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The resilience of Indian democracy shows in the fourth phase of the election with 70% election voter turnout for parliament. The Election Commission says 67% over all four phases with the current heat wave 45-50 degrees centigrade. 150 million more voters over 18 years will vote this time in 2024 compared to 2019. 978 million people or 70% of the population eligible to vote. And 5.5 electronic voting machines, 1 million polling stations, 15 million election workers and security personnel. Compare this to the elections for European parliament with voter turnout in 2014 of 42%, in 2019 of 51%, and expected increase in June 6-9  election to 61%. Total seats are 720 compared to 543 in India. There are 3 debates, in Maastrict, Netherlands and Brussels, Belgium, in May the last in English. With Ursula Von Der Leyen of CDU heading European People's Party, Zimmerman of Renew and Nicholas Schmit for Party of European Socialists and others. EPP met in Bucharest, Romania, PES in Florence, Italy in March, Greens in Lyon, France. Issues in EU Climate change, Security policy, Economy, Migration and Borders. In India issues are Vikshit Bharat 2047 modernization effort, State governance leakage of funds intended for development, Security, Backward Caste development. ...

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A Lebanese shopkeeper's son who is a lawyer, did his Masters degree in Economics at the University of Sao Paulo. In this interview he is shown as a tucano, a member of the white, college educated, wealthy and male group in Brazil, also the name of the centre right Social Democracy party of Cardozo since the 1994 elections. PT's Lula da Silva elected as president in 2002 turned to Haddad to run the Education ministry in 2005. Since then Haddad has mediated between worker's factions and the moderate elements in the PT Party of Trabajadores or Workers Party, the party Lula founded with others in 1980 during the redemocratization period. During the period when Lula was in prison in 2018- after the election in which Haddad lost 45% to 55% to a representative of the military and centre far right parties Captain Jair Bolsanaro- Haddad visited Lula in prison.  Haddad is now Finance Minister in Brazil with inflation at 4.5%, unemployment at 7.5%, and GDP growth of 1.5% following 3% growth in GDP in 2023. Haddad says in this interview that he is seen as austerica within the PT because of his economic policies. Popularity of PT has dropped with Lula's approval at a low of 28 percent in June 2025. ...

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This BBC report gives the reasons for the success of the Leave campaign getting 51% of the vote- the votes of older voters particularly in the south, southwest, Midlands and the north east with 78% of people over 65 voting and 54% of 25-34 year olds voting in the 2015 general election. Three of five voters over 65 wanted to Leave, and voters over 55 favored leaving the EU. Other important factors was the voter discontent, the failure of the message on the economy of the Remain campaign, the 350 million British pounds that the Leave campaign said Britain would have extra to spend on the NHS every week as this was what Britain could free up by leaving the EU was the best remembered number in the campaign.  Another important factor is the failure of Labor Party supporters to come out to support the Remain campaign in large enough numbers for an effort led by Conservative party leader Cameron. 

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William Galston points out in this piece in the WSJ that U.S. president Obama's Syria-Iraq policy has lost credibility with the American public. He cites CNN/ORC polls showing rising concern among Americans about terrorism even 1 year before the San Bernardino attacks, at 55% saying that this was likely increasing to 61% in the week before San Bernardino attack, with fears about terrorists being in the U.S. increasing to 81%. As a result only 38% of the American public in a CNN/ORC poll at the beginning of December 2015 approved of president Obama's handling of terrorism, with 68% saying that the U.S. military response is insufficient. A major shift has also taken place on the use of ground troops with Americans favoring use of ground troops by 53% to 45% in the current situation. Here Galston points out the shortcomings of Obama's military response in not conducting an effective use of the military response from the air in setting up safe zones and coordinating efforts with the Kurds and other forces....

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The sheer glory and joy of Bach cycle from St Thomas Choir in Leipzig at Christmas can now be heard in this audio and video of 1 hour 56 minutes from DW.com. 73,000 visitors will visit Leipzig for the Bach Festival in 2021. The theme of the cycle this year is salvation. Here is an opportunity to hear this monumentally creative event right in your own home. Other videos show the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg that has already brought 15 million visitors. It sits atop a former brick warehouse once used for storing cocoa- now 16,000 square meters of glass panelling built by a Swiss architecture firm. Recently 800 people were vaccinated here in Europe's classiest vaccination center.

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Mail in ballots in the vote for the US Senate in Nevada will pay a crucial role for Democrats to control the Senate. Some reports say Democrats who are running at about 61% in mail in ballots could make it through if they get 55% to give Ms. Cortez Masto the Democrat a seat in the Senate. With Arizona leaning Democrat this would give the Democrats control of the Senate even before the runoff election in the third undecided state of Georgia in December. So close has been the struggle for the US Senate.

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Mr. Lula Da Silva returns as president after 12 years after a closely contested win securing 51% of the vote.  It is a crucial time for saving the Amazon rain forest to tackle climate change, and for economic revival. About 33 million went hungry in Brazil in 2022 compared to 19 million in 2020 showing the difficulties Brazil faces. About 700,000 people died during the pandemic. The Worker's party pushed through a constitutional amendment last month to lift a spending cap so that about $28 billion in extra spending  can help alleviate these problems. 

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Democrats are feeling hopeful that they can keep control of the Senate after passing the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This gives Democrats something to show Americans that tackles issues of inflation, climate change, fair taxation, healthcare access. In addition the Democrats have passed bills on building America's advanced technology industries with the semiconductor bill, earlier infrastructure bill in 2021, and a bill to help veterans. By not supporting the Inflation Reduction Act with all 50 Republican votes in the Senate voting against it Republicans are now less hopeful of winning the Senate.

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Canoeist Neal Moore, 50 years, makes his way across America's rivers for 7500 miles - 22 months of paddling during covid over many rivers across 22 states, going from the Columbia river in Oregon to the Gulf coast and then back up to the Great Lakes and upstate New York to Hudson river. On the way seeing what it means to be American today, to see the country up close, to go community to community, and write in the Mark Twain way about his experiences, a laptop tucked away in a waterproof bag in his canoe.

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China has used the experience gained from an earlier SARS outbreak to tackle the virus outbreak in 2019 which started at a food market in Wuhan. Early detection, strict quarantines, and other measures, were taken. A viral pneumonia outbreak happened in Wuhan, a city of 19 million. 59 people were quarantined and the largest food and seafood market in Wuhan was shut down quickly. Between the first case on December 12 to the detection of the new strain of coronavirus in 1 month, China acted with speed, showing China's strength in public health resources and research labs.

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The oldest professional soccer player and goal scorer is Kazuyoshi Miura who signed for the 35th season in Japan. He signed a one year contract extension with Japanese soccer team Yokohama FC. He is 52 years old. He started playing for Brazil's Santos in 1982 at the age of 18. He played for Genoa in Italy and Zagreb in Croatia, and is with Yokohama FC since 2005. He says he still has the same passion for soccer that he had at the age of 18 when playing for Santos in Brazil.

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With roads blocked and subways closed after the heaviest snowstorm in 50 years, Madrid healthcare workers walked long distances to work. Many healthcare workers, nurses, medical residents  walked 10 to 20 kilometres to get to work at hospitals.  In Spain the virus has claimed 51,000 lives and cases are at over 2 million. One nurse took 2 hours 28 minutes to walk to work, saying as he crossed fallen trees and 40 centimetres of snow that he decided if he got there it was ok and if he did not he would turn back.

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Runners have turned to cycling and rowing as low impact exercize after injuries. Here a cardiologist, 55 years old,  takes up rowing after taking a lesson. He calls rowing a technical sport which requires technique as you push through the legs to start the power in the stroke. He says rowing is a rare full body exercize that one can do without impact on the joints for older people. Kayaking, or rowing can be outdoors, and works well indoors on a machine. Dr Zarate from Pensacola, Florida, also does cycling, yoga and other exercise for fitness.

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About a third of Australians voted for the Greens party and several smaller parties. There was a definite trend in favor of tackling climate change after the fires and other extreme weather events in Australia in 2021. Scott Morrison's coalition gained 54 seats compared to 74 for Labour, with 76 needed for a majority. Labour had set a much higher target for reducing carbon emissions than the Morrison coalition with Labour setting 43% reduction in emissions compared to 26% for Morrison coalition by 2030. Australians decided climate change has to be tackled aggressively.

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There is widespread belief in representative democracies that officials are out of touch, and that political parties do not represent the people. Pew Research also shows that about 50% of people believe that more women, more young people and people from poor backgrounds can make a positive difference. And about a third of people feel that business people, religious figures, and labor union members could make things worse. The intuitive sense of the US and also for Mexico and Canada is that more young people, more women and more people of poor backgrounds are needed for positive difference.

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Johnson and Johnson vaccine is 66% effective in a single shot, a 44,000 trial study has shown. Remarkably it is 85% effective in serious illness and prevents all deaths 28 days after it is given. It is also shown to be as effective in serious illness and deaths in South Africa and 57% effective overall. The South African variant was a cause for concern in the second wave in 2021.

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Michelino Sunseri runs up and down Grand Teton at 13,775 feet in 2 hours 50 minutes 10 seconds in Nov. 2025. DJT says it is OK to use a restricted trail. He issues a presidential pardon for Sunseri who was cited by NPS for using that trail.

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Providing health insurance to the roughly 50 million people that are uninsured costs some $120 billion ayear. This will hae to be paid for through limiting the tax deduction on employer provided health insurance (something Obama campaigned against), or cost reduction in the bloated cost structure for health care in the country. But the same health care providers who committed to cost reduction in arecent conference at the White House are lobbying against some measures that reduce cost.

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One of the big changes is to give responsibility to younger managers. Chairman Whitacre's marching orders are to cut executive ranks and gve responsibility to a whole new group of younger managers. Performance reviews and goal setting is short-one page. The organizational chart for vehicle reviews that required 70 or so executives to pass on it is gone. Product decisions are made at weekly meetings with the President present. And people are not supposed to fear speaking up if a change is needed to what they are doing for a product. Debate is in and seniority is not supposed to be the factor it once was. 50 page presentations are out. Reuss, who heads global engineering, describes his start in 1983 as a student intern, and the lack of debate that made it impossible for him to say anything about the failed Aztek van, that his bosses might not like to hear.Its as if these types of product decisions were somehow the work of higherups with managers not having an equal or more important say....

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Republican Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell no's and 50-50 US Senate vote, a tie on Hegseth nomination. Only a last minute change of heart by Senator Tillis gets the 50-50 tie that was broken by VP Vance's vote to get the Hegseth nomination through. Armed Services chairman Wicker in questioning in the Senate supported Hegseth as he faced tough questioning from Democrats Duckworth, Slotkin and Peters.  Wicker cited Hegseth's service in two wars in combat as a Major in Iraq and Afghanistan and the way many who had fought in these wars had struggled and overcome difficulties, the need for second chances in some situations. Other Republican senators said the position was held by others who did not have experience running large organizations. Panetta was a lawyer and Gates an academic who had CIA positions before appointment to Secretary of Defense. Perry had experience running defense supplier companies. Chuck Hagel served in combat in the Vietnam war and started his own company Vanguard Cellular and was a talk show host.   ...

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In the days when cross border technology flows were limited and the investment in India was small, India's technological capabilities at an early stage H1-B visa program acted as an exchange program where Indian engineers could gain experience and skills, learn new technologies in the US, that would benefit both India and the US taking a long term view. In 2025 when cross border technology flows to India from the US are large and significant, when Indian investment is large India's economy fastest growing and from a much larger base, with ability to absorb talented engineers in expanding Indian business, the H1-B program is one that drains both the US and India. India as a huge brain drain of 60,000 of its best engineers every year to 2030 or 300,000 of its best engineers and the 3 million engineers they would have trained locally through their creative talents. For the US it means the loss of 300,000 engineering jobs to 2030 for locals in 51 states in the Nation. Both make no sense. Business practices once set do not change. This is why an executive order by DJT was signed by the president to impose a $100,000 fee that Tata, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple can choose to pay every year for 6 years if they want to hire someone on H1-B Visas. To call this group of Indian H1-B of 60,000 engineers "dreamers" also makes no sense because 3.3 million engineers knowledge base and skills to India's growth capabilities and modernization could increase economic growth, modernization of Indian infrastructure, to make India a Dream State to live in. And the same number of American born engineers would make each of the America's 51 states Dream States through repowering America's new modernization of infrastructure and power economic growth. ...

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  Tennis player Roger Federer's speech at Dartmouth College is useful advice - "its only one point" when you lose it, how to move on to the next one free of thought no negative energy, “When you lose every second point, on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. You teach yourself to think, ‘OK, I double-faulted. It’s only a point.’ When you’re playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world, and it is. But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you. This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point and the next point after that, with intensity, clarity and focus.” And how often does this happen? Every second point almost. Because he says he won at Wimbledon and US Open with only 54% of the points. He lost about half of the points and still made it, and this message is real life, it matters to most of us. When we focus, when we concentrate on the task at hand it is one minute at a time.  Mikaela Shiffrin is the ultimate example of concentration skill going downhill fast between poles requires utmost concentration and she did this for the US in the Olympics after many disappointments in previous Olympics, none of it mattered to her, as she practices and focused. And that takes one to Federer's next point it wasn't effortless. It was repeated practice, it was girt with practice that made a difference. Only today this was evident as Sanju Samson talked about talking with Sachin Tendulkar last night before today's World Cup cricket game Final with New Zealand in which he hit 89 runs and the third time he has done it in the last 2 weeks, in Ahmedabad's Modi Stadium, to become the Player of the Match, watched by nearly 1 billion fans around the world. And Federer's last message is to do this by having some fun, enjoying the experience, learning something new, exploring, and getting to one's potential. ...

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Bihar unemployment and West Bengal unemployment of 3-5% a fake number as the jobs counted include unstable temporary poorly paid work. Quality Jobs are only 10% of the workforce. These figures disguise huge problems. In Bihar and West Bengal youth unemployment is high and many youth simply leave the state for states in the western part of the country such as Gujarat and Maharashtra looking for work. In West Bengal the situation is particularly dire as the state government has blocked foreign investment and it is not an investment friendly environment. In addition the idea of a cut or a fee for everything and services, encouraged by the state government, leads to an entrenched climate of corruption that keeps out investment in industry and in infrastructure. The lack of cooperation with the federal government at the West Bengal state level leads to people in the state not having access to federal programs for housing, healthcare and water, sanitation. None of this shown in the media. When the media inside India and in the US or EU covers India, it fails to even give this importance. Probably because of the huge ignorance about India, its history and struggle for industrialization and modernization for the last 50 years. It is similar to the huge ignorance in America and Europe and inside China itself during the years of Japanese occupation of China in the 1930's, and through the efforts for industrialization in the 1960's and 1980's. A BBC article on fish is an example of this shown alongside this article on Bihar (and West Bengal). Both states were part of British Bengal, which is where the British based their Empire after the British East India Company secured rights to the revenues of Bihar and West Bengal by the 1780's, that had been take earlier by the Moghuls during their invasions from Afghanistan and Iran. This was the beginning of the destruction of West Bengal's economic structures in the way it happened in China by the 1850's with the Treaty Ports secured by the same East India Company of the British merchant Navy. The process of unwinding of this enterprise goes on today even 75 years after 1950 against the roadblocks to industrialization and modernization in India set by native corrupt state administrations. ...

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US $1.5 trillion budget request for 2027 fiscal year by the president for military and defense spending is about 4.7% of US GDP forecast of $31.8 trillion in 2026. In 1960 it was 9% following the Korean War. It dropped to 3.1% of GDP by 2000 and stayed around 3.4% till the current effort to modernization of the US military is thought to require about 5% of GDP.  (World Bank charts). The US spent far higher during an earlier period reaching 14% of GDP in 1953 during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. This report shows WSJ Analysis of where the $1.5 trillion request for Defense is going-  $1.1 trillion for War Department and $350 billion for critical munitions. The munitions are in short supply and war in Iran shows that it plays a critical part in defensive systems such as intercepting of missiles as missiles in short supply affect overall capabilities. An additional $200 billion for Iran War. Pay raises for Defense personnel. $66 billion for shipbuilding- 34 ships to put the US back in the lead for shipbuilding it has lost to China, with the help of Japan which is also ramping up the shipbuilding it has lost to China. US and Japan were leading shipbuilders in the  1930's and in the 1960's, then lost it to South Korea and China. About a 12% decrease in other Department's budgets including Health and Human Services, Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Housing and Agriculture.  These cost reductions some of it coming from more efficient functioning and from concepts such as zero based budgeting where every line item in the budget gets reviewed every year for how much is needed for the purpose, is the purpose still valid, and can it be done more efficiently costing less. $660 billion is coming from the savings. The Nation's capital will also get a facelift, a major renovation, after being ignored for years. In the new Budget is $10 billion for the Presidential Capital Stewardship Program within the National Park Service for beautification projects in Washington D.C., which will give the National Capital a much needed new look for millions of visitors from the 51 states in the Union.    ...

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After segregation in housing and schools since the 1867 Lincoln Emancipation, particularly in the US Southern states, protests happened in the South led by Martin Luther King Jr. to change this. situation. Voting Rights Act 1965 signed by LBJ ensures right to vote for Black people in the South- it follows protests in Selma Alabama and LBJ's 1965 "We Shall Overcome" speech that followed Selma. The first Blacks elected to US Congress were from seats redrawn to give Andrew Young a seat in Atlanta, and Barbara Jordan one in Houston. In 1993 2 more seats were added. James Clyburn was given a seat in South Carolina- he was a key supporter for president Joe Biden. Others followed. Today in 2026 there are 62 Black Members of the US Congress. This is about 11.6% of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 100 seats in the Senate total of 535. As a percentage of the population Black people are 16.4%- or 56 million out of US population of 342 million. The Supreme Court is essentially saying it is time to pause this as enormous progress has been made 12% out of 16% already achieved in representation for black people in the US considering the other inequities in American society, the changes in culture and in technology, inequities in world trade and for rural America. In a 2013 5-4 decision Shelby vs Holder US Supreme Court  swing to this conclusion with Alito, Scalia and Thomas joined by Kennedy and Roberts. This already struck down the core of the Voting Rights Act as unconstituional. Roberts wirties in that decision- Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.” Times have changed - in 2026 the Court reaffirms this. In Louisiana vs. Calais the Court voted 6-3, striking down the last aspects of the Voting Rights Act, because white voters in Louisiana objected to use of race to redraw districts. The equal protection clause of the 14th and 15th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibit using race to redraw political representation maps. ...