November 11 is a day for online shopping spree in China. It was started in 2009 and reached about $18 billion in 2016. About half of China's population has mobile phones and 90% of sales are on mobile.

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This opinion in DW.com says Donald Trump has done exactly the opposite of what he said during the election campaign when he was severely critical of China on trade issues. This report cites the many statements in some detail made by Trump about China. During a recent visit to China he says president Trump seemed to go out of his way to show agreement with president Jinping, quite the reverse of what he said he would do during the election campaign. U.S. influence and prestige is seen as declining as a result of president Trump's policies.

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This report from Sicily, describes the situation in this region as comparable to Greece, with budget deficits, high unemployment, young people leaving the region, and corruption. This Der Spiegel report cites the deteriorating situation after the centre right parties won the election on Nov. 5, 2017, making the region hard to govern.

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S. Gurumurthy of the Hindu points out the dangers of economic growth without job creation in a country like India. He points out that demonetization- removal of high denomination currency notes- came at a critical time when the economic growth was not creating enough jobs. He points to the five year period till 2010 as having created 2.7 million jobs with 8.5% growth. Even though with lower growth of 5.4% in the period 1999-2004 the job growth was for 60 million jobs created. Had demonetization not happened he says, the economy could have seen the problems the U.S. faced in 2008 with a bubble developing in the real estate market. The fundamental shift of the economy to digitization of payments, increase in tax receipts brings more of the informal economy- with a size of 50% of the economy generating 128 million jobs ten times the formal sector - into the formal economy. A step that is key for India to see rapid growth in the decade ahead. The slackening of the economy for a year is part of  a needed long term plan, says Prof. Gurumurthy, visiting IIT faculty in Bombay, just as liberalization was in the 1990's.  Some errors were made in implementation and flow of credit to the informal economy, including by the RBI, yet the fundamental shift through demonetization served a good purpose. Gurumurthy says, sadly this is missing in the current politicized debate.  ...

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This Der Spiegel report says there is a loss of American prestige after one year of the Trump administration. It accepts that rising inequality and impunity for the powerful may have led to the reaction in the election. Yet it says American leadership is missing after four decades of American leadership and ideals that led to the rebuilding of Europe and Japan.

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This report in Der Spiegel shows how the efforts to act on climate change are stalled in Germany with the failure to agree on how coal fired plants will be closed in the ongoing three party negotiations. The FDP party is pro-business and no agreement is reached with the Greens and the CDU on how to move ahead with the 65% of German power plants that do not rely on renewable energy such as solar and wind. Modern gas facilities are unprofitable making this a major challenge for Germany to cut power emissions under the Paris Climate Change Agreement and German targets of the Merkel government. Spiegel points out that energy companies are not keen on keeping the old coal power plants which are now outdated and an agreement is needed.

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Non farm payrolls are up by 261,000 and the U..S. unemployment rate drops to 4.1% for October 2017, according to the Labor Department. A broader measure that takes into account Americans who are in part time work having difficulty finding full time work was at 7.9%. Yet wage growth remains sluggish. Inflation with food and energy cost inflation after the hurricanes taken out remains at less than 2% below the Fed target, to the surprise of Fed chairwoman Yellen and new chairman Powell.

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Joanna Stern in the WSJ says the iPhone X at $1000 is worth it. She details all the new things you can do with the iPhone X. Stern calls it a bridge between the older iPhones and a new type of iPhone. In a separate review in the Washington Post the value proposition of the iPhone X is questioned- the iPhone 7 at $550 and the iphone 8 at $800 are considered just as powerful and get most of what you want done without the fancy features. The iPhone X packs the features of larger phones like the Plus into a smaller phone, yet is it worth paying the price of about 2 iPhone 7s. If you want the excitement of trying something new like Stern then go ahead, for value and performance the iPhone 8 or the iPhone 7 are seen as sufficient.

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The iPhone X at $1000 is it worth it? This review says you don't really need it. Its not more powerful than the iPhone 8 that can be purchased without a wait. It says Apple took out the home button and made some design changes but otherwise its not much different in what it offers. You don't buy a fancy banana split and pay a lot extra, the same reason you might want to stay away from the $1000 iPhone X. 

Which iPhone offers all you really need for a value price. Fowler says it is the iPhone 7. iPhone 7 is water resistant, better battery performance and low light camera performance. So if you want to get some extra features that are not essential pay $800 for an iPhone 8, but the iPhone 7 at $550 offers real value.

And one last word- Apple care is not recommended as the new iPhones are water resistant.

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The U.S. government's National Climate Assessment report in November 2017 says observational evidence proves that human action is the main driver for climate change. It warns of sea levels rise as high as 8 feet by the year 2100. It shows damage from climate change that is already happening from a rise in the U.S. by 1.8 degree Fahrenheit of global warming since 1900. Trump has announced withdrawal by the U.S. from the Paris Climate Change Agreement that would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels. The Trump administration is relaxing rules by the EPA that would have contributed to the goals of the Paris Agreement.

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Prakash and Ghosh in the Hindusthan Times remind readers that even though India has ambitious plans for renewable energy much remains to be done in shifting to clean coal technologies. An estimated 80% of India's coal plants use obsolete technologies, making this an obvious area for improvement. India plans to make solar the source of 100GW of 175GW it plans to generate in renewable energy by 2022. Yet it must not be forgotten that coal is a dominant source for the foreseeable future and shifting to clean coal technologies is an area that should get top priority from the government. Today India is the third largest in terms of carbon emissions after the U.S and China.