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Cornyn is a 5 term Republican senator from Texas who was once a rival of Mitch McConnell for Senate Majority Leader. He lost in the Texas Republican primary to challenger Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas. Paxton got the Texas Republican base to back him with CJT's endorsement. The result Paxton wins by 64% to 36% and heads into a fight for the Senate seat with Talarico of the Democrats. Texas voted for DJT by a margin of 14%. Democrats are targeting this Senate seat with huge fundraising. Ted Cruz defended his Senate seat against Rep. Allred with ad spending reaching $210 million in 2024. Talarico has raised $27 million in 3 months, Paxton $7 million. It shows that regardless of which party, both parties spend heavily and raise enormous sums making them beholden to special interests that make it difficult to change aspects of the system such as runaway pharmaceutical costs, cost of living, or to regulate banks, social media, cyber currency, and AI. The result is that Congress has less credibility and poor approval ratings with the public than ever. US Congress has disapproval rating of 90%, only 10% approve of its conduct and performance. Among Democrats 3%, Republicans 20%, and Independents 11%. ...

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BP has serious problems with its corporate culture, and with management board that has failed in finding a good CEO and a good chairman. BP chairman Manifold from a Irish Building Supplies company is removed for being too aggressive and "shouty," belittling colleagues. This is the thrid chairman in a short time and happens when a new CEO joined in April. The previous CEO was let go because of his green strategy and net zero goals that led to a decline in profits. The new CEO's job was to withdraw from the green strategy to tackle climate change and transition away from fossil fuels.

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Mediators Pakistan, Turkey sought to separate Iranian nuclear issue to a second stage with a vague Iranian commitment to discuss the issue and future dragging of feet by Iran. The US DJT administration has made this the only issue that must be settled first before a settlement can be reached, and not by a repeat of the half hearted effort by the Obama administration that led to reconstituting Iran's nuclear effort a second time with US financial assistance. For a day on Saturday it appeared that mediators Pakistan and Turkey had accomplished for Iran just that, to the alarm of Republicans in general and in particular senior Senator Graham. Many sections of the media including the WSJ and the business community, see this as a repetition of the mistakes made by Obama and his administration. Not only did Obama not act to work with Republicans on a border policy- simply protecting himself from Republican attack by deportation policies. Obama continued the war in Afghanistan/Iraq for the same reason to protect his chances for reelection. He also used immigration policy to get the Hispanic vote in the closing months of the reelection year. Obama's other foreign policy failure was in believing Iran had been persuaded to give up nuclear weapons, and gave Iran the financial backing that could easily be shifted from economic to military uses and rebuild the nuclear program,  which he has handed to a future Republican adminstration. Obama also ignored how this would affect the economic wellbeing of the Iranian people with the kind of protests and suppression that has happened in 2026. Democrats and the media, some Republicans, are simply ignoring these errors and have never really faced up to the problems in the Middle East and asked the question why there are 5 decades of wars in the Middle East, and coups, strife, wars for the entire period since 1950. In this situation the US, China, India, EU, Brazil and other nations can learn from this experience and act to secure alternative sources of energy, speed up renewable energy transition, and rapidly end all dependence/intervention on a perpetually strife ridden Middle East, which much of the US and international media in a baffling way ignores or does not say outright. ...

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Greg Ip's 2026 warning about Stablecoins citing 1837-1863 privately issued bank notes fragmented fraud prone and outside the official banking system regulation will be remembered years from now when this crypto (anything but stable in the true sense of the word)  leads to a fianncial crisis. Stablecoins crypto currency that is similar to private banknotes issued between 1837 and 1863 with banks issuing their own currency- fraud widespread even with state laws like todays Genius Act. There were many bank failures and financial crises in that period. The state laws in the 1840's required the banknotes to be collateralized but fraud inevitably creeps in as it might with stablecoins.  Leading to financial crises as private capital shrinks and affects public capital that are US Federal Reserve bank notes we use as dollar bills. Today 84% of illicit activity is conducted using these crypto currencies and only 1% used for transactions. Proponents ( who stand to benefit in some way) call it a new efficient way of transactions. But the facts dont lie. Not only are stable coins used for only 1% of transactions, and illicit activity conducted through crypto coins, but also most of this currency is held overseas not in the US where it is less regulated. Federal Reserve has always questioned the value of crypto currency. Here is what Bank of International Settlements (international institution similar to Federal Reserve) has to say-“Stablecoins attempt to import credibility from public money while operating outside the established settlement system.” -Pablo Hernández de Cos, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements Holding Treasury bills as collateral does not remove the basic problem in is design. Issuers are for profit. The Federal Reserve is not for profit. And the Federal Reserve is part of a whole regulatory structure, Stable . laws have loopholes, and coins lack that kind of regulatory structure , making stablecoins prone to failure, an accident waiting to happen. Tether has $190 billion and Circle has 76 billion for about $300 billion in private capital tied up in this undertaking and posing risks to the Us and world financial system. ...

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The broken world economy has hurt the American people, in small communities and towns across the US whose societal fabric was destroyed by a system of world trade with abuses done by China. Japan, European Union, Canada and Mexico since 2000. Shortsighted American leaders and economists allowed this to happen. Robert Lighthizer on the New World Order a new system of world trade that replaces the old in 2026. The old trading system was one in which lip service was made to free trade while all the time the system was used by Japan, Germany, China, Canada, Mexico and other nations to build non tariff barriers and other policies to support their industry  at the expense of the United States leading to disillusionment in the US. The facts are mind boggling- the loss of 5 million jobs, many small communities across the US decimated with loss of jobs. About 20 trillion in wealth transfers to China and other countries over 2000-2020, with foreigners owning $27 trillion more of US assets than the US owns of theirs. US Trade Deficits that went up by 40% in 4 years of the Biden administration from $800 billion to $1.2 trillion. Economists and weak leaders got it all wrong allowing this to happen from Geoge W. Bush to Clinton Bush and Obama. Lighthizer says "shortsighted leaders aided and abetted this process," from 1990 to early 2010. Consider that US had 17.3 million  people in manufacturing, in factories all over the US in 1970, in 1999 we had the same number of jobs, even though there were changes in technology and productivity- the US held its own with the rest of the world. The Bush, Obama years were the worst for the US industry - by 2026 we have 12.6 million - loss of 4.7 million jobs since 1999. And real median household income took a big hit growing from $72,000 to $84,000 about 17% in the last 25 years, compared to twice that in the period 1975-2000 prior quarter century. The result is the fracturing of American society- and dire consequences for healthcare as communities suffered from loss of jobs leading to drug overdoses, alcohol abuse and suicides, which are common in post industrial American communities. Think of this fact: two thirds of America's workforce that does not have a college degree, that is working class people, lives 8 fewer years than college graduates, a gap that was only 2.5  years in 1992. The wars carried on by Bush and continued by Obama in the Middle East also wracked these same communities till Biden and DJT pulled out. One has only to drive across America to see this with one's own eyes. Trade may be an abstract topic for economists and politicians- there is nothing abstract about this. And the economic growth of the US has suffered with the unfair trading system with China, European Union, Japan, Canada and Mexico. From 1945 to 2000 American growth was 3.2% a year. Since 2000 only 2 years of growth over 3%. US has not seen historically normal growth for the last 19 years and at this rate (if we continued along this path) the Congressional Budget Office says 1.8% growth for 2027-2035. There are other factors yet the the major driver of this is our trade deficit of $1.2 trillion dollars a year. It is a story of remarkable persistence in the Nation's interest through 2 adminstrations- this Lighthizer story. Lighthizer fought Japanese commercial interests as Deputy Trade Representative under Ronald Reagan, and as US Trade Representative under DJT in the first DJT administration in 2016-2020. His Deputy at the time is Jamieson Greer who is now the US Trade Representative in the second DJT adminstration in 2025. For 30 years this brave American patriot has fought to reverse the bad actions of presidents and economists that have led to devastating losses in the American countryside. He says any new trading system must be perceived as fair to working people. It will survive only if working people think it is good for them. It cannot and must entrench a small, permanent elite. The benefits going to labour must be at least as great as those going to capital. It should create fulfilling high paying jobs for the vast majority of the American people. This is America's new promise to its people, its new compact with its people. ...

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Mann Ki Baat June 2026 Visions of Milkha Singh- India in the 100 Meters, 200 Meters, 500 Meters, Modi talks to Indian Athletes, Gurindervir Singh and Animesh Kujur. Gurindervir Singh is from a family with father and grandfather in sports from the 1950's. He is India's fastest athlete in the 100 meters. Here he talks to Modi about his experiences competing in Indian athletics. He is part of the Indian Navy. One of the things he had to overcome is the sentiment that Indians could not compete with world class athletes like Roger Bannister in the sprint and fast running. He hope to dispel this sentiment. He is also a reminder of the achievements of Milkha Singh from his community in the Rome Olympics in 1960 where he came in 4th. Milkha Singh(known in India as the Flying Sikh) won the gold medal in 1958 and in 1962 at the Asian Games in the 200 meters and 400 meters races and the 4x400 Meters relay. He was part of the Indian Army. Kishane Thompson is one of the fastest sprinters under 10 seconds for 100 meters with most of the sprinters in top ten worldwide from the US or Jamaica. A whole new world is opening up in athletics in India with building of world class facilities, gyms, government support for athletes, and social recognition of the importance of athletics and sports. This extends to women's sports and the pesonal support to women's sports is well known throughout India from the prime minister. One of the aspects of running in Kenya, and Jamaica, is the hard scrabble conditions, which Indian athletes including Milkha Singh experienced, people from all parts of the country, without the necessary resources are also competing in sports in India in 2026. ...

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Gone are the days when Gandhi's India was stuck for 50 years in a sort of wavering in its standing up with America. Gone are the days of John Foster Dulles and the Eisenhower administration and the Kennedy administration following British policies of not seeing India's potential. Gone are the days when Nehru's own lack of comprehension and grasp of India's potential and the potential of 1.4 billion people made him put India in a non-aligned movement that was going nowhere with the likes of Yugoslavia (that no longer exists) and Egypt ( which is struggling). This is what Jaishankar referred to as "overcoming the hesitations of history", and Rubio as "perfectly positioned." Deep introspection on both sides with the live events in West Asia of 2025 and 2026, America's willingness to confront the issues in a straightforward manner under DJT, and Modi's patience, willingness to wait and still build for the US the strong relationships that it was loosening up with the European Union to regain the initiative in the western hemisphere with the Monroe Doctrine (Merz visit to India and Modi visit to the Nordic Summit/EU Summit in Oslo), proving the maturity of the relationship. America did not need to cover its own relationships across the Atlantic while attending to the damage done by drug cartels and foreign interventions in its backyard leading to more loss of lives in drug deaths than the Korean, Vietnam and WWI combined. India had already done so and would hold the relationships together in the interests of the Modern World created by Britain, the US, and the countries of Europe through the Renaissance, the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. In a way Asia had matured- both China and India keen to join the Modern World of science and technology, of modernization, are on the same path, and seek relationships that matter, India on the American side and China in a arrangement of cooperation with competition, at the very time the European nations led by Britain and Germany were faced with struggles from European history from 1700 of how to deal with differences they have with their large Northern neighbor Russia and its concerns about NATO. ...

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Cost of living, of housing and healthcare, with the option of working remotely, is leading to more Americans leaving America for the first time since the 1930's than coming in. It is not just immigration policy discouraging immigration to the US. Middle class and younger Americans are seeing advantages in moving overseas if it costs much less for a better life and you can work remotely. In 2008 Gallup found 1 in 10 Americans wanted to leave, in 2026 1 in 5 want to leave for overseas locations.In 2025 more Americans left the US than came into the US. Estimates vary but one estimate is that in 2025 180,000 natural born Americans chose to leave the US. It is younger families, young people, from the southern US , from the midwest, all over the US, who are choosing to go to Europe or some other country to live and work. The State Department has no idea and does not keep track- it could be between 4 millon and 7 million Americans live overseas. Architects, engineers, professional people, are working out of small towns in teh French Pyrenees, or other parts of Europe.. Portugal - 365 increase inAmeicans in 2025. In a decade Americans living in Czech Republic, Nethelands, Spain, Germany has doubled. One couple profiled here moved to Portugal after preparing for 4 years. Portugal offers visas to stay if one can support himself, herself and family, which is the minimum wage or $27,000., which this couple could show as investment income. They could not find places to stay near good schools in LA because of the cost. Now in central Lisbon they can with $100,000 budget live a richer, fuller life, reduce hours of work, send kids to private school, no need for 2 cars as subways are nearby, and no need to put a ton of money aside every year for college. They have more time to themselves, more relaxed, and kids private school is close by. Today in the US setting aside a ton of money for college makes it difficult on $200,000 a year  in the managerial ranks as shown in reports in the WSJ. College can cost $100,000 a year for 4 years, 2 children $800,000, thats too much.  ...

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This report in The Guardian looks at key allies of Andy Burnham as he prepares to run in the Makerfield by-election, and prepares to contest the leadership of the Labour Party in Britain. Key allies include deputy leader of the Labour party Lucy Powell. It includes Mathew Lawrence, Director of  the Common Wealth Project who has set out the philosophy of Manchesterism for a robust effort to make the utilities water, energy and transport serve the public interest, something that never happened under the Tories. Lawrence says it is not about fairness alone "it is good macreconomic policy." Neal Lawson of the Compass thinktank. Lawson says this is about "real change not the cosmetic appeal."Of MP's Anneliese Midgley political director of Unite, Louise Haigh, the former Transport Secretary, of the Tribune group, Lucy Powell a fellow Manchester MP and an ally of the Mayor. Haigh is taking on a role in the Makerfield campaign. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, is also a friend of Burnham. The Mayor's assistants in Manchester are Kevin Lee, with Burnham for 15 years, and Josh Simmons, policy aide. A lot depends on these colleagues and assistants of Mayor Burnham in the days and years ahead, and the future of Britain may rest on their shoulders, on what they do in the days ahead to give the Mayor the support he needs to run the government of Britain in a new direction, and with the resolve and action plan to make for a "Vibrant Britain." ...

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Liz Goodwin and Riley Beggin report from Hillard Ohio where Amazon is building a large data center using land adjoining a school and a park for children. Parents are collecting signatures for a ban. About 70% of Americans are opposed to the data centers building in their local area, after an aggressive push with tax breaks and incentives provided by some states. Virginia, Georgia, Texas, and Ohio most aggressive data center builders in the US by 2026- construction jobs, and investment, as pros, electricity usage and use of farmland cons. Ohio's governor DeWine paused tax breaks after realizing that it cost the state $1 billion in lost revenue. Amazon says it has invested $70 billion in the state since 2016. Democrat politicians are not taking up the bans because of some unions supporting the data centers for jobs created in construction. Another reason is that politicians in general face attacks from the tech companies donating to campaigns against them if they call for a ban. Sherrod Brown Democrat in Ohio asks data centers to pay for their electricity but has not supported a ban-  “With data centers, we make sure the investors pay for electricity. Not the people who live in Zanesville or Coshocton or in Cambridge.” The big reason to support it from the jobs perspective is stated by the unions. Tim Burga of the AFL-CIO in Ohio says-  “These are creating good union jobs, both in the construction, but also in the keeping them secure and maintaining them."  Now you have a public frustrated particularly in quiet suburbs of America who see this as an intrusion into their lives, which means Republican and Democrat, Red State and Blue State, makes little difference. Construction workers and unions excited about the prospects for decent jobs after the Obama and Bush elites shipped 5 million jobs (Lighthizer USTR estimate) to China over 2000-2016, and transferred $20 trillion in American wealth to foreign countries by blindly accepting unfair trade with China, EU, Canada, Mexico. And see this as part of the MAGA effort to bring back the supply chains to America for all manufactured products in the interests of reliable supply, national security, and the promise of good paying jobs for the communities across America that depended on these jobs since the industrial revolution inthe US at the turn of the century in 1900. It took only 2 decades to wipe them out under what Lighthizer and Jamieson call "shortsighted leadership" of  Republican Bush and Democrat Obama and their corresponding elites. These communities were hit more than once, twice, thrice, four times in fact- in 2009 by the banker's aided and abetted financial crisis, by Bush starting and Obama continuing the Afghan Iraq wars on different pretexts (diverting trillions of dollars that otherwise go to job creation and manufacturing, new technologies), and then by Covid in 2019. This is the America in which the data center building spree is taking place- a plus if done right and with some carefully thought out plan for water/electricity usage costs and for AI guardrails, protection for farmland and areas near parks and schools, and residential suburbs.   ...

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Barton Swaim editorial page writer of the WSJ on Vladimir Putin Weekend Interview with Beatrice de Graaf of Utrecht Uiversity and Niels Drost of Clingendael Institute in The Hague, Netherlands - how Western World missed Czar Peter the Great's World View and its shaping Putin's World View creating vast misconceptions when US thinks Russia thinks like western norms.  Could the US have missed a key component of the thinking of Russian leaders in putting themselves in the line of Russian kings (Czars) since the Enlightenment with belief in nationality, autocracy and Empire of the Enlightenment. “Of course he (Putin) also refers to the Second World War, and he does refer to Stalin—but not that much. Far more often he talks about the great Russian czars.” And the great Czars that was important to Putin, de Graaf counts 3000 statues built in Russia to these role models for Putin. In the early years says de Graaf Putin talked incessantly about the modernization of Russia, Russia joining the Modern World in the years of the Enlightenment, Russia fighting off Napoleon and under the Soviets Nazi Germans. Graaf says he talked about- “Peter the Great and European interests, of Catherine the Great and literacy and the Enlightenment. He spoke of Alexander I and Europe joining to defeat Napoleon." Deep down Putin felt in these talks 11,000 of them on the Putin site which puts up his speeches and talks over a 20 year period, which Niels Grost with his fluency in Russian has looked at. Of these 3000 talks and speeches are in this reference to the great Czars. Even before Ukraine there was a sense of hurt that considering the vast expanse that Russia occupies in Europe Russia had by restoring the old Russia by 2000 found itself in a odd predicament. As de Graaf and Swain point out the US market based economy based on GDP, the US presidents such as Bush and Obama saw Russia as a  middle power based on its exports and imports, its trade, its commerce which was the only way they could see the world. This led to a special kind of shortsightedness says this interview in the WSJ. Putin's key adviser says of Russia's goal - to be seen as a Northern European Power (from WSJ) in 2025.Putin sees Russia as looking for "respect," as a goal.  This is where US business may have got it all wrong- the authors say about China and India- and the US, seeing themselves as Empires not in today's Modern World as with imperialist ambitions, but with a historic sense of regional presence across Asia and North America with their rapid modernization. DJT's talk of Canada as a 51st state, one finds US business as accepting the idea that Canada is part of the US regional influence. And under the Monroe Doctrine of 1824 revived by no less than Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, in its cooperation form by JFK in 1960, the regional influence of the United States in the Western Hemisphere is also accepted by US business and the American public. It is this context that the authors say offer an alternative view of the Russian leader and his policies. Beatrice de Graaf and Niels Drost are the author of "Putin's Czarist Dream" At that point there is in addition to nationality, autocracy and Empire of the czars the ideas embedded in Eastern Orthodox Christianity which are different says de Graaf of Utrecht University in Netherlands, from Western Christianity. This Eastern Orthodox Christian idea is a bit different from St. Augustine's just war and discussion of what constitutes a just war, and the definition of that being given under Russian tradition by Russian Czars or leaders who Putin identifies himself with such as Peter the Great. Peter the Great  created the beginnings of Russia as a modern European state in St. Petersburg during the years of the Enlightenment. In the Eastern Asian tradition the Bhagavad Gita also has a discussion of what constitutes a just war so that it extends to different regions of the world not just European. ...

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Russian and Ukrainian mothers want to know the fate of their sons, it is the role of the Red Cross to facilitate this, says its director-general, Robert Mardini in this interview with the BBC.

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Following last year's Olympics Paris has regained its prominence and joins London, Barcelona and Berlin as one of the leading destination for tourists. The Bataclan terrorist attack 10 years back has not affected the bustling and lively nature of the city.

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Many people in the US turning 65 years have just opted to retire in this pandemic. This is changing the fabric of the American labor force in 2023, says NYT. This means the Fed will carry on the fight against inflation longer as there is a shortage of people in the labor market.

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Edward Johnson and daughter Abby Johnson- Fidelity Investments succession turmoil and Abby Johnson emerging as CEO is covered in a new book- House of Fidelity by Justin Baer, Deputy Markets Editor WSJ. CEO Edward Johnson (Ned) failed to come up with a succession plan and executives under him were planning to sell the company to Chase or another bank. Ned had talked to Chase's Dimon in 2005 and said he was not interested in selling the company founded by his father. Yet this is what executives under Ned, Reynolds had in mind, who did not have confidence in Abby Johnson's leadership. Fidelity Investments has recovered from poor performance in that period and manages the pension plans of employers in the US, being the largest in this business. In 2026 Fidelity manages life savings of 20% of American adults and 50% of these customers signed up in last 5 years, says WSJ. After a period in her performance in the mutual funds business which was not great Abby was listed for demotion by executives under her father, who would sent her to run the philanthropy part of the business. It shows how awoman now 64 years struggled through this period and took the bold step of defying her father through control of 41% of the stock of the company to gain control of the company- a step that led to her father relenting and letting Abby run the company. It is a tale of how in such situations even the most favored can be put at a disadvantage by perceptions - in this case by Reynolds of Abby's leadership and ability- and need to act swiftly and decisively after impressions have been formed that lead to an outcome that doesn't need to occur. Her father Ned even though he in his younger period was a good stock picker, failed in two ways. By not planning a clear succession and lacking confidence in his daughter to overcome temporary obstacles. ...

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Kevin Warsh is a former governor of the Federal Reserve 2006-2011, becoming governor at age 35. He is a partner at the family office of investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Scott Bessent also had connections with the office of Druckenmiller. He is also a lecturer at Stanford Business School and a scholar at the Hoover Institution. He is married to Estee Lauder heiress Jane Lauder, and has spent the years since 2011 at the Stanford School.  Current Fed chairman was appointed by DJT in 2017 and retires in May 2026. If Powell continues as a Fed governor Warsh would take the seat vacated by Stephen Miran when he retires as Fed governor this week. Meantime the Fed under Powell faces an investigation by the Justice Department regarding renovation of its buildings and Senator Thomas Tillis on the Banking Committee says he will not support Warsh until that issue is resolved in favor of Fed retaining its independence. What is unique about Warsh and his selection by DJT? He is a Republican of long standing and his current views are that interest rates can be lower if the Fed reduces its holdings of Treasury securities and mortgage securities it holds. DJT's frustration is that Powell raised interest rates to fight inflation and after DJT became president was slow in cutting rates to boost the economy. DJT's resort to tariffs as a tool in world trade to ensure a level playing field with China when all other tools had failed means more uncertainty in the economy and DJT wanted the Fed to support his policies by lowering rates. ...

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Socialist justice politics in north eastern Indian state of Bihar led by Nitish Kumar (following Ram manohar Lohia)- with backward caste mobilization, mobilization of women, and evolution of ancient Buddhist lands into the modern world in 1980-2025. The state has a population of 130 million and an urbanization rate of 17% compared to India's urbanization rate of 37%. It is taking a new turn in 2026 as Nitish Kumar a ten term Chief Minister joins the Rajya Sabha upper house of parliament in New Delhi and his successor pushes forward a new rapid development agenda similar to another state Maharashtra with capital Mumbai.