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The expected resignation of Tulsi Gabbard who never fit in with the US recommitment to the Monroe Doctrine in its Good Neighbor version of FDR and Alliance of Progress version of JFK for peace in the western hemisphere through the rule of law, democratic process and peaceful cooperation with the United States. Under DJT it also means reassessment and revisiting of the original reasons for the Monroe  Doctrine that were forgotten under the Reagan,Carter, Bush, Obama and Biden administrations for five decades. That of the US keepingout colonial powers of Europe from the western hemisphere bent on recolonization under president Monroe in 1824.  In the last 5 decades it was the involvement of Russia and China that created the conditions for Cuba, Venezuela and a bad form of governance, failures in the rule of law, through drug cartels operating in Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American countries.

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Alberta referendum of October 19 2026 for separation from Canada. Alberta with oil and gas, Saskatchewan and Manitoba with agricultural production provide Eastern Canadian provinces such as Ontario and Quebec with food and energy,  Sepratist sentiment in Alberta comes from a sense that Alberta is being exploited by Eastern Canada for the last 100 years. An independent Alberta would be aligned with the US, more likely, though it could be part of the US states. Canada says Sir Ivor Jennings in his book Commonwealth of Nations, if it had joined the US in 1776 would have trade patterns north to south with trade between Vermont and New Hampshire to Ontario, Birtish Columbia with Washington state, instead of the east to west trade of the last 250 years with western Canadian product shipped to the more populated east. Alberta has 12 % of the population of Canada of 40 million or about 5 million people and contributes 15% of the Canadian economy.

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Cordoba and Gurman cover the Justice Department case against Raul Castro, 94 years, of Cuba who runs the country. Jim Ratcliffe of the US government visited Cuba recently to let the Cuban government know that it had to make changes and there was a limited window. Raul Castro was defense minister, and is brother of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary who fought to overthrow the government of dictator Batista, made some short term improvements, but failed badly for the Cuban people with a policy that confronted the US and brought foreign powers to the western hemisphere. China could remain communist, keep Mao's memory, and adopt the market system, to develop the modern economy it has because of adopting western ideas, science and technology. And build what is otherwise a free market economy, and became a key trade partner, briefly an ally of the US as the Soviet Union collapsed- nothing like this happened in Cuba. Tourism was used simply as a way to protect the rest of the completely centralized economy and a state within a state built through an elite that ran a separate section of the armed forces under Raul Castro, kept a regimented society. Even that has failed. Nowhere in Latin America is there so many signs of failure, and it has also brought down societies that copied the rhetoric and nationalist slogans such as Venezuela and Colombia. In some parts of Mexico the Cuban rhetoric still sounds good but the reality is starkly different, Mexico itself is run on a model closer to that in the US, and Mexico has serious problems in civil society relating to immigration and drugs in its relationship with the US. ...

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Canada's pitch to the US before tough negotiations with Jamieson Greer to preserve Canada's automobile industry, its aluminium industry, dairy industry with benefits gained in the past. US had also put forward its pitch for 82% North American content and 50% of it from the US for all automobiles sold in the US. Carney takes a positive approach presenting Canada as a strong partner that would Make America Great Again by offering its vast mineral resources, and its resources of oil and LNG. It says LNG will double from 2030 to 2040 from 50 million to 100 million tonnes of LNG annually. 56 critical minerals agreements with $18 billion in investment, doubling the electricity grid for lowest cost power and second lowest emission in OECD countries. Canada is an anomaly in trade says Sir Ivor Jennings in his book on the British Commonwealth. Its trade east to west is an anomaly when if it was truly apart of the North American economic region it would trade north to south. This is the result of Montgomery's failure to take Quebec during the War of Independence as Washington planned the war with Britain. For instance Ontario would trade with Vermont and New Hampshire and New York near its borders. Instead the dairy industry in Canada operates in competition with the US and sends product east to west. Washington and Oregon are not trading normally with neighbors British Columbia instead shipping product back to eastern Canada. For years the US allowed Canada and Mexico benefits in trade that hurt is own auto industry. Jamieson Greer is expected to change this so that US manufacturing can compete with China and European Union on a level playing field. ...

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The Colombian women's soccer team's win 2-1 over Germany in World Cup 2023 shows how much has changed in women's soccer worldwide. WIth only about 30% of the possession the Colombian team dominated the game. The winning goal came in the 89th minute of the game from a stunning header by Manela Vanegas. Colombia led for most of the game. Linda Calcedo scored first for Colombia. The last time Germany lost a game in global games was in 1995 against Sweden. 

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China's state owned China Development Bank signed an agreement to finance a new pipeline that will carry 600,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan and Colombian oil through jungle and the Andean mountains to the Pacific coast. Colombia plans to shift its focus to export much of its 1 million barrels a day of oil production to China. Talks also were held with China on developing central Colombian coking coal reserves and building a railway to the Pacific coast. Colombian plans are based on slowing demand for Colombian oil in the U.S., with increased supplies of natural gas and shale gas in the U.S.

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At this point in May (May 22, 2026) a glimmer of hope appears for settling both the crisis in Hormuz and the Ukraine war. Pakistan, Turkey and China following DJT visit to China may be pushing Iran to lower the scale of the conflict. China's first priority was to be accepted by the US at the Beijing meeting as an equal power with the US, and keen to show its willingness to bear responsibility for peaceful resolution in conflict zones as a sign of its maturity as a world power. Much of this is not shown in the media as it is mostly done behind the scenes in communications that the media knows nothing about. Note that even in the depths of the Cold War during the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and Soviet action in Budapest, the US and the Soviets when their economies were not intertwined as the US and China are today, were still talking to each other to limit the conflicts to low level conflict. Hong Kong takeover, China's actions near Taiwan, China's presence in Latin America, Chinese cooperation with Iran, and Russia on Ukraine, China's economic competition in rare earths, are relatively smaller levels of friction considering 1950's Soviet's and the US. At the same time China and the Us are aware of a new bloc emerging in Oslo in May, where India is merging its economy with the Nordic economies of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and of the European Union and Germany, creating a new bloc of 2 billion people that can only grow rapidly with India's potential to exceed growth rates of 20% in the 600 million Eastern region for a decade. EU would make the shift to strategic partnership with India displacing the vital role the European Union has played in China's growth and economy. This would create new pressures for Russian president Putin to decide it is time to listen to a friend India and de-escalate lower the level of conflict with an initial peace deal that would lead to more talks on a final settlement. Because Russia would have a harder time tackling both India and Germany at the same time. NYT shows on the same day May 22 a report on Russia and a report by the Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Sonegard that say the elites in Russia and Putin were by January 2026 having very serious discussion to change the administration, bring Igor Sechin as negotiaor to end the Ukraine conflict before serious, possibly irreversible damage, to the Russian economy. Sweden's Sonegard says that between 2020 and 2024 Russian economy declined by 8%, not grew by 13% as official figures show, inflation is much higher than 5% as official figures show, and credit is tightening, bankruptcies expected, growth even with oil prices up down to 0.4% for 2026. During 20 years running Russia Putin's No. 1 priority, his life's mission was to restore, then exceed by a large margin the living standards of the Russian people. Having at such great cost accomplished the goal of gaining recognition as a Northern Power in Europe, having gained much of Russian speaking eastern Ukraine, Putin could wisely with self respect wind down Ukraine conflict for good. The US gains something similar to Northern Power status for Russia in its recommitment to the Monroe Doctrine, with Russia withdrawing from any involvement- and China tacitly doing the same-  in the western hemisphere. With that the US can tackle its own losses that match Russian losses in lives- loss of more American lives than in the Korean and Vietnam and WWI combined to drug smuggling from Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and restoring rule of law in Cuba, Venezuela, and through drug cartel free Mexico good governance in Mexico.  ...

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Egan Bernal's home town of Zipaquira in the Andes mountain range, 80 miles north of Bogota, Colombia, is visited by Vyas and Mazars of the WSJ, to show how cycling in the mountains is popular in the Colombian Andes mountains. The steep climbs and descent helps young bikers train at high altitude. Children train with coaches who helped train Bernal, this years winner of the Tour de France in the Alps.

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This article in Spanish calls on president Santos and former president Uribe to bridge their differences and take the peace process forward in Colombia. This follows the "no" vote in the referendum on the agreement reached in peace talks with FARC. Only 38% of the voters voted in the referendum and the vote was 50.2% against and 49.8% in favor of the peace agreement.

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The peace deal with the FARC guerilla group collapses in Colombia. This adds to Colombia's border problems with Venezuela and the flight of refugees from Venezuela under the Maduro government.

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Less noticed climate change action is coming from Brazil. The Amazon deforestation has been slowed since the new administration of Lula took office in Brazil in 2022. Forest loss has dropped by a third in Brazil and half in Colombia says this report in DW.com. One of the big pledges at the Glasgow Climate Summit said to cut deforestation. Tjink of the impact- a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from transportation come from deforestation and most of it from the Amazon (two thirds from Brazil, Indonesia and the Congo DRC alone). Ending forest loss by 2030 the goal of Glasgow would lead to 18.9 million megatonnes of carbon being removed from the atmosphere (GtCO2e) says the World Resources Institute.

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DJT defuses the situation after weeks of wrangling with Petro of Colombia. This follows US blockade of Venezuela and reaction in Brazil, colombia and Mexico. US president DJT talks to Gustavo Petro of Colombia, January 7 2026, and invites him to talks at the White House. Petro is nearing the end of his term and Marco Rubio says the US seeks good relations with Colombia.

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87% of the American people support sending back to their countries illegal entry migrants who have committed crimes or offenses in the US in a Pew Research poll and similar in a NYTimes poll. How many of these countries in Latin America allow illegal entry without visas? None. WSJ reports Colombia turns back 2 C-17 military flights Mexico 1 in midair on Jan 27, 2025. This led to a diplomatic standoff with DJT imposing 25% tariffs on increasing in a week to 50% on imports from Colombia entering the US. Colombia agreed to take back the immigrants after the US tariffs.  In 2024 Colombia accepted 124 deportation flights into the country from the US. Yet president Petro objected to these flights on military aircraft and responded on X. DJT responded on Truth Social: "I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by Colombia's Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people." DJT then instructed for 25% tariff on Colombian imports into the US which would be raised to 50% if Colombia did not accept the flights in 1 week. DJT said this is just the beginning and also imposed a travel ban to the US. DJT stated this was a threat to the national security of the US. Colombia then accepted the military flights.  Trade two way is $54 billion and Colombia exports coffee, sugar and oil. Colombia imports about $25 billion and exports about $29 billion to the US. Oil exports from Colombia to US are $6 billion, flowers $1.2 billion and coffee $1.6 billion.  ...

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Latin America becomes a major hotspot with deaths exceeding that in the U.S. and Canada. Calls for a lockdown of Colombia's capital Bogota. Mexico sees a surge in cases and Brazil's cases pass 2 million. California retrenches opening after a surge in cases. 

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The renewal of America requires new leadership at the helm of America's institutions for higher learning when men's enrollment in college education is endangered as reported in WSJ. This WSJ report shows presidents choosing to retire at Dartmouth, NYU, Columbia, U Penn, MIT. Lee Bollinger is 75, he started at Columbia as president in 2002. He helped raise $13 billion and expanded the 13 acre Manhattanville campus. Yet what does it say for so many college presidents when during the period when they raised vast sums of money and during the last 2 decades college education is harder and harder to afford for ordinary Americans? During the pandemic WSJ reports in 2021 even show that American men are having a hard time paying for college education and rates of enrollment are dropping for men to alarming levels. Never before in America's history has it been said that American men are becoming endangered for higher education. One rarely hears college presidents talk about these social issues that are top and center for ordinary Americans. It is not just Columbia or what are called Ivy League institutions, most of the leading colleges in America have forgotten why they are here in the first place and what made America what it was and again can be, a land of opportunity for all. It is time for anew generation of leaders in American higher education to dedicate themselves to this task - so that we hold these rights to be self-evident, to renew America in the face of many challenges and set a model for the free world. ...

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Weymouth interviews Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos. Santos was finance minister, foreign trade minister, and defense minister under former president Alvaro Uribe. The U.S. is negotiating a free trade agreement with Colombia. Santos has improved relations with neighboring Venezuela, which under Uribe were strained upto the breaking point. He is also improving relations with Ecuador, and working to strengthen the Andean Development Council. Santos says Colombia has a smaller drug problem after defeating the major cartels, though mini-cartels still operate in the country. On fiscal responsibility Colombia has introduced a rule in the constitution to limit deficits to 1% of GDP. Santos expects 5% growth in 2011. He hopes to protect Colombia's growth in a global financial crisis by strengthening regional reserve funds, multilateral cooperation of Andean countries, and central bank monetary policies. Santos plans to abolish the DAS intelligence agency in 3-4 months. He plans to create a new intelligence agency and transfer functions such as immigration that were under DAS to other agencies. He has also launched investigations and action against corruption in the government and against public officials working with local mafias. To do this he is working with the attorney general, prosecutor general, the controller general, and police. This has led to criticism from Uribe who sees the changes in policy pointing to deficiencies in the Uribe administration. Colombia is a country with a population of 46 million and plays a significant role in the northern part of Latin America. Santos assumed office in 2010 and was the choice of Alvaro Uribe. His policies have won him a 71% approval rating....

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A revised pact with Columbia will require that Columbia revise its laws to include specific protections for union leaders, activists and workers trying to organize or form a union, and protect aginst actions that adversely affect fundamental workers' rights. This is meant to take into account a history of violence against labor organizers in Columbia, and to make the trade deal with Columbia more acceptable to U.S. unions. This also makes it possible to move forward with passage of the free trade agreements with S. Korea and Panama.

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Donald Keene, began teaching Japanese literature at Columbia University in 1955. He has lectured on Japan at Columbia for 56 years! Prof. Keene, 88 years old, taught the final session of a graduate seminar on traditional Japanese Noh plays on April 26, 2011. He started as a freshman at Columbia in 1938 and went on to complete graduate studies at Columbia in Japanese. In his early years he was hooked on Japanese literature after reading the Tale of Genji in 49 cent paperback volumes. During the last session of the seminar he quoted the final lines in "Matsukaze," a play by Japanese writer Kanami. That line says- "all that is left is the wind in the pines."

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It is important to remember that Republicans Wendell Wilkie who ran in 1940 and Dewey in 1944 and 1948, Eisenhower in 1952, 1956, all adopted the worker protections for safety, hours and wages, and the employment stabilization programs set up by Perkins for the two Roosevelts- Republican Teddy Roosevelt who gave her her start 1911 and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt 1924-1944. Basically it setup what we call the Modern World where America was the model of modern industrialization for the whole World. Important to remember as Labor and Capital go through a reaffirmation of the principles guiding same issues that dogged America before. The Frances Perkins Exhibit at Columbia University in 2010 showed the most influential woman for the lives of ordinary American citizens and workers, workers families and children, for three decades 1920's to the 1950's. The first woman to serve as a key member of the cabinet. One who guided the legislation that set up the structure in which labor and capital each participated equally in the economic structure of modern America. Perkins was educated at Mount Holyoke College which had Corinthians 1 15  as motto "Be ye steadfast." She got her Masters degree in Economics and Sociology from Columbia University. She studied economics at University of Pennsylvania before going to Columbia University.  She is the only member of the cabinet who served not just all 12 years from1932 to 1944 under Franklin Roosevelt, but also before that from 1924 to 1932 for NY Governors Al Smith and Roosevelt, and before that for Teddy Roosevelt as head of the Committee on Public Safety in 1911. When Harry Truman followed FDR Perkins asked to run the Social Security administration, was made Civil Service Commissioner in 1944. She lectured at Cornell University during the Eisenhower administration.  ...

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After campus protests on Gaza the US government to prevent antisemitism on campus took action to see that campus police can prevent student unrest. Columbia University president resigned and Katrina Armstrong was made interim president. Columbia lost $400 million in federal funding of the $1 billion it gets each year. Armstrong made an agreement with the US government last week to get strong campus police enforcement and after explaining this to faculty resigned. An Turkish activist on the Tufts University campus on student visa had her visa revoked and was flown to Louisiana to be expelled this week.