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If the wording in the Pew Research Survey were to include that only the government can tackle huge problems in climate change, infrastructure, and manufacturing, the over 50% of Americans that support government taking on these responsibilities might just as well be closer to 60-70 percent. The tide is turning as the whole culture since Reagan and the key adopters of Reagan's theory  successive Democratic administrations of Clinton and Obama is being reversed- Democrats and Independents supporting the change to get government to tackle these problems is up 15 percentage points. Another shift is the young people who are filled with frustration by the lack of government taking on a bigger role to solve problems such as climate change, manufacturing jobs in US, infrastructure rebuilding that only the government can do. 

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Compare this fine of $100,000 for an interview with Tories Rishi Sunak by GB News Program, a British broadcaster, days before the election by British Broadcasting Regulatory Authority Ofcom, with the unregulated and free for all ways of PACS throwing their weight around days before the US election. The US democratic framework owes much for its origins in the British parliamentary democracy and its institutions and concepts, yet in the framework for parties vying for support there is a glaring missing element of restraint and rules, regulatory principle so that anyone can run for office. Under the current system which is not a given and which was written by human beings and can be corrected most people are not keen on raising huge amounts of money are excluded from public service, a great loss to the nation.

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The Air Force Secretary during the Biden administration Frank Kendall thinks using a donated Qatari jet as Ai Force One is a bad idea.

“It is basically going to take that airplane as is with the modest modifications achievable in a few months. He is getting something far less than Air Force One and the country is only going to get it for two years’ time. He can do it, but it is a bad idea for a lot of reasons.”

Others think it can never be made fully secure.

Boeing has taken too long to build a new Air Force One to replace current one built in 1990. The new contract given to Boeing during the last Trump administration is years behind schedule leaving the president frustrated.

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On problems such as student aid and China tariffs US president Biden is deliberative so he can get to the right results. After decades in which the problems became serious or were sidestepped the president wants to reach the right decisions and get solutions.

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President Biden asks for more authority for the FDIC so that bank executives taking excessive risks or mismanaging banks can be held responsible. The FDIC could then claw back compensation, impose civil penalties, and ban executives from working in the banking industry again.

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That climate change is real and pervasive can be seen in the low levels of water in America's largest river the Mississippi. As in Europe with the Rhine river in Germany water levels never seen for decades are creating problems along the river.

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Clicking on the light bulb shaped icon at the bottom of Amazon's app takes one to a feed that shows short videos on products buyers can purchase. This type of short video format is becoming popular on Amazon and Google in 2022-2023.

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Photos on exercize and walking, gardening, birdwatching, during the time of coronavirus from DW.com- the importance of renewing body and mind during this time. Pictures of how gardening, birdwatching and other activities can push out anxiety and boost our spirits in different ways.

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The 6 km Congee to Bondi walk along the coast, and the 10 km Manly Scenic Walk, Sydney Harbour National Park trails, and  the Greater Blue Mountains Heritage Area, are shown here in BBC Travel, parts of Sydney that can be explored on foot.

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The first of four German IRIS air defense systems shipped to Ukraine. The systems can protect an entire city from missiles approaching at altitude of upto 12 kilometres and a distance of upto 40 kilometres. It is designed to quickly boster air defense of Ukraine.

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Chase loan balances on credit cards including Sapphire grow to $325 billion with net revenue rate of 10.2% and $6.9 billion profit in 1st quarter 2025. Chase is now the leader in credit cards surpassing Visa, Mastercard and American Express with it's card business offering future profitability on other lending to the same customer over the lifetime of the customer. It can also leverage its internet banking to make the card business more efficient.

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Lack of wage growth and self imposed fiscal rules as barriers for Britain's Labour government in 2026. Keir Starmer faces challenges for the leadership after May 2026 elections. Self imposed fiscal rules set a limit to what the administration can achieve and finance minister Rachel Reeves lacking the imagination to come up with a way to boost growth with fiscal rules modified to generate jobs and wage growth working with British industry.

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Venezuela's Maduro faces trial in the US and Judge Alvin Hellerstein 92 years old in the Southern District of New York is presiding over that case. There is no mandatory retirement age for judges which means they can be practicing well into their 90's. The concern expressed by experts is that the case could go on for years and the judge's health had to be good for that period.

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At this point in May (May 22, 2026) a glimmer of hope appears for settling both the crisis in Hormuz and the Ukraine war. Pakistan, Turkey and China following DJT visit to China may be pushing Iran to lower the scale of the conflict. China's first priority was to be accepted by the US at the Beijing meeting as an equal power with the US, and keen to show its willingness to bear responsibility for peaceful resolution in conflict zones as a sign of its maturity as a world power. Much of this is not shown in the media as it is mostly done behind the scenes in communications that the media knows nothing about. Note that even in the depths of the Cold War during the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and Soviet action in Budapest, the US and the Soviets when their economies were not intertwined as the US and China are today, were still talking to each other to limit the conflicts to low level conflict. Hong Kong takeover, China's actions near Taiwan, China's presence in Latin America, Chinese cooperation with Iran, and Russia on Ukraine, China's economic competition in rare earths, are relatively smaller levels of friction considering 1950's Soviet's and the US. At the same time China and the Us are aware of a new bloc emerging in Oslo in May, where India is merging its economy with the Nordic economies of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and of the European Union and Germany, creating a new bloc of 2 billion people that can only grow rapidly with India's potential to exceed growth rates of 20% in the 600 million Eastern region for a decade. EU would make the shift to strategic partnership with India displacing the vital role the European Union has played in China's growth and economy. This would create new pressures for Russian president Putin to decide it is time to listen to a friend India and de-escalate lower the level of conflict with an initial peace deal that would lead to more talks on a final settlement. Because Russia would have a harder time tackling both India and Germany at the same time. NYT shows on the same day May 22 a report on Russia and a report by the Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Sonegard that say the elites in Russia and Putin were by January 2026 having very serious discussion to change the administration, bring Igor Sechin as negotiaor to end the Ukraine conflict before serious, possibly irreversible damage, to the Russian economy. Sweden's Sonegard says that between 2020 and 2024 Russian economy declined by 8%, not grew by 13% as official figures show, inflation is much higher than 5% as official figures show, and credit is tightening, bankruptcies expected, growth even with oil prices up down to 0.4% for 2026. During 20 years running Russia Putin's No. 1 priority, his life's mission was to restore, then exceed by a large margin the living standards of the Russian people. Having at such great cost accomplished the goal of gaining recognition as a Northern Power in Europe, having gained much of Russian speaking eastern Ukraine, Putin could wisely with self respect wind down Ukraine conflict for good. The US gains something similar to Northern Power status for Russia in its recommitment to the Monroe Doctrine, with Russia withdrawing from any involvement- and China tacitly doing the same-  in the western hemisphere. With that the US can tackle its own losses that match Russian losses in lives- loss of more American lives than in the Korean and Vietnam and WWI combined to drug smuggling from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and restoring rule of law in Cuba, Venezuela, and through drug cartel free Mexico good governance in Mexico.  ...

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Shocking revelation that Forest Service discouraged firefighters from wearing masks that help prevent cancers from toxic smoke. Many firefighters only had bandannas. For several years fires have increased and this was happening with more firefighters doing dangerous work yet this only came up when NYT reporters brought this up recently. The head of Forest Service was summoned to a Congressional oversight hearing and rightly so.  Rep. Jared Huffman of California: “We’ve talked about the New York Times piece. Chief, do you feel like the Forest Service is doing everything that it can to make the safety risk of smoke inhalation known to firefighters?” Mr. Schultz: “We need to continue to focus on safety as we move forward, including this issue.” There are about 40,000 firefighters in Forest Service mostly young men and many more employed by contractors. Because they are first responders also the work of firefighters has 360,000 in the US and 600,000 volunteers. With such sheer numbers masks to prevent inhalation of toxic chemicals that can cause cancer is highly important and should be given high priority.   ...

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In a bold decision that shows courage and foresight president Biden lifts IP protection for Covid 19 vaccine patents of American companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, J&J and Novavax. This has huge implications for vaccination supplies for countries such as India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, that are hard hit by the pandemic as well as the rest of the world. It will open up manufacturing additional vaccine supplies in countries as diverse as France and India, that can ramp up quickly because of already established pharmaceutical bases.

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Scholz makes this speech in Prague outlining his ideas for a larger Europe with Germany and France taking the lead and for majority voting to get much more done. A large pragmatic community of values that can defend itself, a top region for business and technology.

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The Guardian's Jamie Jackson writes about the style and genius of Pep Guardiola as he takes Manchester City to another Premier League title. Guardiola says that when he loses people do not blame him but ask how they can help him more. 

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BBC's The Travel Show shows this video of the world's first solar powered camper van. The author goes to Eindhoven, Netherlands to see the camper. It can do 750 kms in one day on the road and take one to distant locations.

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COSCO, CATL, Tencent and COMAC are companies that are added to a list of companies that are military in nature by the US Defense Department. This is signalling by the US government that regulatory actions can be anticipated, and inhibits investment from the US and EU.

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The role of Merz and Leyen of the CDU is bigger than is grasped in the trade deal with India and the change that Germany has made in shifting the gaze and engagement of the European community towards the 1.4 billion people of India for a new start after the disappointment of the relationship with China from the Merkel years. Merkel completely failed to understand China its history, and Asia and its history. India as the homeland of Buddhism is the source of the spiritual culture of China and Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The intervening period of invasions from north in the 15th to 17th century and British rule and the European early shift to science and industry in the 18th to 20th century has acted as a hazy atmosphere that clouds many perceptions of how Indian, Chinese, and Japanese history has evolved.  For Merkel there was the additional layer of misperceptions from the period growing up the GDR, or Communist East Germany in Soviet influence. This is why Merz completely fit into the Kite festival mood and atmosphere on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad and at the Sabarmati Ashram of Gandhi in January 2026. Leyen also of the Christian Democrats could grasp the fact that German philosopher Schlegel translated the Bhagavad Gita from Sanskrit into German soon after Charles Wilkins did this in 1724. People to people ties have great potential to develop between Europe and India now that the engagement is set for the next 20 years at every level by Leyen, Merz and Modi, so that the world is completely transformed in ways that can never be imagined today.  ...

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The place is Spain, see adjacent article on places within Spain. If you know Spanish that is an added advantage to talk to the locals. It has changed over the years. In the 1990's one could go to Madrid and freely walk out of the Puerta de Atocha main train station there with little traffic. Over the years after the financial crisis Madrid and Spain suffered. Under PM Pedro it has recovered. Yet it is not the same with international tourism from China, India, US having made visits crowded and less friendly. There is the garbage can index for tourism that tells you something is wrong when garbage cans are overflowing- it happened as tourism jumped to France in the last 2 decades- with garbage overflowing outside Notre Dame before renovation. (After 1993 Japan removed all garbage cans from streets.) About 100 million tourist visited France in 2024 and 80 million to Spain. It brings $100 billion in tourism receipts to Spain and about $80 billion each for France and UK, so that it is a key source of revenue for countries. How to make trips that avoid the rush - careful planning for season and month, finding the right places depending on one's interests nature, history, science, or other, and avoiding tours as there are plenty of resources to do it on one's own, finding right places to stay and visit, using local transport, tram and speed trains in Europe, giving enough time for each place, talking to locals and taking a lesson on Rocket languages online which uses locals and practices word pronunciation so you sound like a local. ...

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Khamanei as leader of post revolution Iran set up Iranian supported military organizations in neighboring countries such as in Lebanon (Hezbollah), in Iraq, and in Syria, in Yemen (Houthis), over two decades, but failed to make the gains that Asian nations in that period made by investing entirely every dollar in the homeland economy of Iran. By comparing with Asian nations such as South Korea/Japan/Taiwan/China and now India/Vietnam the entire region from Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistan, Persian Gulf, Egypt can be seen as having lost some vital decades of the early twenty first century, and the scale of the difference is nothing short of staggering.  China after suffering invasion from Britain and then Japan, after civil wars and the Korean War, after going through this for two centuries sought peaceful development in 1990-2025, working with Japan and Britain countries that caused so much suffering yet China sough rapprochement, patiently with humility, with incredible results.  Gandhi also sought rapprochement with Britain through the British Commonwealth and cherished institutions of parliament and science learned and gathered from Britain. This was woefully missing in West Asia. When considering the access to capital in fossil fuel sales, the region of West Asia around Egypt may be seen as having recorded the largest wasted capital in wars in world history in the period 1920 -2047 (with only 20 years left to 2047),  by which time India, China, Europe and the US will have shifted from fossil to solar nuclear and renewables and fossil will be no longer generating revenue flows. Very little time is left as development will be that much harder by 2047 without the capital and result being one of being left behind in this new world that is facing us all.  ...

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In 1867 the Alaska Purchase was also being mocked in the media. When Russia's Czar Peter the Great sent Vitus Bering to explore the Alaskan coast in 1725 there were Inuits living there. Russians slaughtered many Inuits to set up their base, says historian James Gibson in the Wilson Quarterly, cited in The Washington Post. It was the Russian czar who initiated the effort to sell Alaska to the US after Britain and France fought a war and defeated Russia in the Crimean War. These European wars in some ways have been going on in Northern Europe for many centuries and down to this day. What this tells us is that Russia treated Alaska as a colony and this is how a colonial power like Denmark treated the Inuits in Greenland. Denmark has treated Greenland harshly and now makes it look like it is interested in Greenland's people. Denmark is a small country with a population of 6 million less than the population of the Houston area, and Greenland's population of 50,000 would not fill a baseball stadium. It is disingenuous and false of Denmark to pretend to be anything other than a colonial power like the British, the French and the Dutch with little interest in the well being and economic development of the people of their colonies. If Greenland is developed the way US has developed Alaska, and the US can and will do this, Greenland is so much better becoming part of the US, completing the security of the entire eastern seaboard of the US that was envisaged by American president after American president since Jefferson, Madison, Andrew Johnson and Harry Truman for the last two hundred years. ...