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The first sign of light as European leaders meet with DJT at the White House on August 18, 2025, with all the signs that the carefully planned steps are taking place, the atmosphere of conflict is being replaced by an atmosphere of settling this war and bringing peace to Europe. For the first time even the announcement is carefully orchestrated by all the leaders. DJT speaking first but from carefully worded script reading from it, for someone who always speaks spontaneously. It is as if everyone wanted to do it right, to get it right- DJT, Zelensky who also had carefully prepared words.

DJT says he will call president Putin right after this communication on television that lasted 15 minutes around a table where DJT was seated next to Starmer, Macron, Merz, Meloni, with the president of Finland present.

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Seen as a rural urban divide, less educated and well educated and tech workers the situation in France looks similar to that in the US in the elections of 2016 and 2020. With business in the US and European Union shifting manufacturing to China and the governments neglecting rural areas, decline in standard of living for people on pensions that have not kept up with the cost of living, the situation in France as in the US is decades in the making. Bernie Sanders and Melenchon were appealing in different ways to younger people yearning for change and a system that would correct these changes.   Melenchon coming this close to less than one percentage point of Le Pen in the first round of French elections shows that a straight Macron Le Pen version of what has happened is an oversimplification, just as seeing the changes in America under president Biden vs Trump would be a simplification, as voters for Sanders who voted for Biden are changing the Biden agenda and setting America on a new path. A path to reshoring jobs that were sent to China, rebuilding American manufacturing, increasing workers wages and restoring workers leverage for higher wages, investing $2 trillion in child care, housing, supporting worker incomes and families, supporting older Americans on pensions. In the same way beneath the idea that nothing has happened after the yellow vest protests for cost of living, that has not only not gone away- but increased in the concern for cost of living in this election with the surging inflation - new developments are happening.  Even as Germany under Merkel appeared not be changing in 2020- 1 year after Merkel the situation will have changed completely to address social concerns that were ignored earlier and to invest in infrastructure in a big way. Behind this is a fundamental change that is taking place. Facing a challenge from totalitarian states the fabric of society in the free world, the US, Germany, France, other EU states, India, and nations in the free world will have to respond with changes that restore the fabric of society to what it was before this kind of fracturing, bringing all parts of society together to bring all the energies in place for rebuilding, investing in infrastructure, restoring local manufacturing and renewal. It requires a unified effort to be put in place to respond in the right way.     ...

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The economy of Japan shows strong resilience with 1.8% growth in the second quarter of 2019, after 2.8% growth in the first quarter. Private consumption and capital investment have increased steadily. Private consumption accounts for over half of GDP. Sentiment is up as the hosting of Olympics by Japan gets closer.

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Map showing most deprived neighborhoods bordering least deprived neighborhoods in the UK in 2025.  In 2019 there were 65 such neighborhoods with posh-poor side by side, in 2025 this has jumped to 119 such neighborhoods. Shown on this map are the familiar areas around New Castle on Tyne and Leeds/ Nottingham in the North and in the Midlands. With fewer such neighborhoods in the south near London. Years of austerity policies of the Cameron/Osborne conservatives and Conservative administrations since have led to a growing divide in the UK. This is also more reason for the Labour Party to get its work together to take strong action similar to the socialist party in Denmark to cut illegal migrants, so that it can focus its efforts to deliver and build a better stronger economy for all people in Britain

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Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro is lit up in the national colors. Brazil declares 3 days of national mourning. A look at the extraordinary soccer career of Pele for Brazil.

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Brexit had unintended consequences. Ads on buses showed waves of immigrants pouring into Britain, which was not the case as this was taking place in central Europe under Merkel only for a while till it was reversed.  Yet Brexit happened with support from anti-immigrant sentiment, and working class communities in the north of England left behind by Blair's Labor. This report in the Times of London shows a prime minister from an immigrant family who leads the same Tory party today which has also forgotten working class communities that were never its base, leaving Labor an opportunity to assert its claim to serve the whole British people.

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The German government has taken notice of hate speech on social media and social bots. The Justice Ministry convened a task force on hate speech on internet. Justice Minister Heiko Maas promised legal action against social media like facebook and twitter if it violated laws of libel and inciting to violence. Chancellor Merkel is bringing in a data science expert Professor Simon Hegelich of the Technical University of Berlin for consultations in Dec. 2016. Only AfD of the main parties, with its anti-immigration stance, has not come out in favor of not using social bots or paid trolls in the 2017 elections. Hegelich in talk with DW.com says it is hard to legislate on this because the whole phenomenon has not been fully understood. Article 5 of the Constitution provides for free speech. Hegelich also says the state of technology moves faster than legislation, and being international sites like facebook, twitter and others pose additional issues. He does not say laws cannot be helpful but that its not clear how best to do this. Thomas Jarzombek is a CDU member of parliament and digital media expert. He says social bots are more likely controlled by foreign countries, and fake news sites are more of a domestic problem. Making this worse is the incentive for unemployed journalists to do blogging of the crude and aggressive type to make more money. Jarzombek sees the need for the press to do more in its role for the democratic process to function properly, by functioning in the role of "enlightenment" and "awareness."  Jenna Behrends, a law student and CDU local politician for Berlin-Mitte, says it is necessary for good bots to be used to fight bad bots, in an article in Der Spiegel. Major mainstream media would then have to launch social bots themselves to fulfill their role of providing the public with correct and fair information free of excessive bias and distortion of the bad bots. One example of this is shown explicitly here of German chancellor Merkel's picture with the words " Guilty of betraying the people," with links to "Drain the swamp," and "Brexit." A more complex question is one of how to let people vent out frustration about the mainstream media itself being biased in favor of the established views and not doing enough or giving enough space to reflect alternative views, so that these can be debated without inflammatory language and deliberate distortion. A whole range of tools and modifications of behaviour may be necessary ahead of next years elections in France and Germany, now that the phenomenon is better understood following a vote in the Anglo-Saxon countries.   ...

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In an effort to take decisive action early the quarantine is extended from Lombardy to the whole of Italy. Travel is restricted to places where people live. Italy has suspended payment of bills, taxes and mortgages. All open air assembly and sporting events are banned. Italy's quarantine is similar to the quarantine in Hubei province China, where cases have dropped sharply showing that it worked in China. Italy is also setting aside 10 billion euros for the effort to contain the coronavirus crisis and mitigate the economic impact.

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The suddenness of the wildfires in British Columbia in the village of Lytton, and the suddenness of the floods in western Germany, are a new aspect of worsening climate crisis. The wildfire in Lytton is described here in The Times- an inferno, an immense fireball that swept over the village in seconds. 

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"Saving America's Story" by the White House Domestic Policy Council - getting America's story told right and protecting its heritage and aspirational values, the issue the Nation faces in 2026. A new report "Saving America's Story" is issued by the administration as a result of an executive order DJT signed in March 2025.The report’s “central finding” - that “museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.” “To the extent that there is a story told at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, it is not one of ‘the victory of freedom and genius of our country’ but one of regret, tragedy, and shame." Why is this important- seen from the outside world the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence are the best ideas of the Enlightenment in Europe, have inspired the French Revolution in the 1790's, have inspired billions of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America in 1800, in 1900, and in the 1950's in the fight against Colonialism of the European Empires, leading to billions of people and many nations gaining freedom. Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln are not just the founding fathers of America but also in a way founding fathers of the principles that inspired these people and who created the Modern World we know today. ...