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British MP raises issue of Arab Gulf countries providing 37% of China's oil imports, excluding Iraq 27%, vs 11% from Iran and 20% from Russia- 2024 US EIA. Tom Tugendhat says China has to balance its interests in the region after the closure of the Straits of Hormuz, between Iran, Gulf monarchies, and Russia. China also faces a more credible choice of accelerating the development of renewable energy in the same way that India and the European Union face. US will act as a supplier of last resort  adding Venezuelan and other supplies but temporarily as the entire Middle East region poses quandaries for China, the US, and India, European Union. The quandary stems from the irreconciliable differences between religious sects in the region, post 1950 ideological and religious militancy,  in which neither China, India, the US, Russia or the European Union wants to get drawn into after 5 decades of bitter experience in the Middle East.

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The BBC's security correspondent looks at the cyber espionage being conducted from Russia during the U.S. presidential election. The U.S. director of national intelligence has pointed to the Russian government as the source of hacking into U.S. databases. U.S. intelligence officials say this is intended to interfere with the U.S. election process in some way. It follows hacking into the DNC database of the Democratic Party.

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Two statements by Republican leaders in Congress show the seriousness with which they are approaching the issue of hacking by Russia during the U.S. presidential election of 2016. Senator Mitch McConell: "The Russians are not our friends, we need to approach all these on the assumption the Russians do not wish us well," strongly condemning the hacking. Rep. Paul Ryan: "As I've said before, any foreign intervention in our elections is entirely unacceptable. And any intervention by Russia is especially problematic because, under President Putin, Russia has been an aggressor and undermines American interests."

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The initial information of 4 million records affected by the hacking into records at the Office of Personnel Management of the U.S. government is now shown as a serious underestimate. The agency now says 19.7 million who were given a background check, and an additional 1.8 million people are affected. The agency now says there were separate incidents of hacking with this incident separate from the other incident for 4.2 million records hacked, both perpetrated by the same hackers. The two hackings are reported to be from China. A security official at the department of Homleland Security, says the access to the personnel records was made through the use of the credentials of a contractor which were available to the hackers.

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UK Reform Party has taken large donations from cryptocurrency companies. Reform leader Nigel Farage has received a 5 million pound gift from a cryptocurrency firm. What does this mean for cryptocurrency regulation in the UK as a world financial center, if Reform wins a general election and appoints the next Governor of the Bank of England when Andrew Bailey retires in 2028. This is discussed in The Guardian. The banking system of the US, UK and large countries was set up over many years and currency is only issued by a central bank with the financial backing of the nation. Cryptocurrency cannot on the basis of technology take that role without posing risks and destabilizing the financial system. The gradual splitting of society by the information economy, neglect of infrastructure, pharmaceutical pricing, banking speculation as in 2009 crisis, have been eroding some of the basic structures of democracy for the last two decades from within.  The wars in the Middle East policies, and the open borders migration policies, were effects from outside. What this has led to is counter to what one would expect. To fight open borders and the marginalization of some parts of the working class DJT Republicans have used whatever resources were available at the time in the 2024 presidential election. The cryptocurrency firms used this in opportunistic fashion to affect regulation of this currency by supporting the reelection bid of DJT in 2024 by making large donations. This has led to less regulation of cryptocurrency firms. Is this in the best interests of the Nation? Will this destabilize the banking system in ways that have happened before in the deregulation of banks before the 2009 financial crisis? In Britain a new Bank of England governor will be appointed after Andrew Bailey's term expires in 2028. Reform party in UK if elected as government would appoint the next Governor of the Bank of England. Reform's growing popularity is a result of Conservatives and Labour failing to take action on open borders, asylum hotels, and migration policy, following an ECHR code of rights that is inappropriate to such migration. What this means is that unexpected things happen as a result. Cyrptocurrency risks of destabilizing the banking system increase as a result of failure of parties on migration. This could be more destabilizing for Britain because of its role as a financial centre than the industrialized  economies such as Germany, China, and industrializing economies such as India. It poses risks in the US yet Federal Reserve Governor Walsh can exercise his own judgement about cryptocurrency and Congress can exercise oversight, the large banks can act to show the risks of destabilizing that cryptocurrency can pose. For Britain it is particularly dangerous as the US is also an industrialized power compared to Britain's focus on finance alone. Andrew Bailey can ignore lobbying by Reform Party in 2026 (Farage met with the Governor of the Bank of England), yet what happens if Reform appoints the next Governor in 2028? These are questions Britain needs to ponder. It is also why Andy Burnham is Britain's last chance to get things right on migration to the point that the British people feel good and proud of their heritage and history, British neighborhoods across the country feel safe and secure, and Britain shifts to reindustrialize its economy with partners in China and India, the European Union, and the US. A former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Charlie Bean told the BBC about donations of Christopher Harbonne, who has a 13% ownership interest in cryptocurrency firm,Tether. "Stablecoins are only stable if they have the appropriate regulatory environment… But there is right now an unsurprising regulatory race to the bottom amid the potential for greater profits." He added: "When funds are coming from major shareholders of such large financial institutions, there is a clear potential conflict of interest here, for example, in the appointment of a new Bank of England governor. Transparency is one solution." ...

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It is not yet known who is responsible for the hacking of groups critical of Exxon.

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The parliamentary report on News Corporation and the hacking scandal, says New Corporation executives misled parliament in testimony. It says Rupert Murdoch is unfit to run the operations of a major corporation and displayed "wilful blindnesss" to hacking and other acitvities at his companies and puublications. This has major implications on whether regulators will consider reducing Murdoch's 39.1% ownership of BSkyB, satellite broadcaster.

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The U.S. Justice Department indictment of 5 Chinese military officers for hacking into computers of U.S. companies to get trade secrets. The hacking involved Westinghouse, U.S. Steel, and other companies.

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Britain and India are seen as the most attractive destinations for foreign investment after the US, Germany and China. This is true after Brexit. In recent years Britain and India have made much progress in becoming investment destinations.

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Officials of 130 countries met virtually to agree on a global minimum tax rate. A minimum tax rate of 15% would be paid by corporations in each of the countries in which they operate so that tax avoidance is prevented. The Group of 20 major economies including India and China also agreed to this change in taxation to ensure that all companies pay their fair share of taxes. It is also part of the Biden plan for tax revenue generation to fund the infrastructure and human needs in health, education and public services that were neglected for so long. US president Biden says- "This will level the playing field and also make America more competitive. And it will allow us to devote the additional revenue we raise to make generational investments, which are necessary to keep America's competitive edge razor sharp in today's global economy." This tax change was needed to prevent companies shopping for low tax locations such as Ireland. This kind of locating in low tax rate locations worked badly for the major G-20 economies for decades as it prevented the generation of revenues needed for essential services and infrastructure investments. Tax changes include Biden's plan to increase the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, and raise the minimum tax on US based companies foreign profits to 21% from 10.5%.  ...

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This editorial in the WSJ tackles the issue of Russian hacking during the U.S. presidential election by saying that this should not be seen as a move by Democrats after the election defeat, and yet at the same time supports the Republican Congress's efforts to hold an inquiry into the hacking during the election. 

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The Leveson Report on newspaper ethics and practices in Britain calls for a parliamentary statute to support a new body to replace existing self-regulation efforts. The Press Complaints Commission would be replaced with a new body with tougher investigative powers and independent of newspaper influence, and fines ranging upto 1.6 million pounds.

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The South Korean won has lost 17% of its value so far in 2022. Heavy reliance on exports to a rapidly slowing Chinese economy, high corporate and household debt levels, outflow of funds, and the depreciating won, reflect weakness in the Korean economy.

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India was the first to offer financing assurances on behalf of Sri Lanka for a loan of $2.9 billion from the IMF. Written financing assurance from Japan will follow soon. A similar assurance from China will help Sri Lanka get the IMF loan of $2.9 billion. India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar will visit Colombo on Jan. 19 and 20.

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Guardian report about search for work in Grimsby a small town in England, vape shops no jobs. The situation in small towns lacking job opportunity. What the elites in the UK and the US don't get.