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This article on the main protagonists in the Conservative Party during the EU referendum in Britain shows how the narrow interests of a few Oxford educated politicians and their infighting has shaped the vote on Brexit. Gove, the Justice Secretary and Boris Johnson, former Mayor of London, have no idea what to do if they won in the Brexit vote. Both pull out of the leadership race after prime minister Cameron announces his planned resignation following a leadership vote in the party. Cameron and Osborne, the other two Oxford educated politicians, are caught up in the infighting in the Conservative Party which leads to Britain voting to leave the European Union. The article looks at the lives of the four male politicians who form an old boys club at one time and now are deeply divided with Cameron's wife Samantha and Gove's wife Sarah Vine once close friends, now along with their husbands no longer talking to each other. Also evident here is that Sarah Vine writing in the Daily Mail discloses more grief about all this messing up her social life than the way the vote to leave the EU will eventually affect the country's standing, its credit rating, and the economy, and how it affects the lives of ordinary British people. ...

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Efforts to change labor laws by Italy's prime minister, Mario Monti.

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When the BBC talks about "fish" in a novel way as identity it fails to look at the important issues of unemployment, failures in industrialization and modernization, failures in infrastructure building, entrenched corruption that are the main issues in the West Bengal election in 2026, as they were in the elections earlier in Bihar and Orissa states of northeastern India.That the BBC is silent or says nothing about the massive amount of poor quality and unstable unemployment in West Bengal where youth are leaving the state to find employment in the western states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states. BBC is silent about the "cut culture" which means a percentage of every financial transaction goes from the public or business to corrupt politicians in government and their associates, destroying any chance of economic progress. BBC along with other media say little about the lack of business investment in the state, and an environment that is not investment friendly, which means industrialization and modernization is falling behind in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa region with a population of close to 300 million people, about half the size of the European Union, located in northeastern India.In this attitude by the media including the BBC in the US and European Union one finds a feeling that is similar to that shown during the evolution of China into a modern state from the conditions of the 1930 with Japanese occupation, corrupt leadership and roadblocks to modernization and industrialization that mattered little to the world outside China and India. ...

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Utility companies are using weather forecasting to better pinpoint output of wind and solar farms and reduce inaccuracy fees. This helps smooth out fluctuations the main problem in solar and wind renewable energy.

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China State Shipbuilding and China Shipbuilding Industry merge in $16 billion merger August 2025. The companies were split up in 1999. In an effort to create scale the companies are being merged. This company is building China's first aircraft carrrier the Shandong. China's main port is at Quingdao in the northeast.

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World War II with Tom Hanks review- good for new generation of young people who have not seen Saving Private Ryan or documentaries made in ,the 70's. There are too many talking heads and not like in the 70's when survivors could give live accounts of what they saw, as they are dead by now. There is good new video footage.  Yet the war is of epic proportions on so many fronts, 20 episodes barely touch the major events of WWII, not to mention the events in Asia and Japan, the events in North Africa and Italy. Each of these areas has separate books in the work of Rick Atkinson who worked on it for a decade. Atkinson is interviewed by Rubinstein on C-SPAN showing that there is new interest in what happened in World War II. For the Asian side of the story the story does not start in 1939, the Japanese invasion and occupation of China is shown from the days after 1914 through the story of Gen. Joe Stilwell who is the American who for half a century to 1945 was America's main representative in China, and Franklin Roosevelt's and America's commanding general in China in the fight against the Imperial Japanese Army. The empathy of Stilwell for the Chinese people and his willingness to risk his life to help is simply amazing- and is something to take away from this book by Barbara Tuchman. There is a lot that America can be proud of in creating a rising tide in Asia that has lifted all boats. ...

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The jawboning by ECB head Mario Draghi in July 2012, when he said the ECB would do whatever it takes to support Spain and Italy, has produced exraordinary results in calming financial markets.

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The Editorial Board of the Washington Post on the challenges facing Mario Monti, the new prime minister, and the Italian people in 2012-2015.

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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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Yale's internal report on its failure on price, value and political polarization.  “In its report, the committee calls on Yale to reflect on and take responsibility for our role in the erosion of public trust.” Maurie McInnis, Yale president  wrote- “I accept this judgment fully.” The report cites one fault as tilting admissions in one direction- to the children of the rich and connected. Report has 20 recommendations including removing the tilt to legacies, varsity athletes, children of faculty, staff, donors. This is not the institution or institutions of higher education that promote the social mobility that happened under FDR and throughout the 20th century to create what emerged as a society that made it possible for people of all incomes to rise. This is also what Marco Rubio has made his main complaint in his book -Decades of Decadence How our Spoiled Elites Blew America's Inheritance of Liberty, Security, and Prosperity. How a immigrant family from Cuba was able to raise a child (Rubio) with a decent income from factory work making steel chairs in a Florida factory and give him a good education.  Something Rubio says is no longer possible today. Much of this factory base was shifted to China under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, and no longer exists. In its place is a financial services business that does nothing for workers and ordinary Americans and a business culture that puts costs further and further away and out of reach for education in the nation's universities and colleges. ...

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This Journal editorial cites the regulatory burdens imposed on small and medium sized businesses in Italy that discourage hiring and innovation. Prime minister Mario Monti's efforts to reduce these burdens and change labor laws in Italy.

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With millions of Italians and people of other EU nations struggling during the pandemic, migrants continue to gather in war torn North Africa for passage across the seas to Italy. Fragile governments in Italy and other countries including the government of Mario Draghi face the prospect of tackling another migrant situation. 

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The Kerch bridge that connects Crimea to the Russian mainland is the main supply route to Crimea. Two of four lanes were damaged on the bridge by a major explosion. This disrupts traffic and supply of food and fuel to Russian occupied Crimea. Mr. Putin opened this bridge in 2018 after new construction.

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Lack of experience and vague policy positions are leading to the collapse of the Five Star party started by comedian Beppe Grillo in Italy. Unlike the movement against establishment politics started by Mr. Macron in France as a minister in the Hollande government with considerable business and government experience but still an outsider, Mr Grillo and his representative Mr. Maio in the government lack experience in governing. This is leading to its complete collapse only two years after its success at elections winning 33% of the vote. It shows that such movements can be short lived without a clear economic agenda that can be implemented, not mere criticism of the existing arrangements.

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Not much will change in Italy's place in the European Union, says Maria Ferraresi, editor of Italy's Domani newspaper. Italy expects 200 billion euros of solidarity aid from the European Union that is dependent on following EU rules. And coalition partner Berlusconi says he will drop his support if Meloni adopts any anti EU rules positions. Meloni's Brothers of Italy party with 26% of the vote has roots going back to the Social Movement in Italy in the 1930's. To attract support she has remained in opposition even when Matteo Salvini of the League and Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia parties joined Mario Draghi's unity government during the pandemic. She has turned to a pro EU stand from a EU skeptical stand. Meloni is also forming one of seventy Italian governments since 1945 such is the pace of government change in Italy making every government dependent on fickle political sentiments that shift quickly. The Italian economy has fallen into a stagnant situation with growth less than 1% in 2022, and the main concern of voters and the elected governments is the economy and standards of living, so that EU aid acts as a critical part of rejuvenating the economy. The Eu solidarity aid of $200 billion in coming years is critical for Italy's economic revival. It also shows the European Union in action after the years following World War II when it was realized that some sort of sound European economic framework was needed for the common good. Ferraresi also points out that Italy has also gone through an EU led effort to make the judiciary fully independent and able to function similar to the judiciary in France and other EU nations. Italy also has a very de.centralized government with state and local governments playing a major role in administration. This reduces the impact of changes in the capital Rome.  ...

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Now the niche approach, of breaking up a market into finer and finer niches is a casualty of the deep recession, as there just isn't enough demand in these niches.