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This DD India video shows the prime ministers of all the Nordic Nations in meetings with prime minster Modi of India- the prime ministers of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland. India has strengthened relations on 3 levels - the bilateral, Nordics as a group, Nordics as part of European Union, for close understanding and close cooperation over the next 15 years. Norway has a plan for 15 year collaboration with India in a range of fields including for its Sovereign Fund. It is now at the level of a new Green and Strategic Partnership that shares close goals and a common spirit. The PM of India used the word "sambandh", and the PM of Iceland brought this up as a spiritual basis of the cooperation that was the main and common feeling bringing these nations of Northern Europe into a spiritual bonding with India over the next 15 years around shared values of democracy, rules based order, and rule of law, everything that India treasures in Western civilization and Europe in Indian civilization. The relationship is shared across all fields including scientific and technological cooperation, education, space, agriculture and fisheries, industry, renewable energy, defense, other fields. ...

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Depleting stocks US exports to the hilt 14.2 million barrels of crude oil and products such as diesel and gasoline a day to Asia and Europe- May 2026. This is the highest ever exports from the US of oil and oil products. Australia gets 2.7 million barrels a day in March when exports before were sporadic. UK, France, Netherlands, all need US oil. Not only Gulf ports, ports of Philadelphia, New York and Albany are also being used by sending oil from the south up the Colonial Pipeline to the East.

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The NYT covers the GAESA tourism enterprise of Cuba (that operates independent of the government of Cuba) that overinvested in Tourism at the expense of agriculture industry and infrastructure during the Obama administration, leading to collapse with Trump's 2014 embargo on Cuba. GAESA controls about 50% of Cuba's economy, run by military and people from Castro's family.  That left 121 hotels built in the boom years of tourism at 30 percent occupancy. The Iberostar high rise hotel is one of these hotels that rises over dilapidated housing in Havana, the Cuban capital. The investment in tourism by the GAESA enterprise that runs about 50% of the Cuban economy is 13 times what is spent on healthcare and education, says the NYT. The Castro family, Raul Castro family, runs this business venture that was started when the Soviet Union as sponsor of Cuba had collapsed by 1991. The NYT says this 'devolved' the ideas and promise of the revolution. "Devolved?" What kind of word to describe a complete loss of faith, and enormous failure with severe hardship for the Cuban people? It means the whole idea of communism or Marxist revolution has been proven false, even as it survives in Mexico and parts of Latin America. One can be against the Batista regime- similarly against corrupt regimes in Latin America or Asia- that ruled Cuba before the Castro Cuban revolution and still look for better choices and alternatives than what Castro came up with as an answer to Cuba's needs. Much of Latin America is suffering from the same problems of dictatorships and turning to Marxist alternatives - particularly the alternative put forward by Castro in Cuba- that has also destroyed the Venezuelan economy with Chavez's turn to Castro's Cuban revolutionary slogans and ideology. That came up with temporary solutions for the poorer sections of society, yet failed badly for all sections of society in the long term. How else can one explain one fourth of Venezuela's population and about the same of Cuba's leaving the country, some of those who left the critical human capital that would form the core of the human input to combine with capital and technology for advancing the economy. If Cuba were like the Dominican Republic or other parts of the Caribbean to depend on tourism for its national income then would it not be better to have friendly relations with the US, the main source of tourism revenue. The Obama administration was only holding up a failed idea by holding out a helping hand to tourism in Cuba knowing full well that a change to a Republican administration would simply lead to heavy investments in tourism at the neglect of infrastructure, public services and the economy, of health and education, to become large economic losses. This is what has happened.  As China and India have proven and are proving there are no magical ways to economic development- the same route that was traveled by the nations of Northern and Western Europe with scientific advances, technological advances, have to be taken, the same route that was traveled by the US in its industrial revolution and building of infrastructure, that same route has to be taken by all nations. It does not have to take a time period of centuries as in Europe. The US accomplished it faster with new technologies and vast human and natural resources over 100 years, Japan in 50 years, China in 30 years. India in 25 years ongoing.There is room for intelligent solutions to problems, for speed and tapping into new technologies, yet the same inputs of land, labour, capital and technology have to be put together for development. For states or regions, cities, within China and India, the same inputs, the same access to foreign investment and new technologies is the only route to rapid development. Long range plans are set in motion, decades of stable efficient, clean governance is put in place, and alliances are built with the nations of Europe and with the US. This road is traversed though hard work as Japan and China have done, and India today is thoroughly engaged in. ...

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Thucydides, Greek historian on the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens 431 BC, cited by Xi Jinping of China during DJT visit to China, May 2026. “Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?” "Thucydides Trap," is about one established power being threatened by another rising power, as Sparta felt threatened by a rising Athens in the Greek world around 431 BC, leading to a long over 30 years war.  “The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” Xi said, of Taiwan, an island near China's coast where ChiangKaishek set up his government after the fall of his government in Beijing in 1949 to Communist People's Army of Mao Zedong. “If mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into a highly perilous situation."  What China sees is a future of strong economic growth based on China having built its industrial strength and world trade to exceed 1.2 trillion dollars of trade surplus in 2026. Yet this is only the beginning. US and European Union, and India+Japan are three economic regions compared to the situation in Greek history. The combined three economic regions potential for scientific and industrial advances in the future till 2045 in a synergistic fashion one building on top of the other's advances, far exceed the potential of the Chinese economy and industry by itself. This is why any such conflict may over time fizzle away as three economic regions of EU, US and India advance, particularly the 1.4 billion people of India, which will see growth rates of 20% annually for 10 years to 2035 in Eastern Indian region of the size of the EU. That region extends from Lucknow and Patna to Vizag and Chennai. Another aspect of this concerns China itself which sees slowing growth of 5% in 2026. Growth could slow further as US, European Union and India/Japan push back on Chinese exports during a period of reindustrialization in US, EU, Japan and rapid industrial development in India to 2040. China's development is only midway in terms of per capita GNP which lags most of Europe and the US, Japan. Thus the main concern in China is that China will not be able top go beyond middle income country as its demographics and aging population look more like Japan's over the period 2026-2040. China needs the US EU trade and markets for it to meet the needs and aspirations of its 1.4 billon people as the other engines of development such as housing construction, infrastructure building, have lost momentum. ...

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A video tour of Zhonghanhai Compound of China's leaders and DJT on the tour as guest of president Xi. See the ancient trees including two cypress trees with their trunks growing together called 'Lianli Bai.'

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Zhonghanhai Compound of China's leaders in Beijing and American visitor DJT, guest of Xi Jinping, in May 2026.

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The media in US and in Europe presents the US and China on a confrontational course little aware that there is quietly emerging a new trend encouraged by both leaders of the two world powers. "Strategic Stability" in US -China relations instead of China seen as a rival and a threat- is now the goal of Xi Jinping of China in 2026 US-China dialogues and meetings. This was abundantly clear during the DJT visit to Beijing August 14 2026 and will continue to shape relations during Xi's visit in September. This is different from the confrontational attitude taken by both DJT in the first administration and Biden in his four years in office. The result is that these tensions are being gradually brought down which started in 2014, were exacerbated by Covid pandemic in 2019, and were put to the test in 2025 with tariffs policies of the incoming DJT administration. A decade of mistrust now being replaced by  buildup of cooperation, establishing a sense of trust and friendship. Partly out of necessity and partly from choice.This was not secured by giving up on issues the US or China saw as important. US did not concede anything on issues of fentanyl entering the US from Mexico, and tariffs for reducing trade deficits. Similarly China did not concede much on issues it saw as important, mutual respect for China as a significant power, and seeing China's different system of government and industrialization as legitimate and worthy of respect. On Hong Kong and on Taiwan both sides decided to see ambiguity and live and let live as the best option. So that in 2026 nothing, not the Iran War or anything that happens in the Middle East is to be allowed to deter both sides from making the educated good and decent choices that are available to them based on attitude of mutual respect.  ...

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Weiner calls Franklin the "Least Dead" of the Founding Fathers of America. "Least Dead" for whom? Of pop cultures, TikTok, Facebook, social media and the rest? Benjamin Franklin is one of the founding fathers who was most revered, and who with his diplomatic activity secured French support for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the American cause in 1776. It was the French cannon, and the French Navy that made it possible for Washington to move his armies north and surround the British at Yorktown, Virginia ending the War of Independence. Weiner writes that Franklin is the most approachable one of the founding fathers, one you can talk with, one you would most likely want to have a beer with. Franklin is also the most interesting. Franklin's experiments with electricity are the earliest pioneering efforts of the scientific revolution of the 19th century that set Europe apart from Asia, and the scientific revolution of the 20th century that set America apart from the rest of the world. Franklin is not just a founding father, he is the founder of the US Post Office which was the radio and internet of its period making communication possible over long distances. Franklin was the first Postmaster General in 1775 and set up the US postal system. Franklin set up the first circulating library in 1731 and the University of Pennsylvania- the first fire department in Philadelphia. He was president of the state of Pennsylvania after Independence. There is a great deal of ignorance about the founding fathers no less in places like the entrance to the Smithsonian institution in Washington DC of all places, where no mention is made of Franklin as an Abolitionist, quite the reverse- Franklin's scientific mind and his modern thinking had no place for the European institution of slavery in the 1500-1800 period. Franklin was the president of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. Eric Weiner, is author of  "Ben and Me- In Search of a Founder's Formula for a Long and Useful Life." This is the second article in a series by NYT on America's 250th Anniversary for the Declaration of Independence. Weiner travels from Boston to London, and from Philadelphia to Paris along the sea route taken by Franklin to the Brittany coast in December 1776 with his 2 grandchildren, one of 7 voyages crossing the Atlantic. By 1781 Franklin had his first meeting with French King Louis XVI at Versailles. The US Mission and Franklin's home was located in the hillside village of Passy a few hours from Paris, where the clean country air and water helped revive him. He crosses the Atlantic again in 1783 when the Peace Treaty is signed by Franklin. Weiner is 70 in 2026 and writes that Franklin grew more serene with age even with some ailments, was loved in France, and returned to America for his final voyage home with his 2 grand children in 1785. A life well lived something for all Americans to aspire and emulate, and loved by his country. ...

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Reggio Emilia and support for early childhood education attracts Princess Kate to make a visit to Italy in May 2026.  "Ciao Kate," nice public greeting for Kate in Reggio Emilia, Italy, welcoming her after cancer diagnosis and recovery.  This is the town where the Italian tricolor flag originated. It is also a town with a strong tradition of support for public services and education. Kate wants to create a global conversation on early childhood education. This is an important idea and part of the concepts behind the Movement for Global Literacy in Lyrarc. Literacy for a child in China is not much different in its basic idea from that of a child in Britain, India, Italy or America. And reading, knowledge of the outside world forms a critical part of this early education, little concepts that are built into larger concepts of the world.

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Try these other museums in Paris knowing the Louvre and the Musee de Orsay get 10 million visitors and 4 million a year respectively. Other suggested museums in Paris 2026 are- the Musee de Metiers and the France National Archives. France National Archives will have a special exhibit on the Marquis de Lafayette for Spring and Summer. It comes at the right time for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the US. Lafayette was a friend of Jefferson and fought alongside the Americans with George Washington. This should be an interesting exhibit.

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A Story of the American West in 2026- at the BLM Bureau of Public Lands Quartzsite site in Arizona offering camping for $160 for 7 winter months. A story that reflects on an alternative lifestyle for people who were laid off during the pandemic in the restaurant or other business, or people recovering from illness looking for less than fulltime work, as well as others with RV's on recreational trips. No economic exchange most of it on barter basis.

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Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes give Paris St Germain the edge over Bayern in Champions League 2026. Arsenal has Ruggieri and Raya. Bayern has Joshua Kimmich, Harry Kane. Atletico Madrid has Julian Alvarez. The final will be played in Budapest.

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Pricing of hotels in Rome Italy where $100 is a hostel, $200 a budget hotel, luxury $700 a night an up. Dynamic pricing means a hotel can cost $400 in the summer and $60 or $100 in September. This is true of mjor toruist destinations and  major cities in Europe. Staying away from the city in a leafy suburb can get you a normally priced room on Booking.com as shown here in the range of $100-$200 and it is a good idea to stay away from the bustle and crowds. Rome's average nightly rate April 19 is $300 a night up about 15% over 2025.  This tells you the first rule in travel in European Union is to choose destinations which are not the big cities, and away from the seasonal rush and crowds. The advice here is to look for residential neighborhoods (less costly and more peaceful), plan 6 months  for peak season  to get a decent price and a better shot at getting a decent hotel in Europe.

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Gas at pump costs about $8 in Germany and France, $7 in UK and $4.50 in Canada- in the US $4 for March 2026. As far back as 2011-2014 gasoline prices averaged about $3.50 a gallon in the US. Today's $3.92 average in 2026 is only 12% higher than $3.50 of 10-15 years back in the US for gas prices at the pump. Gas pries before the war in Ukraine in 2017 were $5.67 a gallon ($1.50 a litre) with a price increase in 2026 10 years later to $8 an increase of 41%. By any comparison with European nations Americans are way better off in 2026 and also in comparison with 15 years back considering the 12% increase and the much higher wages today. The average annual wage salary was $43,000 back in 2010 compared to $65,000- $75,000 today. Much of this was achieved by increased shale production to make US oil self sufficient. Americans are clearly so much better off today with oil at an average price of $3.92 a gallon.  The higher price of oil also acts to increase incentives for accelerating renewable energy production which will make it possible to achieve a future free of fossil fuels while at the same time giving average wage Americans a chance for a better life during the transition. ...

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For Germany's students and young people the preferred destination in Europe is Austria or Switzerland, and includes Tokyo, seen as cleaner better run and good places to live. A large number of people, about 21% of young Germans 18 years to 29 years would like to go to another country to live. This is shown by a survey "Youth In Germany," or "Jugend in Germany" by Verlag. Slow growth, the polarization of society and rise of AfD, poor job prospects, neglect of infrastructure and public services are given as reasons.

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US Forest Service agency plans to relocate it to Utah from Washington DC. The idea is to relocate to the communities it serves by placing 15 state directors to regions NFS serves. Salt Lake City's family focused life, its international airport and its lower cost of living are seen as attractive for recruitment. Utah is also one of the mountain states where large forests are located in the western US. Tom Schultz, head of the Forest Service says -"This is about building a Forest Service that is nimble, efficient, effective and closer to the forests and communities it serves." A network of centers of US Forest Service will also be used to redistribute personnel to regions and states- including ones at Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico, Montana, Wisconsin and California.

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Extremely difficult engineering challenges for fueling, refueling in space, the lander for moon's surface, lie ahead for a Moon base planned for 2028. This time the NASA program will go on uninterrupted by swings in public sentiment.

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Jim Whittaker, in 1963 first American on Everest, REI first employee, and promoter of life in the outdoors. He climbed A 14,000 peak with Robert Kennedy that is known by the name Kennedy, and ran RFK's campaign for president. A picture of him with John Glenn and Don Walsh in the BBC. He died at the age of 97 in Washington State with aview from his home of the Olympic mountains. He describes the climg on Everest and his life in his memoir Life on the Edge. He returned to Everest in 1983 with son Leif who trains athletes in climbing and outdoors. When he climbed Everest he says Gombu his Sherpa guide was the shortest and he was the tallest. He reflects on life and humility in the face of Nature and God's presence around us- "You learn, when you climb a difficult mountain, you leave your ego behind and learn that you're just a little micro-speck in this life. You learn your weaknesses and have a little broader perspective." A lot of us can learn from the lives of Americans like Jim Whittaker.   ...

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Pictures of the Moon from Artemis II Moon Mission Orion Spacecraft shown in Washington Post. April 7 2026.

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Jean Raspail is the French author  of "Camp of the Saints" and of "Me Antoine de Tounens King of Patagonia," winner Grand Prize of the Novel 1981 Academie Francaise. Written by Raspail, the son of the Founder of Le Figaro French newspaper in 1973, Camp of the Saints is a book describing Raspail's extraordinary vision of how boats from Bengal would suddenly appear at French shores carrying millions of people from Bengal fleeing conditions of squalor and extreme poverty. 1971 was the year of the Bangladesh war with millions of refugees from Bangladesh at the time called East Pakistan pouring into India from Bangladesh, hit by massive floods the year prior, and then facing an army of occupation from West Pakistan's Punjab ethnic group dominated Army. While calling Raspail's Camp of the Saints "openly racist" Le Monde does not show the events described here as being entirely real- the squalid and the squalor into which Bengal had been plunged by a over a century of British rule in India that as Gandhi showed in the 1920's in "Young India" magazine spent most of the budget on policing, and very little on development except rail for logistics to hold the Empire together. On this the French Left or French Right or the European Left or Right is silent, preferring not to open up the similar situation facing China Hongkong, Shanghai as Treaty ports and Beijing after the Boxer rebellion, the Middle East with Sykes and Picot creating artificial states of Syria and Iraq, and controlling states of Iran and Egypt, and Indochina as French colony. It is not "racist" it only shows what Raspail might have seen on television at that time of the truly squalid conditions, including a famine in Bengal in 1944 that was aggravated by British policies. If Raspail imagined that boats from Bengal would arrive at the shores of France it is not something that is not connected to reality, it is the squalor and squalid conditions- except the reality the so called Right and the Left failed to say was a result of the centuries of colonization that made the region miss the Industrial Revolution. Western India around Bombay and Ahmedabad was far more developed by the 1970's and more so by 2003 when Camp of the Saints was republished. In 2026 Camp of the Saints is outdated. Northern India, Western India and Central India is in the kind of rapid modernization that happened in China, with bullet trains, ports and new highways, new industrial infrastructure, housing, going up every year under the Modi Government. In the paradox of today the Modi government is referred to as racist or religious right without reference to its essential condition, its very spirit of modernization based on science and technology acknowledging and revering the contributions of European nations and America. Bangladesh is eastern Muslim part of Bengal. West Bengal is part of the federal Union of Indian States, and has fallen into disrepair and industrial backwardness within Indian states because of the lack of the rapid modernization that India is going through, under mismanagement of the scale of Venezuela. Much of the media in the west does not report the scale of the mismanagement of some of the states in India that were built on the legacy of the early decades after independence of policy to slow down industrialization and corruption that destroyed infrastructure investment. The federal government of India and the states run by the party at the federal level in northern, western, central and north eastern India oppose migration to the US and Europe and are now growing at the fastest pace in the world, faster than China, growing at 10-12 percent a year. Bihar state in India is the home of Lord Buddha and the origins of Buddhist civilization of China and Japan. It has a population of 130 million and is growing at 22% a year in 2026. India needs its young people at home, even though it is willing to loan some of its technical people to Germany and Europe and the US. The Indian federal government policy and policy of these Indian states run under federal policy is to oppose migration and find jobs for millions in a rapidly modernizing economy at home. This then is the reality in India, as well as China, with 2.8 billion people. No one in India, not Gandhi if he were here today, not the government in the Indian federal union and states faults Raspail and others and calls them "racist," because of the extraordinary help first Japan, then China and now India receives from America and the European Union to develop and modernize quickly. In fact Indians look with admiration on the western leaders in science and technology, the scientists and inventors of Europe and the US, and are eager to emulate them in the future. And this is true also of the people of China, and reflects the aspirations of the new generation. ...

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See spectacular images of the Earth half lit by moon, and of the Atlantic/ Iberia /eastern South America in this BBC Pictures report of Artemis II Lunar Mission April 3, 2026. To take these pictures the Orion spacecraft did the lunar injection burn that took it out of earth's orbit and flung it to the far side of the moon. The spacecraft reaches the far side of the Moon on April 6 and then reaches back to Earth's orbit April 10. This is the first time it has gone this far since 1972. The sheer excitement and the enthusiasm reflected by the four astronauts and the people on planet Earth shows how the Lunar Mission and planetary Mission's bring people together from all over the planet.