But first, an assessment by the  New York Times  this morning of what just happened in Germany: Germany’s next chancellor is likely to be Friedrich Merz, a former corporate lawyer who has promised to crack down on migration, cut taxes and regulation and adopt a hawkish policy toward Russia. Merz leads a center-right alliance  (the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, or CDU)  that finished first in yesterday’s election, with 29 percent of the vote. A far-right party, Alternative for Germany ( the party that Elon Musk supported) , that promises even tougher immigration policies — but is friendly toward Russia — finished second, with 21 percent of the vote.   The center-left Social Democrats, who led the government for the past four years, tumbled to third place, with 16 percent of the vote. It was their worst showing in a national election since at least 1890. The percentage of the current population born in another country is now 20%, which was only 12.5%...

Yesterday I focused on Ukraine President   Zelensky .  I have used this spelling, but   two years ago  ago, when he first attained that position, several other versions were mentioned:    Zelenskyi,   Zelenskiy   and   Zelenskyy .  Well, more and more I now see   Zelenskyy , and that could be because this appears to be the "official" spelling.  And who knew how to pronounce his name?  Note that   Kiev  also switched to   Kyiv   only more recently, and now I know how to pronounce it. Note yesterday I also pointed out how China was allowing Hong Kong to embarrass itself by being so free.  From the  New York Times : Another big reason for this uptick is government mistrust.  Nearly 40% of Hong Kong's population is not vaccinated.  More than half those over 70 are not.  This is the group that is dying.  Further, those who got inoculated received Sinovac, made in China, which is...

  The USA is 245 years old.  Russia is only 104.   China is just about 3500 years old,  for the Shang Dynasty began ruling the country from the 17th century BC...for 600 years.   Some say modern China came into existence around 220 BC.  Thus perhaps China is only 2242 years old today. My past few postings have been way too long, so today, only Ukraine.  Will Putin attack?  When?  Why? Remember Chernobyl?  This is the Ukraine town located 66 miles from Kyiv that 36 years ago was destroyed by the nuclear power explosion with 400 times the radiation of the Atom Bomb that fell above Hiroshima.  At one time there were 14,000 residents.  Today, 1000. Malaysia Airlines never found flight 370, which disappeared on 8March 2014.  Lost forever were 227 passengers and 12 crew.  On July 17 of the same year, MH17 flew out of Amsterdam towards Kuala Lumpur.  Flying over eastern Ukraine, the plane was shot down by a Bu...