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Denmark's Mette Frederiksen and policy of no asylum in EU for illegal migrants is becoming the norm in Europe- as Germany's Merz supports this policy- and the US. Britain under Starmer's Labour has struggled with it's justice system unable to deal with the situation of asylum because it was never designed for people of other countries entering the country in this way. Simply fixing the justice system as Yvette Cooper plans to do, which was never intended for this purpose ignores that there are 111,000 asylum cases as reported by the Times of London in June 2025 compared to 7000 in 2022.  Mette Frederiksen is a Socialist and has shown that this has nothing to do with politics, only common sense application of the laws of Britain, Denmark, Germany, US and other countries that only way to enter the country is legally. 

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How a tightly interconnected community such as tech startups can quickly fall apart in a crisis is the subject of this WSJ report by Christopher Mims. He says on the way up this meant positive leveraging that exceeded 150% and this is also true in the other direction on the way down just as fast. Most startups depended on Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic for financing. Venture capital moved from inside to unravel the SVB bank. The US government simply wants to stabilize the economy and is not intending to make the uninsured depositors whole except in the way that it is self contained and does not spread to other parts of the banking system. Tech startups will now find it difficult to get new financing, if not impossible, says this report. About 8% of total jobs in the US economy are dependent on tech. When it comes to work that is dependent on tech the number is higher closer to 20%. Some of the tech layoffs will be offset by new kinds of tech and with government private collaboration in the new frameworks coming up, such as for EV vehicles with manufacturing in the US, and the $53 billion for the  CHIPS and Science Act of president Biden. Solar and wind have new frameworks of a similar type as the focus shifts to fighting climate change. These networks are interconnected with the EU which is creating its own parallel networks of this type. ...

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U.S. vice president Mike Pence visits the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and says that North Korea should not pursue its nuclear weapons program. Pence says the U.S. wants to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program "through peaceful means" but "all options are on the table." Pence said North Korea should not test "U.S. strength and resolve."  Snap elections are to be held May 9, 2017 in South Korea, with one of the candidates saying he would reconsider deployment of the THAAD missile system. Following the deployment of THAAD anti missile system in South Korea China has responded with a economic boycott of South Korean goods. Seoul is only 30 miles from the border with North Korea and the sentiment in South Korea is to avoid military action which would affect the region around Seoul of 20 million people. The missile tests by the North are also seen as a threat to South Korea and Japan. China sees the THAAD system as an effort to increase American presence in the region and has opposed deployment. The U.S. response has been to speed up the deployment of the THAAD missile system ahead of the election in South Korea on May 9, 2017. ...

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Grade three muscle tear in shoulder for Ben Stokes as he sits out the Fifth Test at the Oval with India in August 2025. Bumrah and Pant are unlikely to play for India in Fifth Test. Ben Stokes has 14 weeks to recover before the Ashes Test Cricket in Australia. Stokes took on a record amount of bowling and batting in the Tests with India going as he often does all out to win leaving the England skipper more prone to injuries and a bit exhausted.

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India make a stunning comeback after being bowled out for 150 runs in the First Test against Australia at Perth in November 2024. Jasprit Bumrah led the Indian team. Here is how he approached the game where he took 8 wickets and Jaiswal -Rahul had a double century partnership turning everything around.

"I played here in 2018 so I remember the wicket can be a little soft here and then get quicker, so I was relying on that experience. We were really well prepared so I just told people to have faith in their process and ability.

"We have the opportunity to do something special."

After losing 3 Tests against New Zealand India never lost courage and confidence to turn things around. 

 

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Simon Nixon says the main problem with the E.U. bank stress tests of 2011 is that it did not test for sovereign defaults. For example Greek debt that is trading at 50 cents on the euro, was marked down 15%. And the lack of urgency to raise fresh capital is another problem. He says the real value of the tests comes from the asset disclosures that accompanied the tests.

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CLT Classical Learning Test has a bright future. Its message is summed up in CLT Test 8 on the website- where Gustav Mahler is cited with the text- "Tradition is not about the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." 183,000 high school seniors have taken the CLT Classic Learning Test in the US in 2025 compared to 2 million for SAT and 1.4 million for ACT, yet the new test is considered to be more rigorous and includes the western intellectual tradition in ways that the ACT and SAT do not. A CLT Test 3 we looked at on the CLT site included for reading a poem by Amy Lovell 1916, Mark Twain writings, passages on Greek Zeno and Renaissance painter Raphael, EB White and others. CLT Test 4 has poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson 1885, and remarkably it has a passage on the Pack Horse Book Project of FDR's New Deal Initiative in 1935 on women librarians on horseback or with mules going into remote mountainous areas of the US including Kentucky, to teach rural people to read and write. This alone suggests it should appeal to Republican and Democratic states alike. It could include Charles Dickens and Shakespeare or Robert Frost's poetry. In that sense it is far more rigorous than short bland passages in SAT or ACT of little significance or educational value. It is designed to give students an exposure in classrooms to the western intellectual tradition that the elites in America have themselves grown up learning but who now have a haughty attitude to their own intellectual traditions. In CLT Test 6 we found a poem on Nature by Gerard Manley Hopkins 1877 and Dickens famous iconic passage that begins the Tale of Two Cities written about the French Revolutionary period which is clearly not what we find in SAT or ACT, and far better in conveying a feel of what America is about and where it came from. The founder of CLT Mr. Tate believes it will be the test most taken by high school seniors by 2040. Classic Learning Test now competes with SAT and ACT in North Carolina, Indiana and other American states. Arkansas passed legislation favoring CLT, and Ohio is doing it this year. Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wyoming are accepting CLT. This Test is gaining popularity among conservatives in red and purple states  and is getting the support of the US government in 2026. The Maryland Company behind this test is Maryland Learning Initiatives. Indiana passed legislation in March requiring its state universities to accept CLT scores. And North Carolina university system now accepts the CLT. Both CLT and SAT, ACT have Math and Reading Verbal tests, the CLT adds foundational texts from Western science, government, history and literature in ways not found in SAT, ACT. Students can take the CLT at home or at a testing site. More than 350 universities and colleges accept CLT says this report in Washington Post. The SAT and ACT use shorter passages and the reading material is bland and does not have the value that it could have from the western intellectual tradition. The passages in the CLT are more rigorous and include western religious tradition and thinkers but also poets, writers, scientists from the whole gamut of the experience of Europe and the United States of America. And also explore other countries and continents including China and India, from Aristotle to Gandhiji. ...

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It is true carrots are good for eyesight and to prevent macular degeneration. Sunglasses help prevent ultraviolet rays from affecting the eyes. Reading without taking your eyes off the page is not conducive to good eye health- take time out every 20 minutes to look outside for at least 20 seconds. It is a good idea to relax the eyes by looking at Nature, what is good for mental health is also good for the eyes. Move the eyes to the left the right and draw large imaginary visualization circles with the eyes, large squares, for 30 seconds as away to exercize the eyes. Closing the eyes and concentrating on an imaginary visualization candle is a form of meditation that is also good for resting the eyes. 

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S. Gurumurthy of the Hindu points out the dangers of economic growth without job creation in a country like India. He points out that demonetization- removal of high denomination currency notes- came at a critical time when the economic growth was not creating enough jobs. He points to the five year period till 2010 as having created 2.7 million jobs with 8.5% growth. Even though with lower growth of 5.4% in the period 1999-2004 the job growth was for 60 million jobs created. Had demonetization not happened he says, the economy could have seen the problems the U.S. faced in 2008 with a bubble developing in the real estate market. The fundamental shift of the economy to digitization of payments, increase in tax receipts brings more of the informal economy- with a size of 50% of the economy generating 128 million jobs ten times the formal sector - into the formal economy. A step that is key for India to see rapid growth in the decade ahead. The slackening of the economy for a year is part of  a needed long term plan, says Prof. Gurumurthy, visiting IIT faculty in Bombay, just as liberalization was in the 1990's.  Some errors were made in implementation and flow of credit to the informal economy, including by the RBI, yet the fundamental shift through demonetization served a good purpose. Gurumurthy says, sadly this is missing in the current politicized debate.  ...

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Ulrich Speck says it is not enough for the EU to offer "association" and closer ties to Ukraine, it must offer membership as it has done for Slovakia, Slovenia and other Eastern European states. This would send a strong signal to investors and people inside Ukraine about the country's future. German Chancellor Merkel has to take the lead, says Speck. Germany has an important stake in the future of Ukraine. Long term economic assistance from the EU and an immediate lifeline from the IMF have to be part of this effort for a better future for Ukraine. He says Ukraine needs to breakaway from the leadership struggles and political deadlock since the Orange Revolution of 2004, and follow a path to economic progress set by other EU states.

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US economy posts strong growth of 2.8% in the second quarter 2024, after 1.4% in the first quarter. This gives room for the Fed to decide if it needs to cut rates. The growth was broad based with consumer spending, business investment and government infrastructure spending aiding growth.

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The encouraging sign is that bank by bank results -with how the exposure plays out for sovereigh default risk- will be released in the European bank stress test resullts. Access to funds from private capital and a degree of transparency helped banks in the US recover their footing.The same access to private capital could help recapitalize European banks, in addition to the access they have to public funds.

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Mark Tully BBC's voice in India, a child of the British Raj born to a British mother herself born in India, covers India after Independence 1962-2020. He opposed the BBC's centralization culture in 1994 with Tory emphasis on management methods saying it was an attempt to make the BBC the best managed broadcasting institution instead of the best broadcasting institution in the world. He was for modernization and improvements but thought Tory methods were haphazard and destroyed the spirit of the BBC under management of the time. He covered India at atime when there was avast Indian audience for the BBC and a vast Asian audience for the BBC for its broadcasting reputation and the spirit of the BBC. Some of this is missing today.

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Mohammed Siraj dismisses Jamie Overton after his two boundaries brought England close to the winning score, and in the final ball of the Test series on August 4, 2025, he knocks off Atkinson's wicket to give India a win for the ages by 7 runs- similar to one in which Gary Sobers played for West Indies vs Australia in which the margin was zero runs, the Test tied on December 14, 1960.

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WSJ and NYT, Wash.Post exaggerated defense of Denmark's claims to Greenland. DJT says there is nothing in writing that says Denmark owns Greenland. The NYT, WSJ cite 1916 Treaty that transferred Danish West Indies to US for $25 million.  The agreement in 1916 said Denmark would extend its economic and political arrangements across Greenland, which was the status quo, but this did not give ownership of the island to Greenland. In 1947 US president Harry Truman offered $100 million for Greenland. This was a generous offer and would be around $1.5 billion in today's terms. The agreement of 1916 is superseded by Admiral Perry leading the US Navy's exploration of Greenland all the way to the north of Greenland at the Arctic northern most points in Greenland. The US planted its flag on Greenland at the time. DJT on Truth Social planting the flag is nothing new. Admiral Perry is never mentioned by NYT, Wash Post and WSJ, the television media and Google internet other AI, which gives the Denmark government an opportunity to misrepresent US claims to Greenland since 1890's and leave out Adm. Perry's discoveries in Greenland. By comparison a few Danish boats and Norwegian boats landed in Greenland. Worse it sets up the Europeans for actions that Scott Bessent says are "unwise". It is mainly Denmark and the Nordics who are in opposition, the rest of Europe has no stake in Greenland and would be better off with the US owning Greenland. Danes were a colonial power and cannot bring up the Greenland Inuit population of 50,000 smaller that what would fit into a baseball stadium as they had never sought to help the Inuits. As recently as 1803-1848 Denmark was struggling to abolish the slave trade in its colonies in the West Indies- it is something that can easily be looked up. It was the US with it's Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson that laid out the vision of a free people which also fought the Civil War under Lincoln by the 1860's with loss of millions of lives for a free and fair society, something the European colonial powers failed to do. Denmark should accept the offer of $1.5 billion from the US consistent with the US offer from Harry Truman in 1947, and not use the European Union to create dissension within Europe as it has done so far in a misleading effort that does not serve the interests of Europe. ...

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A "Best Countries" ranking was announced in Davos forum by U.S. News and World Report and its editor-in-chief, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, in Jan. 2016. This is the first time this rating is being done. It gives top spots to countries based on surveys of 16,000 people, 8000 from informed elites of better educated people, the rest from the public. The rankings are in many categories including quality of life, cultural influence, heritage, entrepreneurship, citizenship, raising kids, green living. Canada takes the top spot for quality of life, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Australia and Netherlands. France takes top spot for cultural influence, Italy for heritage, Germany for entrepreneurship, and second spot for forward looking, Sweden takes top spot for citizenship, raising kids and green living. Japan takes the second spot for green living, Canada takes the fourth spot, with Germany in the third spot, the U.S. and the UK in the top ten for green living. India takes top spot for movers with its rising economy. The U.S. suffers because of its obesity levels in some groups. Overall Germany comes first, Canada second, UK third and U.S. fourth. Overall ratings included correlation with per capita GDP purchasing power parity level figures from the IMF....

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England in Ashes Third Test, Adelaide, Australia, December 2025- batting collapse.

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Dr. Andrew Pollard and the invention of Covishield vaccine at Oxford University in Britain in 12 months, that has saved the world, with 2.6 billion doses given. It is in its final act says this report in The Guardian with 3 billion doses to go for the 3 billion people in the world that have not received a dose. Billions of people in India, other Asian countries, Latin America and Africa depend on this vaccine during this pandemic.

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US president Biden makes a pledge that the US will send vaccine doses overseas to other countries after it has met American needs. This is hugely important because the US has contracted with pharmaceutical companies for a major part of the world's vaccine supplies. It is part of the humanitarian assistance the US will soon be in a position to provide to African, Asian and Latin American countries. It is also in the American interest to reduce the potential for new variants and new sources of the virus entering the US through airline travel by helping vaccinate a large part of the world's population in 2021-2022.