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Juan Carlos of Spain in his memoir in 2025- says about moving away from Spain to the UAE that it was to "help his son, and so that journalists cannot find me." The king remains popular with the Partido Popular and its support in the Madrid region, less popular in other parts of Spain, in the fractious nature of Spanish politics. There is a sharp contrast to how he was perceived in the years of transition to the EU in 1981 and the decade after that and today. The problems of the British royal family and Charles are seen in the perceptions of the Spanish royal family, the only two major monarchies in Europe.

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50 years from 1975 and the passing away of the 40 year Franco era, and 44 years from 1981 and joining the European Economic Community Spain is still finding its way. This report from Spain in The Times of London looks at the period before 1975 when Spanish politicians of every party came together to support the transition to democracy and becoming part of the European Union. He looks with dismay at the fractious nature of today's politics and the frequent name calling, Socialists under Sanchez and the Partido Popular, Vox party, Podemos, failing to agree on how to handle the Catalonian independence movement. Those who supported autonomy for Catalonia and the Basque region in 1975 did this not as a pathway to the breakup of Spain, but to give room for regional aspirations and difference in language and traditions within the federal union of Spain. Much of this was forgotten in the politics of Arturo Mas and other politicians from Catalonia. Catalonia is now run by the Socialist party, elsewhere in Spain  the Vox party and Partido Popular in Andalusia and the Madrid region remain popular. The financial debt and housing crisis in Spain, the pandemic and other economic problems have affected Spain similar to the rest of Europe, creating problems in the economy which only now have been overcome.  ...

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David Ellison's Skydance buys Free Press site for $150 million and merges with Paramount Global in $8 billion merger to acquire CBS News. Bari Weiss of Free Press is made Editor in Chief at CBS News.

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With Democrats emboldened by winning governor races in NJ and Virginia government shutdown on issue of ACA subsidies continues on November 8 2025. Speaker Johnson refusal to commit to holding a vote in the Senate on ACA subsidies means negotiated compromise cannot be made on a future vote for ACA subsidies so that the government funding takes place.

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Brazil's ever increasing production of soyabeans and investments in Brazil by China and US's Cargill ADM result in a oversupply of soyabeans in world's markets leading to lower prices for American farmers. 70% of soyabeans imports by China were from Brazil in 2024 and Cofco state owned agricultural company in China is building a large port terminal on Brazil's coast to handle soyabeans and other exports. Trade tensions with the US mean there are no written agreements farmers can count on for soyabean exports to China. China purchased 13 million metric tons from Argentina last month and committed to buying 25 million metric tons in 2026-2028. Argentina lifted its 26% export tax for the first $7 billion in agricultural exports to bolster it's peso recently. US is turning to other markets in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Europe to make up for volume lost to Brazil. For September and October there is a 45% increase in US exports in 2025 resulting from these non-Chinese buyers. No mention is made of India, yet India could in future be a significant buyer of soyabeans because of thenutritional value of soyabeans in an anti-cancer diet and the high protein content which would make Indian diets healthier. In agriculture farmers are not the ones who develop new tastes and new trends in new markets, yet this effort should be part of farmer's outreach to other nations and other cultural food habits with shifts to healthy nutrition. ...

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In Lithium ion batteries and key pharmaceutical ingredients, special semiconductors China is able to use the concentration of manufacturing capacity anc dependence on China to prevent the US and EU negotiating a way to recover lost supply chains. Supply chains that were carelessly turned over to China, a developing country at that time, by business executives of the US and EU in the 1990-2020 period who lacked vision and foresight. China's policy is to increase the dependence of US and EU, to tighten this dependence to achieve its goals. XI Jinping says WSJ wrote in a 2020 essay- that he wasn't for weaponizing it but that China must “tighten the dependence of international industrial chains on our country” so that it would be a way to respond and create negotiating room for continued access to technologies and markets in the US and EU were the US and EU to make efforts to recover the supply chains they had inadvertently and carelessly turned over to China. This action by US and EU business executives should be considered one of the major and ignominous failures of American and European business management of that period 1990-2020 which has made it difficult to even make the initial effort to recover these lost supply chains. As with the banks in the 2009 financial crisis that generation of management continues to operate as if nothing has happened.  ...

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Nexperia chip exports from China that affects carmakers suppliers in Canada US Europe including Honda and Bosch 2025. Honda cut its production including in Canadian plants with Nexperia chips shortages. The agreement reached at the APEC summit between Xi and DJT calls for release of China's restrictions on chips exports by blacklisted Chinese entities including parent ot Nexperia. Nexperia is aSino Dutch maker of chips for automobiles that was taken over by the Dutch government in 2025. 

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Coalition Against Climate Disinformation at the COP30 Belem Brazil Summit. CAAD says about the state of disinformation-

"Big Carbon's spending and Big Tech's algorithms are preventing us from seeing and hearing one another online. Instead, we're exposed to one lie after another."

The frequent fires and floods all over the world which happen suddenly and quickly show the effects and costs of climate change are real. Actions need to be taken on climate change even as the cost of living crisis and struggles of people in China,India and Africa and in the US and EU have to be considered for access to electricity and for cost of living concerns. Fossil only provides a short term transition to a long term plan for the future based on renewable energy, and the fight for climate change action to be renewed by EU, China, Brazil and India as the US sorts out its own problems with the transition.

 

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COP30 Belem, Brazil- in the absence of the US the meeting of Merz, Macron, Lula, Starmer and Chinese leaders is critical to keep the climate change fight alive in 2025. A spectacular setting where the Amazon river meets the Atlantic at Belem on the coast of northern Brazil in the state of Para.

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776 million euros -cost of COP30 Summit in Amazon region's Belem, capital of Para State in Brazil. 159 countries are represented in this unique effort to bring climate change issues to the Amazon river. The Portuguese colonized this region in 1616 because of its location connecting the Amazon river to the Atlantic Ocean. It is known for sale of spices, fruit, fish, rubber, oil, cacao and other local products shipped to Europe and other parts of Brazil.Ver-o-peso one of the biggest open air markets has been renovated, roads repaired and new roads built, new parks, water treatment plants set up.Yet most of the population of 1.4 million lives in shanty areas or slums in Belem which are affected when rain leads to floods overwhelming the tin roof houses. Much of the nearly billion euro investment is going to bring Belem to international standards. Housing 50,000 participants was ahuge task and the Brazilian government of president Lula brought in 2 large cruis ships to accomodate many of the participants. This report in FR24 says prices for accomodation reached $4000 a night which shows that in today's world climate change action which is a problem facing all people, has been embraced by groups that can afford such costly daily rentals creating skepticism from ordinary people affected by the cost of living concerns. ...

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COP30 in Belem with exorbitant cost of accomodation ranging to $700 a night or even upto $4000 a night- where climate change becomes the work of wealthy elites creating skepticism from ordinary people and workers struggling with cost of living concerns.

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2 pence rise in taxes and 2 pence cut in UK national insurance to raise 6 billion pounds November 2025 for Britain's Budget planned by Rachel Reeves, the UK Finance Minister. It moves burden of the tax from workers to landlords.

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See BBC 34 minute Audio on- "Stumped -India Win their First Women's Cricket World Cup"

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An excerpt from the hearings on the major questions doctrine and separation of powers with Congress. JUSTICE ROBERTS: Sometime ago you dismissed the applicability of the major questions doctrine, and I -- I want -- want you to explain that a little bit more. I mean, it seems that it might be directly applicable. You have a claimed source in IEEPA that had never before been used to justify tariffs. No one has argued that it does until this -- this particular case. Congress uses tariffs in other provisions but -- but not here. And yet -- and correct me on this if I'm not right about it -- the justification is being used for a power to impose tariffs on any product from any country for -- in any amount for any length of time. That seems like -- I'm not suggesting it's not there, but it does seem like that's major authority, and the basis for the claim seems to be a misfit. So why doesn't it apply again? GENERAL SAUER: Well, we agree that it's a major power, but it's in the context of a statute that is explicitly conferring major powers, that the point of the statute is to confer major powers to address major questions, which are emergencies. So it would be unusual... And another excerpt from the hearings on fentanyl- JUSTICE KAGAN: And, in fact, you know, we've had cases recently which deals with the President's emergency powers, and it turns out we're in emergencies everything all the time about, like, half the world. GENERAL SAUER: Well, this particular emergency is particularly existential, as Executive Order 14257 says, and, of course, no one disputes the existential nature of the fentanyl crisis, which, you know, we had an agreement last week to create progress on, which illustrates the effectiveness of the tariffs tool (this refers to the agrement with China last week by Nov 1 that cuts the 20% tariff from 20% to 10% if China completely cuts off flow of fentanyl from inside its borders.)  Clearly some in the US have not grasped the existential nature of the fentanyl crisis, a crisis of proportions so great that it would be an existential crisis for any nation. A concentration of the world's manufacturing in one nation with a trade surplus of $1 trillion with the world is also an emergency that extends into the existential sphere. ...

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Justices Gorsuch and Roberts on the "sweeping powers" issue behind the Executive Branch and Executive Orders on Tariffs by the US President DJT. Gorsuch put it this way about the creeping ceding away of powers by the US Congress to the US President DJT- 

Justice Gorsuch calls it- “one-way ratchet toward the gradual but continual accretion of power in the executive branch and away from the people’s elected representatives.”

The ball could be in the US Congress's court if the Supreme Court asks the US Congress to approve the tariffs passed by the president.