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Sweden gets a centre left government led by Stefan Lofven, who gets a second term in office. He managed to put together an alliance of centre left parties with the Green Party and Liberal paties after the elections gave 40% of the vote to centre left and centre right and proved inconclusive. Lofven governs without a majority in parliament because the minority government has support form other parties with 77 votes in parliament that abstained. Both centre right and centre left did not want to join with the far right anti-immigration Sweden Democrats. Lofven says Sweden chose a different path than other governments that sought to form governments with anti-immigrant parties. He said "in Sweden we stand up for democracy, for equality. Sweden has chosen a different path." To get Centre and Liberal parties support Lofven promised to cut taxes, reform the rental housing market, and relax strict employment laws.

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Skies are full of drones over Ukraine as the war takes on a different appearance in July- August 2025.

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A snap election following criticism of the Conservative government's budget plans to increase taxes leads to a win for the NDP in Alberta, Canada.

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Marcus Rashford's second goal takes Manchester United to a 2-1 win over Klopp's Liverpool team.

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Social Security payment are likely to increase by 3.3% in 2024 in line with about 3% inflation, after an increase of 8.7% in 2023. 46% of retirees paid taxes on a part of their benefits. About 40% of Americans depend on social security payments for half of their income, and 14% for 90% of their income. Average 401K balances are up to $223,000 for people 65 to 69 years, according to Fidelity Investments.

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Timiraos and Shin provide more evidence in the WSJ that the hopes for generating more revenues from a huge tax cut have proven illusory in the past under Reagan and Bush. The question is whether the tax cuts can make up for the revenue lost through economic growth. In the short term there is a spurt of growth but in the long term this has left a revenue shortfall paid for by higher taxes later on.

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Tour de France director tests positive. French prime minister takes test after sharing car with the director of Tour de France.

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Mary Walsh documents the bizarre instances of waste in Prepa, Puerto Rico's power company. It provides free electricity to 78 municipalities, a system setup in 1941 under FDR appointed Governor Tugwell, in lieu of property taxes to be paid to municipalities. This includes such projects as a ice skating rink on a tropical island, wasteful use of power by locating businesses in municipal buildings, and a system which incentivizes waste of power.

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Norris quotes Senator John McCain who said that when corporations such as Apple and Google do not pay their share of taxes, other companies in the U.S. and ordinary taxpayers have to make up the difference.

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Elena Mayors Taylor gold medalist at Milan WInter Olympics 2026 age 41 years, is th eoldest gold medalist in Olympic history. Her colleague in the winter sport of bobsledding is Armbruster Humphries who has 3 gold medals and is 40 years She says-  "You get a lot of people that like to write you off as soon as you reach 40, it's all downhill from there, is what you hear. I think Elana and I are both proof that that's not true." Former bronze medalist from Britain Jon Jackson says of Elena- "She is not only a ferocious athlete but also a beautiful human being and a genuine person. It has been a real show of dedication to keep going through the struggles of now being a mum in a high-performance sport, the dedication that takes to maintain that level of physical fitness and the hard work of being a parent. It shows her true nature." Elena has 3 children with disabilities and is an advocate for mums. "It should be celebrated that they're both mums, using mum power, both in their early 40s and it's great to see them competing at the top of the world not only physically but the drive and experience too,"   ...

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A company making table tennis tables in Uttar Pradesh, India, gains access to the US market as supply chain reorganization takes place.

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Ashwin takes 5 wickets for 37 runs with Australia getting their lowest total in India of 91 runs in the second innings. 

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India takes up the UN's International Year of Millets at a special event in Parliament shown here in The Indian Express.

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UK government tax authority, HMRC has 42 billion in unpaid taxes from business and individuals under the Tory government, says this report in The Guardian. This would be more than what all local authorites in England will spend on social care, environment and planning, culture, it says. Another 4.5 billion pounds were lost in fraud and error. The Guardian calls Tory prime minister Sunak "the billionaires prime minister" and says "the little people" are us.

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France's central bank chief Christian Noyer, says public spending to create jobs has the drawback of creating yesterday's jobs, but lasting job creation has to look at today and the future for effective job creation. Once government spending crosses a certain level, about 55% of GDP, a level France has crossed, further spending becomes counterproductive, reducing public confidence in the economy, as higher future taxes are anticipated canceling any benefits.

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U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sees negative perceptions increase after media scrutiny of fund raising efforts in a WSJ/NBC poll April 26-30, 2011. The poll shows negative perceptions increased to 42% from 36% in an earlier March 2015 poll. The percentage of people who consider her honest and straightforward went down sharply from 38% in summer 2014 to 25% in this poll. Hillary Clinton still has loyalty within the Democratic base with 76% approval.

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"Our public and democracy needs constructive questioning,” speaking in Irish and English says Catherine Connolly of Ireland after winning by 63% presidential election in Ireland. “Together, we can shape a new republic that values everybody, that values and champions diversity and that takes confidence in our own identity.”

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A "Best Countries" ranking was announced in Davos forum by U.S. News and World Report and its editor-in-chief, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, in Jan. 2016. This is the first time this rating is being done. It gives top spots to countries based on surveys of 16,000 people, 8000 from informed elites of better educated people, the rest from the public. The rankings are in many categories including quality of life, cultural influence, heritage, entrepreneurship, citizenship, raising kids, green living. Canada takes the top spot for quality of life, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Australia and Netherlands. France takes top spot for cultural influence, Italy for heritage, Germany for entrepreneurship, and second spot for forward looking, Sweden takes top spot for citizenship, raising kids and green living. Japan takes the second spot for green living, Canada takes the fourth spot, with Germany in the third spot, the U.S. and the UK in the top ten for green living. India takes top spot for movers with its rising economy. The U.S. suffers because of its obesity levels in some groups. Overall Germany comes first, Canada second, UK third and U.S. fourth. Overall ratings included correlation with per capita GDP purchasing power parity level figures from the IMF....

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New York city Mayor Bloomberg, says President Obama and Republicans should stop promising a free lunch, or something for nothing. He points to Obama's reelection strategy of higher taxes for the rich- by taxing those earning over $1 million at minimum of 30% in federal income taxes- as generating $1.1 billion, according to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. This would make little difference on a federal government with $1.2 trillion gap in spending and revenue. And he says Republicans who say making the Bush tax cuts permanent while at the same time cutting the deficit are promising a free lunch, with no connection to reality. The answer says Bloomberg should be to eliminate the Bush tax cuts for all groups, for shared sacrifice, and for Congress to pass the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan with $4 trillion in savings on an up or down vote.

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The Mueller Report takes a position that that there was no collusion with Russia in the 2016 election but takes no position on the issue of obstruction, according to this report in NYT. Attorney General Barr provided a short summary of the 300 page report. The Judiciary chairman of the House is calling for the release of the entire report to the public.