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A ten vote majority for Republicans is expected in the House of Representatives. Two Congressmen Waltz as National Security Adviser and Stefanik as UN Representative are taking new positions, so is Mark Rubio in the Senate. This means defiant Congressmen could put limits on what legislation passes.

Lisa McClain, Republican of Michigan, who may be the new head of the Republican Conference replacing Stefanik says-

DJT “will tolerate disagreement, but he’s not going to tolerate infighting because we have a job to do to fix this country, and we don’t have a lot of time.”  Republicans will try their own bold experimentation, as Biden did in the first two years passing infrastructure and other spending legislation.

In two years the majority in the House may not be there as happens in anti-incumbent sentiment shifting who controls the House of Representatives.

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Emily Baumgaertner of NYT does a wonderful report on how RFK Jr. is right on the dot when it comes to obesity and health, chemicals in food supply and health, affordability of medicine and Pharma. There are so many points most Americans can agree on if only they listened carefully and looked for ways to tackle serious problems such as health and obesity, by avoiding getting tangled up in propaganda lines or controversial headlines. As this report shows Senator Booker and other Democratic senators, share a common concern with RFK Jr., the rest of the American people and most Republicans in Congress about the fight to get Americans good health practices- removing chemicals from the food supply, putting healthy foods in school lunches and creating a culture of eating healthy foods, and fighting bad practices. Do this without getting tangled up in controversies about vaccines or spreading misinformation or exaggerating vaccine positions of political opponents. ...

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Berkshire new CEO Greg Abel 2026, Berkshire 2026 stock positions- Apple $60 billion American Express $55 billion Bank of America $25 billion, Coca Cola $25 billion, Chevron $20 billion, Chubb $10 billion. In addition GEICO wholly owned by Berkshire generates about $42 billion yearly in cash from premiums which can be used to invest in companies. By pursuing an affluent demographic American Express gets operating profit margins of 16% and return on equity of about 30%.  Apple has about 27% in net profit margin and 151% in return on equity in 2025. Because of the high affluence demographic of these two companies it offers a strong base for performance for Berkshire. The insurance company GEICO and its reinsurance operations offer a steady stream of cash. This  is the base on which Berkshire has done well over the last two decades. The efficient markets hypothesis moderate form for investors says that publicy available information is reflected in stock prices to a great extent except for anomalies and behavioural aspects. When investors use a basket of 1000 stocks reflecting the economy as Vanguard core index funds, the anomalies and behavioural aspects are less prevalent or cancel each other out creating a strong form of the efficient markets hypothesis in practice for investing discipline. Benjamin Graham, the mentor for all investment leaders would accept this as a way of securing investment gains without the vagaries and uncertainty in selecting stock positions. In 2025 the Berkshire funds achieved 10% gains vs the S&P 500 index which gained 17%, proof that the average investor can do just as well as the so called sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett. ...

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Many people don't lose weight using semaglutide the drug in Ozempic. About a third lose less than 10% or less and those who lose weight its about 5%-20%. A lot more effective and sure to work as one gets older, safer is to change one's diet to a healthy diet that includes nuts, fruits and vegetables and healthier grains called ancient grains. There is so much potential in that because for two decades people have neglected it and gone inthe wrong direction. Say a simple exercize routine and healthy food intake each contribute 10%, and wellbeing/wellness with nature or meditation/ travel  another 10% you have 30% improvement that will stay forever as new habits get to replace the old. Its called NEFTY Nature, Exercise, Food, Travel, Youthfulness. And its synergistic meaning that one fits into the other more you do in one helps promote the others. Healthier food gets you in the in the right amounts gets you inclined to more exercise, travel adds to the sense of wellbeing, and Nature complements it all. Just taking a walk with bare feet in the grass, seeing the trees and the flowers and the birds in Spring outdoors gets you to feel better and great, nothing that artificial drugs can do. The next thing your blood tests will surely come out better, your next health exam will be better. NEFTY is the process and it is all about process, when the process is good the results for overall health are good one can be sure of that. And this converts into higher productivity and a better feeling at work creating a virtuous cycle. As a people one has neglected it for too long. A little effort for every kind of person reaps huge results. JUST DO IT. ...

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A terrorist attack on july 15, 2016, by a Tunisian born delivery truck driver using a large delivery truck to crush people on a Nice promenade. The death toll is about 85 with 50 people badly injured. The delivery truck driver is Bouhlel, 31, born in Tunisia and from Msaken, Tunisia, who moved to France in 2005. President Hollande extended a nationwide state of emergency for 3 months. The Euro 2016 soccer games in France went without any incidents, only to be followed by this attack.  Georges Fenech who headed a parliamentary inquiry into intelligence and terrorism said about the attack - "it is a predictable tragedy." He said France "is clearly not equiped to fight against Islamic terrorism," in an interview with news channel iTele. This was one of the conclusions of the parliamentary inquiry which called for a new agency to be setup, and merging of existing intelligence agencies. The president of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region told BFM-TV about the Hollande administration: "I don't want to hear the usual "we are going to do an investigation." He questioned the Interior Minister Cazeneuve for how a single person could have breached the security line at the Bastille Day clebrations in Nice on a prominent promenade, Promenade des Anglais. ...

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BBC News shows how Pam Bondi, former Attorney General of Florida, handled questions from Senators at her confirmation hearings for Attorney General. With a calm demeanor Pam Bondi comes as a relief after the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz.  She said- people want safe streets, people want "America to be safe again. Of course they want the good economy and cost of living. And that will make America Great Again, and I don't see how that has become a bad word."

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Fears that the case of Prince Andrew could do real damage to the monarchy in Britain is leading to Commons debate led by the Liberals in parliament to take away his title of Duke of York and his residence at Royal Lodge.

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A wealth tax passed by voters in 2022 in Massachusetts of 4% on incomes exceeding $1 million, yields 3 billion dollars in 2024. Other states are looking at doing this on income over $500,000 for married couples. This includes Minnesota, Maryland, Washington and other states that are seeing a shortfall in taxes and need to offset the loss of federal funding by the DJT administration for Medicaid and other services. The results in Massachusetts shows the revenue forecasted is exceeded proving that millionaires do not always move because they do not want to uproot homes and education of children. There is also an offsetting factor as federal rules under DJT have favored the wealthy in the tax code.

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The idea here of promoting biodioversity by turning backyard lawns into places of biodiversity. Bringing back natural backyards where biodiversity takes root. A movement to encourage private owners of backyard plots and lawns to corporate campuses to create homegrown national parks. It envisions turning over 40 million acres of lawns in the US to imperiled native plants and trees. The idea is that of a land ethic- we abuse land because we think of it as something we own, not something we share with the rest of humanity just for a while. This way we treat it with the love and respect the land deserves. One way to do this is to design native landscapes as formal gardens so that they do not look so biodiversity plots not look messy. Intentionaly designed elements delineate larger messy wilderness in such biodiversity inclined garden spaces. Do this one small patch of land at a time.

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In this month's Mann Ki Baat, Indian PM Modi's radio show, the young Indians participating in the 65th Math Olympiad are invited to take part in the Radio Show. India wins 4 gold one silver medals and is in the top 5 countries in the Math Olympiad. The contestants talk about their experience, the support of parents, the creativity that enables thinking outside the box, some problems take hours to solve even days at a time. Contestants are from Pune, Delhi, UP, and other parts of the country. "Love what you, and do what you love," says one contestant, who describes math as not a difficult subject when one understands why one does what they do. For example carry forward in addition, why do you carry forward, math is a problem solving skill, and when does it in this way then the fear of math will go away.

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Jack Horton of BBC Verify screens the former president Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention. “Our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down".  Fact: FBI data shows crime down 6% and a drop in the murder rate by 13% in 2023. For the First Quarter of 2024 crime down by 15% and recorded murder rate down 26%. "We've had the worst inflation we've ever had under this person [Biden]. I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy . We will drill, baby, drill."  Fact: Inflation went up to 9.1% from 1.4% at the end of the Trump term in the first 2 years of of the Biden Administration by June 2022. Biden and Federal Reserves Powell brought this down to 3%. Explained: This inflation jump to 9% would have happened from supply chain in China for Trump administration as well. Trump's last year was 2019 the Covid pandemic started in January the lockdown by midyear meant sharp drop in demand and little room for inflation. The concentration of supply chain in China was the cause of the surge in inflation as China shut down and restarted late into 2022 causing shortages in factory parts and supplies. Biden focused on vaccination in 2020-2021. This inflation would have happened under Trump- this concentration of supply chain started with Reagan economic philosophy to ship production (and jobs) overseas, Clinton Bush Obama and Trump did little about it. Biden invested heavily in Make in America manufacturing and jobs at home. Biden and Powell did a good job of bringing this inflation down by 2023 to 3% before the European Union and UK. Younger voters don't know this they get their news from the internet and show little interest, see only that the low inflation under Trump and the higher inflation during the pandemic recovery under Biden and blame Biden. will Trump do better on inflation in 2024-2028. The WSJ does not think so its analysis shows inflation higher under Trump than Biden because of a planned 60% tax on imports from China. Trump follows Reagan/Friedman theory of the old Republican party of higher tax cuts for the wealthy, so no money is left for investing in American manufacturing and jobs as Biden free of this theory is able to do, leading to slowing growth with inflation under Trump.        ...

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Lots of things one can do to avoid polluted air in urban areas are shown here in The Times.

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How Shohei Ohtani can do so much for American baseball and the LA Dodgers effort to revive the game.

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Gilbertson suggests do your homework when it comes to prices. Unexplained fees on smaller unfamiliar sites can be a problem.

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Editorial Board of the Washington Post says the issue in the Ukraine war remains, and it says over again, remains the Russian aggression and invasion now in its fourth year. If Russia wants to go on fighting says the Editorial Board of the Washington Post in the nation's capital, so will the Ukrainians, there is nothing wrong in talks, as long as American negotiators do not lose sight of the facts of who started this war. It calls the American effort under DJT unconventional and says now on the second time Zelensky has astutely remained patient and worked on offering new counter proposals at the US mission in Geneva.

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Keir Starmer and the Labor party's plans for Britain are laid out in this interview in The Observer. He says "This will be a bold and reforming Labor government bringing about real change, that I hope will be felt through the generations." On the 13 years of Tory Conservatives in government- "It is important that everybody asks themselves: am I better off now than when this government started 13 years ago? Is the health service working better? Have my wages gone up in real terms? Is the criminal justice system better? Is anything better? And the answer to those questions is going to be no, no, no, no, no, no." On change even though Labor will be fiscally savy and prudent- "So therefore we need change. We have to be the party of change. Are we going to inherit a very broken country including the economy? Yes, we are. I accept that. But I don't accept that that means we can't inject real purpose and meaning into change." Starmer wants to get the economy of Britain growing again. He plans to do this by making Britain a world leader in a green industrial revolution and through redistributing power to the regions to take advantage of opportunities to tackle climate change. "Clean. energy by 2030 is critically essential. And we will be part of the global race in renewables." "There is a theory of growth that you grow London and the southeast even faster and redistribute to the rest of the country. I reject that model, as I want growth in every part of the country." Home ownership for first timers- "I want Labor to be the party of home ownership." Starmer wants to build 300,000 houses every year and first time buyers given preference, no foreign buyers.  ...

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Hannah Devlin writes about Jess Thom the Psychologist for Great Britain's Olympics teams. How Jess Thom gets British athletes to overcome self doubt, negativity and nerves as they compete in the most difficult of competitions. Here is what she tells athletes to do, which also applies in daily worklife in striving for excellence at work. “One of the most powerful things to understand is that it’s normal to have those unhelpful thoughts and feelings,” she said. “Even athletes have self-doubt at times. They get anxious or frustrated and still go on to win Olympic gold. Those thoughts and feelings don’t have to dictate how we behave.” Mindfulness is useful training of the mind. Yet accomplishing the required level of self-awareness still requires training, discipline and grit. “Notice your feelings, accept them, come back to the present moment. That’s the general strategy,” she said. “It sounds super easy on paper, but doing that in a high-pressure environment is impressive.” Thom tells athletes to think about their demeanor and how they think and act when they are at their best. If that means showing your style of athleticism at the start line, then doing that is fine. She encourages athletes to behave like you would when you have that real .strong confidence even if you’re not necessarily feeling that right there. What about negative thoughts. She gives them a name - Frank. And she says athletes can say- "Frank, not right now," to just set aside these thoughts. To control fears, athletes are told to write a “what if” list. It  serves as a backup plan for worst-case scenarios. This could mean getting a bad start in a race or going a set down in tennis.  Personal superstitions are included.   ...

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Swedish word lagom means just the right amount, and it is deeply rooted in the Swedish culture, says a decluttering expert cited here in this report on how to clean up. Anything that you haven't used for a long time, set it aside, give it away, keep only the important things. Its called death cleaning here but it is more than that, just keep life simple, don't accumulate, and it makes it easier to enjoy life. All the clutter only comes in the way, more of a hindrance to living.

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Indian Finance Minister Sitharaman on the need for the G-20 to set regulation for cryptocurrency. "Crypto currency involves a lot of technology, it's 99% technology. We are talking to all the countries to setup a standard operating procedure that will be effective while following a regulatory framework. It's under discussion with G-20 nations." India's central bank RBI head Shantikanta Das says simply "cryptocurrencies don't have any underlying value." He has cautioned repeatedly not to let these assets grow as they could cause another financial crisis.