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Talarico beat Crockett in Texas Democrat primary and Senator Cornyn at 42% edges out Attorney General Paxton in Texas Republican primary.  DJT likely to endorse Cornyn and calls for Republicans to avoid ads and infighting. $131 million spent on this Texas primary, $99 million for Republicans. Democrats are unlikely to win in Texas, but the infighting is of concern to the president because of the margin  for control in the US Senate.

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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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'Showrooming' is hurting big retailers with large stores such as Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart, which are taking their own actions to reduce the impact.

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Just as with the huge Indian score at Edgbaston Test of 578, England at Old Trafford put up 669. Stokes and Root both with centuries take England to 669 1st Innings vs India, Old Trafford, July 2025. At Edgbaston Gill broke records with 269 and 161 runs in each innings. At Old Trafford Root gets to being the batsman with the most runs in Test cricket except for legendary Tendulkar. And Stokes get record of 5 wicket and a century in one Test.

In this Test series with India one record after another is broken. The Test that England won at Lord's was close India conceding by only 20 runs with one extraordinary catch by Archer of Pant making the difference with Sundar's overconfidence playing a part.

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 President DJT has several options after SC Tariffs decision -Sections 122 Trade Act of 1972 has 150 day limit and 15% maximum tariff rate, and Sections 232 and 301 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 is specifically designed for China and countries with high trade deficits. DJT pointed out at the press conference following the Supreme Court decision pointed out that he had these options at the beginning in April for tariffs. He chose IEEPA instead because the other options required work that would take several months showing the unfair treatment of the US by other nations. It is likely that the president used IEEPA for speed yet kept open the options to replace it with the option that would work best. The new studies will have been started much earlier in 2025 so that the president can introduce all his tariffs under new arrangements. Another aspect of this is that the president has negotiated Free Trade Agreements with most of the nations that are large trade partners from India, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan to UK, EU, Germany, France with the idea of boosting the US economy with tariffs of 10-15%. ...

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Washington Post Editorial Board on the importance of federal workforce being based on performance and laying off or force reduction of  underperforming workers, not protecting workers with seniority. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of the US government has taken a sensible action, says The Post in proposing to federal agencies that they layoff low performers first. Under the Biden administration the longest serving employees often the highest paid were not laid off, even if they were not productive. Agencies reduced workforce based on a complicated formula that heavily weighted seniority. The new rule will give performance the largest weighting. As OPM puts it: “By elevating performance in the order of retention, the employees who are best contributing to the mission will be more likely to be retained during restructuring.” Department of Government Efficiency government cuts were for 90% of the 2025 cuts due to voluntary programs such as buyouts, says The Post.  ...

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BBC says this England team is fighting to avoid the worst Ashes cricket performance in a century. England lost the Second Test at the Gabba in Brisbane by 8 wickets- again. Mitchell Starc with 6 wickets for 75 runs in the first innings and batting in second innings for 77 runs was agains the key player in Brisbane. Neser with 5 wickets for 42 runs for Australia in the second innings reduced England's chances.

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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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The new Social Studies, Civics and English Reading curriculum for K-12 in Texas Schools looks at a broader approach to reading of classics which have been largely bypassed in an erroneous approach to reading focused on whatever is in contemporary trends. The current approach is leading to a generation of children who do not know much about the Nation's history and culture and form of government, about the English language and its prominent American authors. One draft includes books like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle for kindergartners, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle for seventh graders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech for eighth graders. Frederick Douglas and Langston Hughes are also included. It also has passages from the Bible, including a meditation on Love from First Corinthians.  All this is happening as the Nation has a new Test alternative to ACT and SAT called the CLT Classical Learning Test which provides longer reading passages from English and American Literature and history, science, technology, world knowledge, far better than ACT or SAT. ...

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78% of people in France and 60% in Italy say they have No Trust in Politics. Germany and the UK are at the same level at 55% and 56% saying they have No Trust in Politics. This finding is from the annual barometer by Sciences Po, CEVIPOF and Opinion Way conducted in Jan 2026. 76% of people say democracy has not worked well in France. Only 23% saying democracy works well in France is compared to 54% in Germany and 52% in UK saying democracy works well a umber that is down from high sixties in 2020. In Italy 40% say democracy works well making France and its experiment with Macron particularly egregious as even in its best days Macron only had 40% saying democracy works well in France. Macron's personal popularity is at lows of 15-20% in 2026 and dropped early in 2018 to 30% and never recovered. It appears that the talent pool for France Germany, UK, and Italy, is poor to get such abysmal ratings in the governance of the country.

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Rahul David turned down the opportunity to coach the Indian cricket team in favor of the coaching job for the under 19 team. Many of the young players hardly 21 or 23 years old who played against Australia in the Fourth Test including Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj, come from this under 19 training with Rahul Dravid. The persistence and devotion to excellence on the field at the beginners level in under 19 created under Rahul Dravid helped India overcome injuries and other problems to win the Test series against Australia. Rahul Dravid achieved this with a knock of 180 runs in the Test match against Australia at Eden Gardens Kolkata. Gill and Pant batted well for India to beat Australia in the fourth Test at Brisbane. The example set in 2001 by Laxman and Dravid was followed by Gill and Pant, by concentrating with determination on the work at hand.

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China's exports to US declined by 30% in 2025 from $438 billion in 2024 to $308 billion in 2025. The US trade deficit with China declined by 31% from $295 billion in 2024 to $202 billion in 2025. US had a $178 billion trade deficit with Vietnam and some of this could be China's exports to the US through Vietnam and this should be taken into account. For the world as a whole China had a trade surplus of $1.2 trillion in 2025 as it continues to push its exports on the rest of the world.

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Watch key moments of King Charles Address to the US Congress April 28 2026. This is the most warmly and most embraced speech in the US Congress in decades. The last time a British monarch was in the US, and addressed the US Congress was Queen Elizabeth in the Suez crisis of 1956. Looking back the Suez crisis was precipitated by a Arab nationalist military officer taking over (nationalizing) the Suez Canal in Egypt from British and French control. As this was when the British and French Empires existed in Africa and Asia, and the US was for freeing people requiring breakup of these Empires.  It should be remembered American General Stilwell carried out this policy in China by fighting the Japanese Empire in China, and also India. America was never on the side of Empires as some would have us believe, and there is no better example of American spirit and generous heart than General Joe Stilwell in China for 1900-1950. Today Keir Starmer and Macron's move to represent the British and French as innocent bystanders is anything but, as the British and French created 50 years of wars in the Middle East by creating the artificial states of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq of Shia and Sunni people out of the defeated Ottoman Empire by 1921. King Charles was making the best of the bad situation in his speech as he supports US position of naval blockade to prevent Iran (or for that matter any place in the Middle East a powder keg of a region like the Balkans in 1914 that started WWI) from getting nuclear weapons. ...