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Facebook's advertising revenue on mobile devices increased by 76% in the second quarter of 2013, from the prior quarter, to $656 million. Facebook's ad prices increased by 40% from the prior year in the U.S. and Canada, compared to overall ad price increases of 13%. Facebook operating profit margin is 31% in the second quarter compared to Google's 22%. Facebook's share price increased by 20% after the announcement of improvement in ad revenues.

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How to avoid simple errors in Tax filings with the US IRS. A lot of the processing is done by computers even though the IRS has lost 25% of its people or 28,000 in 2025. Tax filings need to be consistent, with all 1099's for IRA's accounted for, Information needs to be consistent and complete as computers catch these errors and ask for information. Prompt replies can clarify, but its best to do this from the beginning and save time.

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The Guardian says clinging to fiscal rules and defensive managerialism will not save Labour Party after it loses a seat it held since 1906 when Labour was founded in the Manchester area on Feb 27, 2026. Prudence it says is like purposeless pain that corrodes "authority, loyalty and belief." Starmer not listening to his own self and speaking with authenticity replaced with the thinking of a young campaign manager McSweeney is a failure that resulted in his loss of credibility with British voters.

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US attack on Kharg Island but only military targets on March 13 2026. 1 to 1.5 million barrels a day flow through Kharg island amounting to 90% of Iran exports of oil. The terminal at Kharg Island can lad up to 7 million barrels a day and has storage for 30 million barrels. Three pipelines connect the oil fields on the mainland to the Kharg island about 20 miles away in the sea. US president says he wants the Straits of Hormuz opened for shipping.

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Janet Yellen Fed chairwoman, says many obstacles still exist for women in the workforce. Bringing more women into the workforce will increase the productive capacity of the American economy. The increasing participation of women in the workforce was factor in the growth and prosperity of America by the middle of the 20th century. In a speech sharing her personal narrative at Brown University, her alma mater, she described how other nations had passed the U.S. in women's participation in the workforce, and how it remains stalled at 75% for women either working or looking for work. Her speech was at a conference "125 Years of Women at Brown." The U.S. is now 17th among 22 developed nations in participation of women in workforce, mostly because of government and business policies that relate to paid maternity leave, affordable child care, and flexible work schedules.

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Rishi Sunak, Britain's finance minister, defends the increase in the corporate tax rate to 25%, saying the increased receipts from corporate tax in recent years were because of cyclical recovery of corporate profits which took a hit in the financial crisis. He says that the cuts in the rate by George Osborne, former Tory finance minister, have not led to increased business investment. Osborne cut taxes to 20% from 29%, lowest in G20 countries and Hammond who succeeded Osborne as finance minister cut the rate to 19%. At 25% the corporate tax will still be the lowest in the G7 countries. France, Japan and Germany have corporate tax rate of 30-31%. Higher taxes would help finance needs for government investment in infrastructure and health services, public services, and tackle the financial situation arising out of the pandemic support. The last time taxes were raised was in 1973. This also shows that the UK and the rest of the world is looking at the mixed results shown from cutting taxes. Business investment has not resulted from the business tax cuts in the way that would support creating job growth, some of the investment only supporting automation. The investment in infrastructure is lacking from the business sector leading to the need for government to use taxes for renewal in updating infrastructure. The rise of China with new infrastructure has only shown the problems with simply cutting taxes in the hope that job growth, economic growth, infrastructure growth would happen as hoped. This is why the Tories under Boris Johnson are trying a new approach to get the job done. ...

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Gas at pump costs about $8 in Germany and France, $7 in UK and $4.50 in Canada- in the US $4 for March 2026. As far back as 2011-2014 gasoline prices averaged about $3.50 a gallon in the US. Today's $3.92 average in 2026 is only 12% higher than $3.50 of 10-15 years back in the US for gas prices at the pump. Gas pries before the war in Ukraine in 2017 were $5.67 a gallon ($1.50 a litre) with a price increase in 2026 10 years later to $8 an increase of 41%. By any comparison with European nations Americans are way better off in 2026 and also in comparison with 15 years back considering the 12% increase and the much higher wages today. The average annual wage salary was $43,000 back in 2010 compared to $65,000- $75,000 today. Much of this was achieved by increased shale production to make US oil self sufficient. Americans are clearly so much better off today with oil at an average price of $3.92 a gallon.  The higher price of oil also acts to increase incentives for accelerating renewable energy production which will make it possible to achieve a future free of fossil fuels while at the same time giving average wage Americans a chance for a better life during the transition. ...

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In exceptional reporting from Seoul, WSJ's John Lyons shows how the opinion has shifted in a matter of months in South Korea over installing the anti-missile Thaad system provided by the U.S.  Gallup South Korea polls show that since the election campaign earlier in 2017 opinion has shifted sharply, from 52% supporting Thaad to 72% support after the July 28, 2017 North Korean launch of an ICBM missile recently. When he took office president Moon halted installation of 4 addition Thaad anti missile launchers, now Moon supports installation. and it is moving ahead.  Anti-war activists earlier protested the installation at a golf course in Soseong-ri, and formed a group supporting Moon. Now only a few protesters are to be seen, says Lyons. 

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A nuclear plant in a war zone with repeated shelling? This is taken up in this debate video of 44 minutes in FR24 which you can click on. The world has not seen this since the start of nuclear energy from plants in the 1950's. Calder Hall the first UK nuclear power station and the first in western Europe started in 1956. Eisenhower opened the first US nuclear power station Shippingport on the Ohio river in Pennsylvania, 50 kilometres from Pittsburgh in 1958 as part of the Atoms for Peace Program. The US built 54 nuclear plants that are operating today in 2022 generating 50% of the renewable energy in use today in the US. The question is what does the unthinkable conducted by the Russians and Ukrainians, by weaponizing a nuclear plant do to public perception of the safety of the Atoms for Peace Program initiated by president Eisenhower in 1954? What does this damaging of public safety perceptions after Fukushima do to the Atoms for Peace type of programs in China India, and European Union that are part of the emissions cutting programs in the world? These are serious questions at a time when climate change is not simply a word but means floods, fires, drought, and declining food production all over the world from Spain to Pakistan, from Germany to China. China and India are affected. China has 53 nuclear plants in 2021 with 50 GW and plans to double this by 2030. India has 22 nuclear plants  with 8 GW in 2021 and plans to triple this to 22 GW by 2030. How will climate change be tackled with public safety perceptions affected with another nuclear accident like that in Fukushima arising from shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. As the president of the UN Security Council Zhang Jun of China clearly stated at the UN SC meeting last week that China opposed use of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by Russia (or Ukraine) in any way that could lead to damaging nuclear safety leading to an unintended accident. China only gets about 5% of its energy from nuclear, India about 3%, and this will need to increase multiple times to tackle climate change. France gets 70% of its energy from nuclear, the US 20%, by comparison. Nuclear energy safety and clear rules to prevent weaponizing of nuclear plant zones is essential and a solution like that developed for the food grain shipments from Odessa through Black Sea to the Mediterranean has to be arranged quickly. ...

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Liz Whitehurst is one of many young people who are giving up jobs in offices to take to farming. They are not from farm families and bring a new way and exciting way of looking at farming free of the pesticides and other practices common today. Only 2% of U.S. land is being used for growing fruits and vegetables, according to the Union of American Scientists cited in the Guardian newspaper, and this needs to at least double in acreage if American needs are to be met. Only 15% of Americans get the daily requirement for fruits and vegetables- so desperately needed is this  to lower the BMI of the 70% of overweight Americans with BMI over 50. In the light of this crisis the shift of young people to farming is an encouraging sign.  In 2015 Liz, 32 years, decided to buy a 3 acre farm in Upper Marboro, Md, giving up benefits and better pay at nonprofit jobs in Washington state.  Here she is shown picking up Aragula leaves in the November chill. She is not alone. She is joining a movement that is bringing highly educated, former urban first time farmers as the demand for better food, for local and sustainable food, especially fruits and vegetables grows in the U.S. Year on Year there is a 20% increase of farmers in states like California, Nebraska, South Dakota in the 25-34 age group. In the 2014 USDA Census this group is growing at 2-3% just when other groups are shrinking by double digits. These farmers are more likely to connect with the community supported agriculture (CSA) prorams and markets, to grow organically and limit pesticide and fertilizer use. They tend to have farms less than 50 acres. Liz leases the house and the fields from a neighboring couple in the 70's, growing organically certified peppers, cabbages, tomatoes and salad greens kale to aragula, rotating fields. On Tues, Thurs. and Fri. she and two friends are to be seen waking up in the early hours of darkness to kneel in mud and cut the greens. What motivates them is having a positive impact, to do that so it is immediate and you can see it making a difference, says Liz. Still young farmers face many hurdles, including student loan debt, and finding ways to meet the larger needs for online grocery service or the grocery chains. Yet a trend is taking shape for small and middle farms that provides some optimism as the number of farmers shrink significantly overall. Most alarmingly it is the lack of national and local policies to meet the health crisis of rising BMI's right at this level of local farms and community farms for local produce. Lack of any consciousness about this, even though good health in the U.S. as in other countries has always rested on what you are eating, long before processed foods became the norm this is the way the world met nutrition needs.    ...

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The German Foreign Office is not in the work of Mediterranean sea rescue, says Foreign Minister Wadephul. Germany cuts funding.

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$1.4 trillion in bank lending in 2009, an increase of 32%, andd an increase in the money supply by 29% in 2009, may create problems for China. Some experts warn that as investment soars there may be falling returns and inefficient spending.

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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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Acer President Gianfranco Lani says the company will ship between 10 million and 12 million netbooks in 2009, and 32 million to 35 million laptops including netbooks, which suggests that netbooks which sell for as low as $200 are almost half of its laptop/netbook sales. This shift and the pricing and sales pressures in the global economy resulted in a31% dropin profit, and operating margins dropping to 2.2% in the first quarter 2009, compared to 4th quarter 2008.

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WSJ reports in Feb 25, 2026 that most of the Mexican states and the Cancun, Tulum, Puerta Vallarta and other coastal tourist areas are controlled by different drug cartels. It is a collapse of good governance in a neighboring state for the US along a continent size border with huge ramifications for the US ignored by administrations ion the US for three decades (Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama), along with collapse in governance across Latin America. Only now are the dangers and effects on the US being fully grasped.

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Axel Springer buys London's The Telegraph newspaper( allied with the Conservatives) for $793 million. Axel Springer also owns The Politico website in the US. “To be the owner of this institution of quality British journalism is a privilege and a duty,” says Mathias Dopfner, CEO of Axel Springer, the German publisher. He says Axel tried to buy The Telegraph 20 years back. It will preserve the editorial independence of the newspaper and invest in its digital development and AI related work.

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Washington Post Editorial Board on how to bring down oil prices  during Iran War, including repealing Jones Act. The Jones Act says that only US ships can transport oil between US ports. France is sending warships to help escort tankers in the Persian Gulf. US has plans to do this to escort tankers. US can provide 24/7 drone coverage in the Persian Gulf to eliminate waterborne threats says the Post. The Post says it is in the French interest for oil trade to resume, and in America's interest.

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US relations with UK 2026 and visit of King Charles to White House April 27-April 30 2026- "he is fantastic" says the US president. DJT says about US-UK relations and the impact-

"Absolutely. He's fantastic. He's a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes."

"I know him well, I've known him for years. He's a brave man, and he's a great man. They would absolutely be a positive."

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With the U.S. Federal Reserve pulling back from its monetary easing policy and the ECB holding steady with a low interest rate policy, bond investors are finding attractive buys for government bonds of Italy and Spain. 10 year government bonds of Italy yielded 4.2%, and Spain's government bonds yielded 4.3% on Aug. 22, 2013. By comparison German government bonds yielded 1.88%, narrowing the gap between the bonds of southern European countries and German bonds as the eurozone economies recover in 2013-2014.