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This analysis by Gerald Seib in the WSJ shows the FBI chief Comey reopening the investigation into Clinton's email server just one week before election date November 8, as a move that does not enhance the democratic process because either way it will lead to questions why this was done at this late stage. The emails were found on a laptop used by Huma Abedin, an assistant to Hillary Clinton. Experts say the emails can be processed in a few days, and the FBI, the Justice Department are moving quickly to do this. 

Election experts say most of the decided voters for both parties will not be affected by this especially since most people will have made up their minds by now. Some voters who had questions about Trump might be moved to vote for him, and some undecided voters may be less enthused to come out to vote, though it is not clear at this stage. By mid week a clearer picture is likely to emerge. 

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During a critical 4 weeks in March 9 to April 9, 2025 Germany finds itself without a newly elected government following elections Feb 23, 2025. Only on April 9 is a new CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government in place led by CDU chancellor Merz. Tariffs came to the forefront, the critical issues of world trade and the effect on stock markets, without an elected government in place in Berlin to speak for the European Union and participate in discussions.  Japan's Ishiba and India's Modi offered the US some support as it sought to restore the world trading system to where it was before the serious distortions from China joining the WTO. Much of it the result of American companies outshoring American manufacturing and turning their backs on American workers, and the dignity and pride of workers who rebuilt the US and Europe, and Asia after the Depression and the Second World War.

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Elena Mayors Taylor gold medalist at Milan WInter Olympics 2026 age 41 years, is th eoldest gold medalist in Olympic history. Her colleague in the winter sport of bobsledding is Armbruster Humphries who has 3 gold medals and is 40 years She says-  "You get a lot of people that like to write you off as soon as you reach 40, it's all downhill from there, is what you hear. I think Elana and I are both proof that that's not true." Former bronze medalist from Britain Jon Jackson says of Elena- "She is not only a ferocious athlete but also a beautiful human being and a genuine person. It has been a real show of dedication to keep going through the struggles of now being a mum in a high-performance sport, the dedication that takes to maintain that level of physical fitness and the hard work of being a parent. It shows her true nature." Elena has 3 children with disabilities and is an advocate for mums. "It should be celebrated that they're both mums, using mum power, both in their early 40s and it's great to see them competing at the top of the world not only physically but the drive and experience too,"   ...

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Cost of Living Crisis under Biden, Affordability Crisis under DJT, and the situation in Feb 2026 with 2.4% inflation and job creation at 130,000 jobs in January 2026. Is this a sign that the tariffs policy is greatly misrepresented and misunderstood? The flexibility in tariffs, attention to financial markets through Scott Bessent's keen sghts at the Treasury shared with the president, the cutouts for key countries such as India to exclude semiconductors and cell phonesand other products from tariffs. For instance under tariffs increase India actually increased its exports by diversifying its economy and signing a trade agreement with Germany and the EU, followed by the trade agreement with the US, so that it remains an enven stronger economic partner. The same is true for Japan where elections are leading to a parliamentary majority for PM Sanae Takaichi who wants to work with the US and build a strong economic partnership, and make the large investments in the US it has promised.  Japan and India are two of the five largest economies in the world (US, China, Japan, India, Germany). German Foreign Minister Wadephul for the CDU welcomed Marco Rubio's call for a "new Western Century" and for strengthening western civilization common heritage of the US and Europe. This means 4 of the 5 largest economies in the world are in sync for the future of world trade, and their economic future.  ...

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The local tour guides in Yan'an (Yenan) China, who know absolutely nothing of the history. An American visitor who lived there in the 1940's revisits Yenan. He is stunned by the changes. Th makeover by the tourism bureau has changed the place that was the centre of the Communist struggle with the Koumintang and the Japanese. Mao, Zhou-en-lai and others made this the central location for their struggle for China after their Long March and well into 1948. It says Rittenberg was a place of stark beauty, with its primitive cave city. He sees the commercial makeover as having destroyed this museum to Chinese revolutionary history.

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Pep Guardiola has a lot of faith in Messi who scored 73 goals 10 years ago under Guardiola. After Barcelona's poor decisions in letting Neymar go to PSG, and the recent letting go of Luis Suarez, there was little incentive for Messi to go on. In fact the way Messi sent a fax to Barcelona about his intention to leave made headlines, it also showed that Barcelona is not what it was in its glory days. Barcelona's focus on money in its deals asking a huge transfer fee of 700 million has turned off fans.

Pep has so much faith in Messi that here he tells the reporter Messi could go on playing till he is 40 because of his style of play.

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The Genbaku Dome shown here was the only structure left standing after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  It is shown here on the UNESCO Heritage site. We show this on the day of the Nolan movie "Oppenheimer" at Oscars that shows the life of the scientist who headed the Los Alamos laboratory that invented the first atomic bomb, yet does not show the effects on the people of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. As recently as May 2023 prime minister Kishida of Japan had the G7 meeting in Hiroshima Japan, where he is from. He wanted people to see the Peace Memorial in the city and its new exhibition. NHK television Japan showed a documentary of the exhibition of the people who survived the bombing on that day, their lives on that day of those who died and those who survived the bombing including children, what they were doing at that very moment. G7 leaders visited the exhibition. Having seen that NHK documentary of the black and white pictures of the exhibits only 8 months back, one could say the winning of awards by Nolan's "Oppenheimer" without showing the Genbaku Dome and some of the exhibits from the museum leaves the story incomplete in missing the consequences of the research in the desert in New Mexico in 1944. ...

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Christy Mahon is a "14-er" who has climbed and skied all 54 of Colorado's 14,000 feet mountain peaks. She lives in Aspen, Colorado, where she is the development director of the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies. Christy has her husband as a climbing partner, who became a "14-er" before her.

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Iran War and rescue of pilot of downed F15-E in mountainous terrain in southern Iran April 4 2026. CSAR or Search and Rescue Missions become a critical part of the war. The pilot was a colonel trained for the mission and spent 24 hours in mountainous terrain which was monitored by US forces, after intelligence located him in a mountain crevice. For this to be possible unlike in the Vietnam War and Korean War other nations are not involved as in the earlier Cold War.  The US under DJT as president has shifted to respecting Russia as a Northern European power that it can talk with (meetings with Putin in Alaska 2025) and China as a trade partner (planned meeting in Beijing in April 2026) that it can talk with unlike with previous administrations of Biden, Obama and Bush where China had afree hand in economic matters and global trade and Russia was shut out of the world economic system by elites who ran the government in the US at that time. Russia seeks reintegration in the world political and economic systems, and China seeks acceptance as an economic power which the US respects, both points in which the US has offered to accept. US has also repeated the line to China that it was not going to do the job of keeping Hormuz open for China and Japan to get 90% of oil imports, and in oding so risk losing its soldier's lives, while China and Japan can quietly watch doing nothing to help free navigation of international waters. Note that the narrowest strip of water of 13 miles separates Oman from Iran so that a part of these waters are on the Omani side and not on the Iranian side making free use of that Omani part under international law possible- in which sense Iranian hostile activity closing the Omani side also is a violation of free navigation. This is not pointed out by Iran or Japan or even Britain who are benefitting from US action and remaining silent or being ambivalent or accusing US of being interventionist even when everyone knows MAGA base rejected Bush in the Republican party and the elites and embraced DJT for great part because they want nothing to do with interventionist adventures in the Middle East for certain. US is getting a bum rap from European allies and from China, India, Japan and the media inside the US and in those countries as if the US seeks oil from the Middle East. It was Britain where a lot of the posturing goes on about non intervention that started this oil based intervention since 1900 in Iran itself, and in artificial states of Iraq, Syria, that it created out of the collapsed Ottoman Empire in World War 1. Sykes and Picot were the US and French diplomats who set that up. US under DJT has accomplished self sufficiency in oil and US has no need for anything from the Middle East, no desire to even get involved, and MAGA well grasps that fact and wants to keep it that way. Only nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles with long range to hit US and EU are reason for US action, which is reason enough for EU, China, Russia to set their own goals so that non proliferation in dangerous areas is prevented. So that the people of China, Russia, India, Europe and the rest of the world can enjoy the fruits of their own labors after a century of severe hardships and struggles which the American people if not their elites respect, and the fruits of peaceful cooperation which the American people extend to the World, and to China, Russia and India. ...

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The Guardian gives this story of Khamanei's rule in Iran after 1989. He was made president in 1981 in a landslide win at that time just 2 years after the revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah of Iran's monarchial regime. Khamanei comes from a the family of a modest cleric in the town of Mashaad who was immersed in the anticolonial writings coming out of Arab North Africa's liberation movements. His policy towards Israel and the US, difficult relations with Arab countries in the neighborhood, and pursuit of nuclear weapons technologies, led Iran to become isolated and face sanctions that hurt its economy and its oil industry for three decades. It created its own version of governing and in setting up proxy militias but this resulted in huge investments diverted from the economy of Iran, neglect of its oil industry and production under western sanctions, that led to economy collapsing and student protests every decade. This expanded in 2025 to broad sections of the population calling for a new direction. Protests were suppressed leading to a disconnect with the people by 2026. To truly understand Iran one has to step back to the 1900's ( as one must also do to understand China or India), as Iran was ruled by the Qajar dynasty at the time. The first Majlis parliament was set up in Iran in 1906 -with the help of "good" Britishers like the British agent in Rajkot who helped send Gandhi to London to study law- wished to see a constitutional setup similar to Britain and limit the powers of the monarchy so that reforms in agriculture and in the civil service could be made. It lasted until 1908. At the time other Britishers in the British Empire both in India and in London sought to maintain British influence and keep out Russian influence. It was not a coincidence that the Majlis lasted only till 1908. That year in 1908 the first discovery of oil in West Asia was made in Khozestan province by George Reynolds, with investor backing of William D'Arcy. The following year 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company( later Anglo Iranian Oil Company and later British Petroleum) was formed. The oil concession was given by the Shah from Qajar dynasty. From that time on Iran became the scene of oil company interests, monarchial interests first under Qajar dynaasty and then under Pahlavis dynasty (which set itself up like Napoleon II in France from humble origins, after 1925 to replace the Qajar dynasty), and the emerging middle class lawyer and civil service, agricultural landowners class, all competing for power and influence in a Asian region with Shihite Islamic embedded in the fabric of the society. Power swung to different groups from 1925 onwards for 5 decades to the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi temporary replacement monarchy that worked with British oil interests. West Asia became a meeting point for anticolonial writings emerging from Arab North Africa and other places that took the form of and led to a socialist style anticolonial Baathist influnce that overthrew a monarchy in Baghdad Iraq in the "Free Officers" coup of June 14, 1958 led by Karim Kassem. Out of that Pan Arabic Iraqi mood emerged S. Hussein who with weapons systems imported from the US and Europe initiated the war with Iran in 1980. The Iranian counterrevolutionary movement to Iraq began from that time with the leadership of Khomeni and Khameni from 1981. This is what one has seen swing back and forth in the West Asian region for about 5 decades to 2026, the regional Arab states mostly Sunni monarchies ranged against Iran with its Shiite and also modernizing population. US oil interests in Arab monarchies of the West Asian region from the time of FDR's meeting with Saudi's Faisal in the WWII period clashed with Iranian public interests competing with oil interests (US and British) allied to monarchial interests, and the emergence of Shiite Islamic authority in Iran in these clashes. Iranian public interests that started out with the Majlis and parliaments set up by the "good Britishers" never got a chance in Iran just as the modernizing effort of Sun Yat Sen in China in the 1900's never got a chance in the middle of the surviving monarchy in China by 1910, and the Japanese colonial interests in China from that time competing with the Nationalists Koumintang and the Communist Chinese workers movements emerging in the 1930's, all competing for influence during the Chinese civil war and in its aftermath the emergence of Mao and the CCP of China. This is the situation we in the world face today. ...

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Tariffs are for adaptive reindustrialization, for building capacity step by step over a decade starting with components in the supply chain and semiassembly, then final assembly, all within the USA. Do not grade them by the news cycle or one year, says Peter Navarro, adviser to US president DJT, as it took many years to deindustrialize and lose American manufacturing, it took many years for China starting in 2000 to industrialize. It will take years step by step with policy actions to achieve the goal of jobs and growth through factories making in America, starting earlier in the Biden administration and now in the Trump administration with industrial and trade policy that directly supports American factories. Tariffs do not create inflation when foreign producers who keep overcapacity and subsidize to put American factories out of business and people out of jobs have to reduce their prices to maintain sales, not pass through the tariffs to buyers. This is why inflation in the US is subdued. And the process of actively building new factories in the US is only now beginning to take place in its first year for DJT, following Biden/DJT early efforts It will require patient attitude, har.d work, and strong action, policies set in place that will bring results by 2030. ...

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Are high prices for pharmaceutical products and healthcare services putting a severe burden on U.S. finances and defunding education, infrastructure, R&D in new technologies, which provide the underpinnings for future U.S. competitiveness? Yes say experts. In 2009 Americans per person cost of healthcare was $7,960. By comparison Canada was $4,808, Germany $4,218, and France $3,978. And without necessary efforts for educating people about caring for health and preventive care, the health conditions of Americans are no better than these countries, and poorer in some dimensions. Klein says deficits would not be a problem for the U.S. if prices for pharmaceutical products and healthcare services in the U.S. were similiar to that of the largest developing countries. Experts say the Obama healthcare law simply postponed the addressing of this problem.

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A touching story about a soldier who was once part of the Lost Battalion in World War II in the Vosges French Alps. Ford Callis is determined to recover at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville from a fall at home. His only thought is how he can get back to care for his demented 94 year old wife. A physician who takes care of Callis describes the thoughts of doctors and staff at Vanderbilt Medical Center that day as they reflected on the meaning of marraige in a deeper spiritual sense.

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The US government shutdown ends with Republicans + 8 Democrats in Senate voting to end shutdown on November 10, 2025. This keeps the filibuster voting rule which requires 60 votes to pass. Support of some Democrats was essential to make this happen. After bipartisan negotiations 7 Democratic Senators and Angus King Independent from Maine split with their party leaders Schumer and Jeffries of New York who called for a 1 year extension of Obama ACA healthcare subsidies which the Republicans opposed.  Democrats ensured the funding for SNAP benefits continues to Sept 2026 and the 4000 federal layoffs would be reversed and prevent future layoffs in the federal workforce. Democratic Senators voting with Republicans were Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois joined the Senators from New Hampshire and Nevada. John Fetterman who has voted independently of the Democrat party to meet views of Pennsylvania constituents supported the move. This splits New Hampshire, Maine, Nevada, Illinois and Pennsylvania from the Schumer-Jeffries leadership from New York. Tim Kaine voted with Republicans by getting them to agree to reverse federal workforce layoffs, get back pay and stop layoffs. King, Hassan and Shaheen formed the core of Democrats who believed there was no chance Obama ACA subsidies would be extended for another year as long as shutdown continued whereas there was some chance after it ended. Both Senators from Nevada Rosen and Masto were following the needs of their constituents, and so was Fetterman of Pennsylvania. ...

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Peggy Noonan calls the Bernie movement and Hillary Clinton adopting his efforts to improve incomes and condition of working class people, a major development. The most electrifying line in her view is the one made by the father of a U.S. Army Captain who died in Iraq, Khizr Khan, himself an immigrant, who said about Trump at the convention- "You have sacrificed nothing." She cites Bloomberg, a successful businessman in media and former Mayor of New York, who said about Trump: "I'm a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one."  Bloomberg traced the history of the Trump business through repeated bankruptcies, lawsuits and missteps, and added "Trump says he wants to run the nation like he's run his business. God help us." And Noonan cites Hillary's speech as getting better as it progressed, not her best, but doing the work, especially with the line- "Don't believe anyone who says "I alone can fix it."  Biden and Kaine hit on this point repeatedly, and that "he doesn't have a clue," with the crowd chanting "Not a Clue."  ...

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Kirill Dmitriev who has a BA from Stanford and MBA from Harvard was educated in the US and worked for McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. He worked for the US-Russia Investment Fund funded by USAID during the early years in 1990's after fall of Soviet Union. And helped sell off media properties bought at that time for that Fund to the new government. He is now the head of the Russian Sovereign Fund.

He will be a key negotiator to be similar to Witkoff in the Trump team who has a background in real estate deals. 

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President Biden tells USA Today in an interview that "based on polling" he could have won when running for president, yet cannot say about being president at 85 years or 86 years, saying "who the hell knows."

"When Trump was running again for re-election, I really thought I had the best chance of beating him. But I also wasn't looking to be president when I was 85 years old, 86 years old," Biden said. "But I don't know. Who the hell knows?"

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Only by drawing the real connection between climate and human health can real progress be made in tackling climate change. The planet is greater than we are, say experts, and it will survive us. It is people who have to save themselves.

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Emma Brown in the Washington Post gives this heartwarming story of a school superintendent in Jennings, Missouri, who finds new ways to motivate learning by meeting the needs of poor children.

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Polls show about 69% of people in Northern Ireland support the Good Friday Agreement that was signed 25 years ago with US help. About 55% see improvements can be made to that agreement. With the new generation of Irish there is now a significant part of Northern Ireland that sees itself as not identifying with the Unionists who favor links with Britain or the Nationalists who favor reunification with Ireland. Over this period of peaceful coexistence of the Catholics and the Protestants in Northern Ireland who are still largely segregated, there is even a sense that reunification and joining the European Union is an option for Northern Ireland following Brexit.