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Japanese homes from 14th century declared national treasures. These homes belong to powerful farm families when most of Japan was an agricultural society. Also listed in a lighthouse made of steel from the Meiji era, in Sado, Niigata Prefecture. It is Japan's oldest operational lighthouse made of steel. 

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Okamoto Tao wins Best Actress award at Cannes 2026 for Hamaguchi Ryusuke's film "All of a Sudden."

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"The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner. Time is on our side."

On the US blockade of Iranian ports- "will remain in full force and effect" until an agreement is reached and signed.

"Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!"  "The US-Iran relationship is becoming "much more professional and productive."

DJT stressed that Iran must know "They cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb."

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DJT says time is on their side to negotiators so that the blockade on Iran will remain till a deal is made that cover nuclear materials. US blockade of Iran in force till a deal is reached as final deal will require going beyond Memorandum to nuclear materials -this is the situation on May 24 2026. Mediators Pakistan and Turkey have only got as far as getting a Memorandum- a written document of intentions not actions taken on nuclear materials- while all the time the IRGC Iran says nuclear is not included. What explains this? There are now two factions inside Iran that are the IRGC and the elected president of Iran, one not as committed to nuclear weapons as the IRGC at the cost to the people of Iran and the nation's economic future. This war has proved that while oil producing countries are causing great damage to their economies and productive potential- this includes Russia, Iran and Saudis-the world is moving on its goal of reduced dependence on oil followed by fossil free future in 2 stages. By the first stage if modernization does not take place in the Middle East it will lose forever the opportunity to modernize infrastructure and fall behind other countries including China, India, Brazil and other nations that have made the shift.  ...

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Russian Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile attack on Kviv, Ukraine, May 24 2026.

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Delcy Rodriguez and her special relationship and confidence of the DJT administration as it seeks to restore economic prosperity to Venezuela after a disastrous experiment and mismanagement of the economy.

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Reeves wants to remain UK Chancellor (Finance Minister) and is campaigning for the job. Yet there are questions whether she is the right person. Kiran Stacey of The Guardian asks does Andy Burnham need a clean break from the Starmer administration considering the missteps on disability benefits, cutting winter fuel payments, and other actions of Rachel Reeves. These missteps were not necessary and clearly eroded support for what Labour should be standing up for and doing. The idea that she has something that keeps the bond markets happy is a complete myth- in which case the Tories could do just as well or better. Labour was elected not to be like the Tories but to enact its own program. Clement Atlee was elected in 1945 even after the popularity in the war of Winston Churchill. He could not have done what he did without the clear confidence in himself that Starmer clearly lacks, with the added problem of Reeves instincts in the wrong place for a Labour government elected to enact its own program. If Labour cannot believe in its own programs fro the working class how are working class people in Britain supposed to believe in Labour? That is the problem of the Starmer-Reeves running of the British economy and addressing problems of cost of living, the shrinking of opportunity in Britain, mismanagement left by the Tories.  ...

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This report in The Guardian looks at key allies of Andy Burnham as he prepares to run in the Makerfield by-election, and prepares to contest the leadership of the Labour Party in Britain. Key allies include deputy leader of the Labour party Lucy Powell. It includes Mathew Lawrence, Director of  the Common Wealth Project who has set out the philosophy of Manchesterism for a robust effort to make the utilities water, energy and transport serve the public interest, something that never happened under the Tories. Lawrence says it is not about fairness alone "it is good macreconomic policy." Neal Lawson of the Compass thinktank. Lawson says this is about "real change not the cosmetic appeal."Of MP's Anneliese Midgley political director of Unite, Louise Haigh, the former Transport Secretary, of the Tribune group, Lucy Powell a fellow Manchester MP and an ally of the Mayor. Haigh is taking on a role in the Makerfield campaign. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, is also a friend of Burnham. The Mayor's assistants in Manchester are Kevin Lee, with Burnham for 15 years, and Josh Simmons, policy aide. A lot depends on these colleagues and assistants of Mayor Burnham in the days and years ahead, and the future of Britain may rest on their shoulders, on what they do in the days ahead to give the Mayor the support he needs to run the government of Britain in a new direction, and with the resolve and action plan to make for a "Vibrant Britain." ...

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Bookshops in India that offer space to browse.

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UK decides it wants to join single market in Europe.

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Why men and boys are falling behind especially in working class neighborhoods.

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Why no new infrastructure building plan is in place in the US for decades as China, now India build new infrastructure every day with a Master Plan. The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March 2024 in the Baltimore, Maryland area. There was much hand wringing at the time and president Biden also stepped in with help. The Washington Post says 2 years later no plan is in place to build a new bridge. The cost keeps going up from $1 billion to $1.9 billion and up again to $5.2 billion, with the dates shifting 2028 to 2030. Maryland received $2.6 billion insurance payments for the damage to the bridge by a ship, yet the project is stalled in disagreements with different parties involved. Even in the streets of New York, the pedestrian pavements in Brooklyn and other places are so dilapidated but no one seems to care. Suggesting that New Yorkers are also numb to infrastructure being bad as it is, just as Mumbai residents were in the old days before infrastructure became a daily priority in India in recent years, following China's example. ...

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Reading a physical book is better than seeing some on on You Tube reading a book- this becomes a problem with You Tube targeting schools and school children with its Chromebooks in American schools. You Tube has become prevalent in American classroom and its marketing works closely with parents and teachers. Problems are that children can end up spending too much time watching You Tube, neglecting reading and home work. Watching a person read on You Tube gives verylittle of the benefits from reading a book oneself. The practice of reading is an important skill and can be developed only by reading and reading a physical book. Attention spans become shorter when watching You Tubes and more You Tubes. Sweden has studied the problem of using screens with teachers, education experts and curriculum experts and is now moving all its classrooms from screens to binders that include exercize books for children to write in. Writing is similar only when takes up a pen and paper can one write and write more till one gets better at it. Sweden should be closely followed and the US should start using a similar approach to fight the lack of reading comprehension skills in American schoolchildren as part of the Movement for Global Literacy of lyrarc.com. ...

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Democrats continue to believe they lost in 2024 because they did not attack DJT enough. This fails to cite issues such as cost of living- surge in the third year of the Biden administration with 20% increase in prices and Biden failing to take notice and address this quickly. A wave of illegal immigration- the failure of Mayorkas, himself a Cuban immigrant in 1960, put in charge of Homeland Security and ICE, and Harris who was an attorney helping indigents in inner city San Francisco, to grasp the fears of border states and southern states. The failure to understand that the border was open and inviting waves of illegal immigrants, some with questionable backgrounds. This issue created a sense of unease in the fabric of society and American people. Other issues simply showed how Harris could not relate to the conservative people and average people in the country in the cultural aspect such as transgender, rural America. Biden pulling out suddenly, loss of rural vote- failure of Democrats since Obama to pay attention to rural voters, Harris not appealing to the white male vote in the US, are other factors that hurt Democrats. DJT gained with the shooting incident in Pennsylvania in which he survived, and the perception raised during a garbage truck and DJT photo that the Democrats derided, seen by the public as looking down on working class people. Democrats never really grasped how the political system had gone in reverse- the Republicans had put cultural aspect first and conservative now meant working class voters and white voters in rural areas/small towns, big cities, ( the Archie Bunker type of an earlier era who was now a Democrat, not the college educated and Ivy league Harvard type that had taken over the Democratic party). This continues to this day with some paradox as the business class and the billionaire class sit alongside the working class person in the Republican party DJT created. DJT did this in 2016 by pulling together workers hurt by Bush and Obama's policies favoring the educated classes and affluent, ignoring rural areas and farmers, and committing US to wars in the Middle East that squandered the Nations' resources and human lives. This was aggravated in the Biden/Harris/Mayorkas years by letting in migrants across the border by the millions that created a great deal of unease in the working classes. In this way labor unions or their rank and file left the Democratic party- a problem that plagues Democrats to this day, that Biden tried but failed to fix. The border issues had become complex by the latter part of the Biden administration because of the complete collapse of Venezuelan economy and the drug cartels in Mexico smuggling people and drugs across the border, for which the Biden administration or Harris had no answer.  It was the failure of administrations to continue the Monroe Doctrine in the form given by FDR as "Good Neigbor Policy," and JFK as the Alliance for Progress, allowing drug cartels and foreign European powers to intervene in the western hemisphere, desorying good governance in Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and other nations in Latin America. By the second year of the DJT administration Venezuela, and the border were brought under control, and the situation in Mexico put in a new direction. ...

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1.4 million green cards issued in the last year of the Biden administration 2024 as green cards issuance was at the highest level in a decade. Green cards to be issued only in the home country starting in 2026. The reasoning behind this decision is given by the US Immigration Agency-

"This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes. When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the U.S. illegally after being denied residency.”