On the third bullet point, that's just a word with two meanings, not a country-to-country difference. The USA is also a State in that sense: it has a Department of State to handle state-to-state affairs (i.e. foreign affairs), is a Member State of the United Nations, etc. The use of the term "state" for a subnational division, roughly akin to a Canadian "province", is a different meaning with the same spelling.
The same is true in some European countries; for example, Austria is a member state of the EU, but its subnational entities (Länder in German) are conventionally called states in English also.
The use of the term "state" for a subnational division, roughly akin to a Canadian "province", is a different meaning with the same spelling.
Fun fact, Ireland has provinces (4 of them). However they aren't used for addresses, only for sports or cultural reasons. So Dublin (the city) is in the State of Ireland, and the Province of Lenister. Sometimes the web forms will have a field saying "State/Province", and I wonder which to put in.
They've been talking about that for years. It won't happen. We don't have the money, and the gov doesn't want to waste money on mostly pointless systems, i.e. a repeat of when they tried to bring in evoting
The same is true in some European countries; for example, Austria is a member state of the EU, but its subnational entities (Länder in German) are conventionally called states in English also.