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Pete Seeger used a sloop to take people down the Hudson River to educate them about the river and how it could come back to life if cleaned up. Today the river once polluted with sewage and oil pollution is clean enough to provide recreational opportunities. It also provides drinking water for the town of Poughkeepsie in New York. Hudson River Sloop Clearwater environmental organization which headed this effort is now the Riverkeeper which advocates environmental policies for the Hudson River. Seeger lived close to the outdoors in a log cabin on 17 acres near the Hudson River. He cut wood on this land since the 1960's and he says he loved the exercize and sound of cutting wood every day.

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New affordability and choice in EV's in US under $40000 in 2025. Even without incentives from the government EV's remain an attractive option now that new gasoline cars cost an average of $49,000 and affordable EV's come at price range uder $40,000. In Germany VW has EV models for about $30,000 and this pricing and choice of models can be expected in the US in 2026. Mims looks at how EV's are now a realistic option for car buyers in 2025. Americans drive an average of 33 miles a day- the 300 mile range of new EV's means charging once a week is good enough. New EV batteries are better and can outlast a vehice's life. Savings from low maintenance costs can make up for any shortfalls for EV's.

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Melbourne enters a tight stage 4 lockdown after a state of disaster is declared in the state of Victoria. Curfew is from 8 pm to 5 am. Victoria had 671 new cases daily on one day over the weekend. In Melbourne residents can shop and exercize only within 3 miles of their homes. Only one person from each home can shop and only once per day. Restaurants, bars, cafes, gyms are closed. The new lockdown actions will last 6 weeks.

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Harry Kane Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford put England ahead in a 4-2 win over Croatia -openers in World Cup Soccer 2026, Harry Kane had 2 goals and was close to getting the third for a hat trick. It was an exceptional performance by Kane matching that of the French Bleu's Mbappe and Messi the day earlier. In the first half England and Croatia were 2-2. Coach Tuchel gave the English team a pep talk they took to heart to be the best they could be, "to be brave, courageous and tenacious on the front foot, and just go for it." This is what Tuchel told them in the words of Harry Kane- “He told us to take the shackles off, calm down and let’s go. He said what’s the worst that can happen? Show the world who we can be.” “We came out in the second half full gas and they couldn’t live with it, and that’s the level we have to set in every game. The way we controlled the game once we went ahead, we never really looked like we were in danger and then scored on the counterattack. We had a spell where we could have scored three or four. Credit to everyone: the first game of the tournament and a great result against a tough side.” This is how coach Tuchel described his pep talk to the team at half time- “I told them to calm down. We just conceded the goal. To calm down, calm their nerves. And encourage them to do it our way. I told them that my perception of them in the last 17 days will not change no matter what the result is. I want them to do it their way. Our way. I want them to be brave, courageous and tenacious on the front foot. And just go for it.”   ...

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Did you now there are internet addiction camps to rehabilitate people affected by overuse of internet time, spending time online for hours at a stretch. The BBC looks at one such camp in South Korea. Having such fast internet connections and being one of the most well connected internet countries in the world looked great until one realizes the cost. Being advanced or going faster and faster doesn't mean better without the exercize of needed discrimination of what is best for healthy lives and healthy mindsets. Everything elders once took for granted such as time spent with crafts, sports, outdoor activities, and hobbies, are being given to kids at these internet addiction rehabilitation camps. One kid watched youtube for 18 hours a day and now the way back to mental and physical health is to stop using the iphone or android phone altogether. This maybe of some comfort to countries without the internet connections prevailing in so called advanced countries. Even there the improvements are coming with a cost such as the proliferation of watching Tik Tok from China in India and China with poor quality content that is likely to fragment peoples attention making it harder to lead healthy lives that we once took for granted before the advent of Mr. Job's screen enabled phone. ...

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Mario Balotelli, the soccer star who played for Marseille decides to go back to his hometown of Brescia, Italy. Along the way turning down offers to play for Flamengo in Brazil or impossible sums of money for playing on a Chinese team. His mother cried when she heard that he was coming back. He was once the only black player on the Italian team when he scored the winning goal against a stunned German team by going from one end of the field to the other. 

His offer from Brescia is 4.4 million dollars but that was enough for him to come home, accepting the offer at once. Even while playing for Milan he preferred to commute the distance and stay in Brescia. 

He will no longer be alone as the only black player on the soccer field. Brexcia is now extracommunitaria as they say in Italy, a multicultural city with 19% of its citizens from other backgrounds. Many players from West Africa are now playing in the Italian league.  

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The Indian Supreme Court on July 27 upholds the core amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)  which gives the enforcement authority, the Enforcement Directorate ED, the powers to make summons, arrest, and other powers to enforce the law. The Supreme Court called the PMLA a law against "the scourge of money laundering." After independence in 1947 some of the problems that Mohandas Gandhi witnessed in the early Congress party ministries allowed by the British in the 1930's became a part of the political fabric as accepted ways of operating. It is only in the last decade that these practices have come to be seen as inconsistent with the development of the country and ones that would have been rejected outright by Mohandas Gandhi as inconsistent and repelling to his India of Hind Swaraj. In a 545 page judgement the Special Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkarm Dinesh Maheshwari, and CT Ravikumar, stated that- "This is a sui generis (unique) legislation... The Parliament enacted the Act as a result of the international commitment to sternly deal with the menace of money laundering of proceeds of crime having transnational consequences." Mohandas Gandhi would be appalled by how elected ministries operated in the India that followed in the first decades after 1947. Not only were some of the basic principles of honest government being violated, it was being done with such impunity that over time it crept into the culture of how things operated in India, destroying any confidence the people had in the responsibilities of government and its ability to deliver on those responsibilities. The Supreme Court has now taken up the task of restoring some of the integrity of Gandhi's Hind Swaraj with its statement that- "Money laundering is an offence against the sovereignty and integrity of the country." Money laundering the SC says is "every process and activity", direct or indirect dealing with the proceeds of crime. Justice Khanwilkar wrote: "Today, if one dives deep into the financial systems, anywhere in the world, it is seen that once a financial mastermind can integrate the illegitimate money into the bloodstream of an economy, it is almost indistinguishable. In fact the money can simply be wired abroad at one click of the mouse. It is well known that once this money leaves the country, it is almost impossible to get it back. Hence a simplistic argument  that Section 3 (offence of money laundering) should only find force once the money has been laundered, does not commend to us."   ...

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Raheem Sterling, Manchester City soccer striker takes England to the quarterfinals of Euro Soccer 2021 with his goal in the game against Germany. In that 2-0 game the second goal came from Harvey Kane.

The Guardian gives this story of Raheem growing up in a difficult neighborhood in Kingston, Jamaica. His mother, a nurse, moved to London after losing his father to gang violence. There he played for teams before he was 14, then moving to Liverpool Club, in the north of England. He showed real determination at an early age, and concern for kids growing up near Wembley stadium where he once lived, who had no chance to watch soccer or participate in the game.

 

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The great persistence shown by president Biden in negotiating with Hamas through Qatar's emir and with Israel's Netanyahu to get both to come to an agreement for release of hostages. This was delayed twice, once with Israel's takeover of the Al Shifa hospital complex in Gaza and then with recalcitrance shown by both sides to agree over which hostages would be released. Each time Biden persisted till he got the deal for both hostage release and a temporary ceasefire that could be the basis for future settlement of decades of conflict. Biden has expresssed his determination to end this conflict. In this he has the support of the world community of nations.

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Spirit Airlines, a no frills airline in the US, files for bankruptcy. It lost $2.2 billion since 2020, almost all the profit made since 2006. It was the result of a lot of things happening at once, problems with Pratt and Whitney engines grounding planes, failed $2.9 billion merger with Frontier another no frill airline, when Jet Blue made a $3.9 billion offer that had less chance to get by antitrust concerns. The 2020-2024 period was one in which people scrambled to travel and the bigger airlines Delta, United, Southwest were in a better position with their international networks, frequent flyer program and credit cards, and more routes and planes to capitalize on this leaving Spirit behind.

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There are hidden dangers in Trump's plans for ending Social Security taxation. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget which evaluates independently budget plans to educate the public has studied this proposal. It can be seen here by clicking on this Article. It says it will advance the insolvency of Medicare from 2037 to 2031 just 6 years from now. it will advance the insolvency of Social Security from 2034 to 2033 by 1 year, just 9 years from now. The law requires that once the Social Security fund is insolvent that it will lead to cuts in benefits of 21 percent, ending taxing social security benefits will make that cut 25 percent says CRB.  

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After mentioning the transformative game of Van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Firmino, Alexander Arnold, one can only turn to the incredible resilience of Jordan Henderson against many setbacks and being written off more than once. Here he is put forward as the choice for Footballer of the Year. Precept and example counts for more here than individual game performance.

The "mentality monsters" Germany's Klopp talks about in coaching is about calming the mind and continuous improvement, hard work in practice that makes this happen. Henderson shows a lot of this work ethic and resolve.

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Kurzabeit is a big part of the social safety net in Germany. It means short time work. When companies face a loss of orders or production or some crisis workers still get paid 60 to 67% of their wages. This avoids layoffs and benefits both employees and the company, as the company can quickly ramp up its production to full capacity with employees working full time. Workers make up for the work lost once the crisis has passed. 

This has enabled Germany to keep the unemployment rate low as in the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

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During the Civil War and the two World Wars it was called the War Department till changes were made in 1947-1949. The US Navy was independent of the Army and operated independently. Harry Truman changed this in 1947.Since then the US has been on the back foot even in its on backyard, where once the Monroe Doctrine made clear that colonial powers had no place in this hemisphere, today even in places like Venezuela and central America regimes operate against the interests of their people and create a massive refugee problem for the United States of America and other countries in the neighborhood. The USA was also on the back foot in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and after prematurely declaring victory in the Cold War finds that nothing of the sort of a win in the Cold War happened, as the adversaries in the Cold War reassert their interests. And the US faces crises of refugees and on its borders, Europe faces crises of refugees and on its borders.    ...

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As inflation eases and job growth continues in the US, and to a lesser extent also in the European Union, there are different opinions on why this is happening. One camp says that the surge in inflation was from temporary supply shocks. Once these shocks abated and supplies came back into the market the situation has eased. Central bank increase in rates played a smaller part in easing inflation say these experts. With interest rates up on loans there is less demand for cars in the US that leads to sellers having less pricing power. The other camp says the increase in interest rates at consecutive meetings had a strong impact on expectations of inflation. Higher interest rates played apart in cooling demand for cars and home purchases.

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American cartoonist Charles Schulz and his creations Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Schulz says he drew children because that is what editors liked.

In a 1977 BBC interview Schulz says-

"I'm talking only about the minor everyday problems in life. Leo Tolstoy dealt with the major problems of the world. I'm only dealing with why we all have the feeling that people don't like us."  

Charles Schulz drew every cartoon himself from 1950 to 2000.

He says he described the human condition. He once said- "I am dealing with love and hate, mistrust and fear and insecurity."

The cartoon strip was put in 2600 newspapers worldwide.

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Scott Bessent on restoring the mission of the IMF "brutally calling out imbalances" including China's surplus economy and unfair trading practices instead of "whistling by the graveyard"- in his address to the IMF, Feb 15, 2025. Bessent says the IMF and World Bank had mission creep and lost track of financial stability and were not asking the hard questions about China's focus on exports at the expense of the manufacturing capacity and jobs of America and Europe.  Hee are his remarks meant to show that Bessent is taking an all of the above approach on energy, knows climate change is real but cals for flexible approach, an approach he wants the World Bank to take. And for the IMF to focus on key issues that have led to deindustrialization of US and Europe essential for financial stability before getting into social and cultural issues that are not its mandate for which it is ill equipped to address. Bessent told the IMF and World Bank - "Instead, the IMF has suffered from mission creep. The IMF was once unwavering in its mission of promoting global monetary cooperation and financial stability. Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues.   These issues are not the IMF’s mission. And the IMF’s focus in these areas is crowding out its work on critical macroeconomic issues. The IMF must be a brutal truth-teller, and not just to some members. Instead, today’s IMF has been whistling past the graveyard. Its 2024 External Sector Report was entitled “Imbalances Receding.”  This pollyannish outlook is symptomatic of an institution more dedicated to preserving the status quo than asking the hard questions."  Some of these hard questions are about surplus countries- about China and their focus on exporting their way till they destroy the manufacturing sector of the rest of the world. ...

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DW.com report by Mu Ciu shows a CATL(Contemporary Amperex Technology) plant in Arnstadt, Thuringia, in eastern Germany. It will not bridge Germany's technology gap. German and US consultants at the microeconomic level of the company and German and US economists at the macroeconomic level of the economy entirely fail to grasp the effectiveness of China's investment driven model. Of its joint partnering with European and American companies and China's single minded focus on technology access. This is why the DJT US administration has warned Europe that it is failing economically. China's macroeconomic and microeconomic model are run by the same authority by the state, and according to goals and plans (which in a socialist economy is weak at the microeconomic company level lacking the initiative and freedom of action). By combining its macreconomic framework run by the state with a micreconomic company level run by the state but on free market lines the Chinese investment driven model has dual advantages and operates at a speed that far surpasses the German and American model. It's society suffers as a consequence, but in few short decades 1990-2009/2020 this is all it could accomplish with a single focus on modernization for what was once a peasant agricultural economy. Where it lacks is in future technology access and as long as weak companies in the US and Germany partner with Chinese companies the technology access for Chinese companies give it the essential ingredient for its investment model to work, as American and European companies can waver in investment Chinese companies backed by the government will not waver in investment and have the clear advantage. DJT's approach is to give a big shock to the entire system of world trade now run by China, so that this is no longer going to work at the macroeconomic level and legislate huge investment incentives for one time depreciation and other moves to get American companies to invest. It wants Europe to do the same, including getting rid of the bureaucratic structures and regulations. German Chancellor Merz is getting the message and is acting quickly first with the trillion dollar investment plan, the meetings with Draghi and Meloni to get Italy and like minded nations on board, and internal efforts to get rid of regulations and bureaucratic structures, and building a new partnership with India to remove an error of Merkel/ Clinton+ Obama in excessive concentration and dependence on China. This requires a steady hand and steady governments, steady policy, and companies in America, Europe and India to work together for the long haul without wavering or delay, to rebuild the world economy along new lines and on a new path. ...

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The US president tells the King it was special that all members of Congress stood up for a standing ovation many times- something that in recent years rarely happens. The King "has shown his class" in the last 24 hours says BBC, it is now up to Starmer and the British government, DJT and the Americans to make it count. Notable DJT sharing that the King agreed with him that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. The King also talked about the NATO alliance and its role in keeping the peace for 80 years in the world. In the King's words-  "the international rules that have allowed us to trade and have kept power in balance for 80 years." Adding that the US should not go it alone- "The challenges we face are too great for any one nation to bear alone." However the King is only doing what his is role as monarch to present British interests, and it is important to recall that Britain's interests were once colonial interests around the world, that opposition to these colonial interests led to the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson and Washington in 1776. And caution in Washington's advice to America in Annual messages when it comes to these Empires. Right after 1945 when NATO was created- as it was throughout its Empire in Asia  in 1750-1950- Britain opposed Russia and was the most vocal opponent of Soviet Russia in 1950's and saw NATO in this mission. Times have changed with the emergence of Russia after 1990, China in 1950 and again in 1990's, and America as a world power is best following Washington's advice not to get involved in or inherit the British anti-Russian attitude as it has interests in the Western hemisphere and around the world that require cooperation with other world powers such as Russia, China, India, and Germany to create a peaceful world  and not the kind we have today that puts Russia and China on the wrong side just for opposition, as no powers have any interest in drug and people trafficking in the western hemisphere form places like Mexico and Venezuela, or creating small wars in other parts of the world. A situation NATO as seen by Britain in 1950 as Anti-Russian creates for the US- Lord Hastings Ismay first Secretary General of NATO set British goal for NATO (not the US interests or consistent with George Washington's advice to distance from) in 1949 as "Keep the Russian Out, the US Involved, and the Germans Down." ...

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Engineer and climber Kelsey Olson makes cell towers for 5G infrastructure work. WSJ shows her at work - she has no fear of heights. Ms. Olson is 36, and Denver based division manager of Tower Engineering Professionals, a North Carolina company that helps telecom companies upgrade to 5G. She joined at age 23. She not only manages about 10 engineers to design the structures, but also works outdoors with teams that inspect these towers and retrofit with new equipment for 5G. Once high up in a climb in the Pacific Northwest, she could see a purple sunset, from way above the pine trees. 

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Hewlett Packard was one of the founding companies to setup what is called Silicon Valley, with engineers Hewlett and Packard acting as pioneers of a new industry making computers. It is now moving from San Jose to Houston as more companies leave the high cost San Francisco San Jose area following the coronavirus pandemic, which has made remote work popular. Engineers and tech workers now prefer not to spend every day of the week working in office locations. This report in WSJ says the area around San Jose no longer has the pull it once had as companies move to other cities.

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An intense debate is taking place as Spain's agricultural regions face prolonged drought. The Valencian Community and Alcoy depend on rain and in drought conditions can lose 100% of crops. Murcia, Alicante and Almeria in the south east get water from local rivers, desalinated water and from the river Tagus. About 40% of water comes from desalinated water and diversion of water from the River Tagus hundreds of kilometres further north. Irrigation helps farmers plant organic lemons in what was once a dry arid region, and drip dry irrigation conserves water. The Spanish government is planning to limit the drop in the levels of the Tagus river to conserve water in the river which would reduce water to the south east around Murcia and Almeria. This region is considered to be the vegetable garden of Europe.