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This report in the WSJ shows Cubans lacking water for washing, sanitation, and having electricity blackouts or electricity for only 4 hours a day. Cuba lacks money to buy oil. The economy has long been shown to be frozen in the past without the technological change seen in other countries in the developing world. It shows the only model that works is one of good governance, access to US and European capital and technology for modernization, close relations with the US, building domestic knowledge base and engineers for  modernization, as sine qua non essental conditions in the Modern World since 1950. China and India tried under Mao and Nehru under socialist regimes but failed. The Monroe Doctrine is not for the US, it is an essential pre condition for countries in the western hemisphere on which the other essential conditions are laid to create modern societies. China and India with the essential conditions achieving modernization under Modi and Deng and his successors. It is true that Cuban dictator Batista's regime was a bad one in the 1950's, yet the answer is not to put in its place or as a reaction to this an idealistic version which like human nature is prone to corruption and decline, but build on sound and firm ground foundations tsuch as these essential conditions and sine qua non that stand the test of time and are good for the American continent. ...

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Kharg Island Terminal in a BBC Report.

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Europe behind the scenes support with its bases in Iran War, March 2026. French, British, Portuguese, and Greek bases used by American aircraft.

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DJT appeared on Oz's health show in 2016 as a presidential candidate, and sees OZ as a fellow tv show host, a kindred spirit with a passion for what he is doing. As head of Medicare and Medicaid after afailed effort for a Senate seat from Pennsylvania, Oz is still someone whit a keen sense for the politics as well as what is good for the healthcare of Americans. He shares apassion for good health as a goal for America that was held up by JFK, and his nephew Robert Kennedy Jr who now leads the Make America Health Again movement. Oz fervently believes the time for healthy America is now after many wasted years under Clinton/Bush/Obama when national interests were neglected for places like Bosnia in a historical conflict of Turks and Serbia that goes back centuries (Clinton), in the deserts of Iraq (older Bush), in the mountains of Afghanistan that claimed Brezhnev as a victim the younger Bush followed, two wars prolonged by Obama and closed by DJT and Biden. Something as basic as health and pharmaceutical prices was allowed to get as bad as it is in 2026 with prices through the roof. DJT's plan is to get the pharmaceutical companies to commit to certain prices, to the lowest price they sell the same medicine in Europe. This is what Dr Oz wants to see not just for the next 3 years but put into established practice for the future years.  Oz says about presenting the DJT plan on healthcare to Congress and the Nation- “We didn’t demand that they do it. We said, ‘This is something that is very popular and highly achievable.’ ” Healthcare costs, gas and automobile costs, energy costs, housing costs are all part of the 4-5 costs that are the key elements in the cost of living crisis or affordability crisis that is uppermost on the minds of Americans. Already the Medicare payments to insurers are going to be flat for 2026 compared to 2025, as part of policy to get costs down, push pharmaceutical costs down. ...

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Drone incursions into German airspace and closure of airports and cancelled flights December 2025.

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Buddhism gives people the opportunity follow a path to spiritual life and peace of mind without getting involved in politics. Here NYT provides a look at Buddhism in China as it is practiced to get people to set better moral standards to rejuvenate China. The founder was a small child traveling across China with his mother searching for their father after the Japanese invasion of China. He joined a monastery they passed by. After the Communist takeover of the mainland in 1949 and during the years of the Cultural Revolution he was active in a missionary movement for Buddhism and Buddhist culture in Taiwan.  Chinese president Xi Jinping has met with him 4 times and supports the movement in China as part of an effort to rejuvenate China and improve moral standards lost during the rush to modernization and industrialization. At one point even telling him "I have read all the books you have sent me Master."  For this movement to revive Buddhist culture and ethics the politics is secondary, what matters is the quality of people's lives and their finding fulfillment by living lives that honor the values of a good society that is caring for fellow beings, and practicing good moral standards.  Imagine a 100 acre facility that holds 2 million books in Yangzhou, including 100,000 volume collection of Buddhist scriptures. Built in two valleys of bamboo forest the temple in Yixing  is special, the atmosphere quiet and reflective, and with reading rooms, rooms for calligraphy, for tea. It was started in 2006 and is active with many people visiting the temple. In Buddhist countries such as Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, wherever Buddhism has got entangled with politics the purity and purpose of Buddhism has suffered. Putting Buddhist culture, learning, and quality of living first is essentially the way the Buddha had meant it to be. In a rare and profound way both Mr. Xi and the founder of this Buddhist group have made a unique and lasting connection to rejuvenate China after 100 years of tumult, war, and strife that started with the wars at Chinese ports in the 1850's, and 50 years of rush to industrialize that made weary and weakened the soul of a nation. During the period post coronavirus pandemic China and the Chinese people may find in Buddhist culture much that can enhance the quality of life just as the European nations France, Britain and Germany look back to their own culture and tradition for rejuvenation and renewal. In this sense even as China faces a West determined to protect its industry and technology, and returns to its roots, China can find a way to its own roots, confident that the period of European domination can no longer torment its soul. ...

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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. ...

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The sport of Curling at the Milan Olympics and Britain's role in the sport. Curling sport Explained by the BBC Sports.

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Run then walk, run for a minute or two then walk for a minute or two mirrors intervals training and can be very beneficial for health. It wards off fatigue and builds endurance.

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US sending signals of 'very strong talks'  with Iran delaying attack for 5 days March 23 2026.

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Ukraine historian Yaroslav Hrytsak on the war and how to end it- no drones, no attacks, sons return from frontlines. Concept of victory changes.

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Homeowners in California average ownership 17 years instead of 12 for US- reason is that property tax increases in California were limited to 2% a year under Prop. 13 of 1978, so older owners stay put. The result is fewer home on the market as older home owners avoid paying the higher property taxes for new homes that could be 10X what they pay under the old rules. This drives home prices up. Median home price is $900,000 in California.

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April 10, 2026 a day of thanksgiving for the safe return to Earth from the blackness of space of Artemis II, with 4 astronauts led by Captain Wiseman.

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The Guardian in its Editorial on Keir Starmer on February 10, 2026, says Labour was in the political wilderness for 18 years, and yet it has taken only 14 months for the project which put it into power to implode. It is referring to the project of McSweeney from County Cork, Ireland, and others to put a centrist to replace Corbyn, and selecting Keir Starmer. This was a weakness from the start as a candidate has to emerge on his own merits not be put in place by handlers like McSweeney, as he would not be able to govern on his own thinking and make his own decisions.  McSweeney was a campaign organizer and not successful at that as portrayed as Labour could have taken more than the 34% of the vote it received after 18 years of Tory rule without the likes of McSweeney. The Guardian says "excessive power and influence" was given by Starmer to McSweeney, and that the outsourcing of Britain's direction served neither the prime minister or the country well.  This is aserious flaw. McSweeney did not have the long experience of advisers that backed up Biden in the White House. And even the long experience of Biden group of advisers failed Biden when it came to immigration policy and the Border. And yet the question remains why was there such a lack in the talent pool for good governance for Labour, as it was for the Conservatives, for 3 decades since the 1990's? Similar to the situation with Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama governance in the US, why is there not a good talent pool for effective governance in the UK and the US? The Guardian goes on to question the judgement of Starmer and the clique around him including McSweeney for their attitude towards helping the working class in support payments during a cost of living crisis- what it calls a contempt filled approach of the cliques to the normal priorities of a Labour party. The Editorial concludes that Labour has lost control of the trajectory of events- as more Mandelson emails are expected- and that it is hard to see how this trust can be won back. For Britain having 5 prime ministers over 4 years is a shocking lack of the talent, of confidence, that once prevailed in the nation that once led the world with the Industrial Revolution, and in science and technology. ...