LyrArc Article Gist
The Voice of America has more impact than it's 2000 employees and $267 million budget suggests. Using the power of radio it reaches 326 million people weekly in 50 languages around the world. It provides comprehensive news coverage about the US and the World. It played amajor role during the World War II and in the Cold War. It was founded in 1942 and its congressional charter protects the editorial independence and integirty of its programming.

The agency that runs VOA is the Agency for Global Media. Under DJT first term Michael Pack ran the Global Media Agency. He was followed by Michael Abramovitz, a Washington Post correspondent and member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

Since the end of the Cold War VOA programming has declined in quality and effectiveness to communicate America's story to the world. 

LyrArc Article Gist
The same trends hollowing out San Francisco downtown are hurting the hotel business in San Francisco says this report in WSJ. The lodging business is hurt by crime and quality of life issues even as New York and Los Angeles hotels recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

LyrArc Article Gist
The top five foods for children and good for packing lunches, or at home, are egg yolk, oily fish, oats cereal and whole grain breads, beans, yogurt cheese and milk. This article by dietitian Emer Delaney, who has worked at many teaching hospitals in Britain, also provides the family-friendly recipes you need.

LyrArc Article Gist
Champs Elysees has become a tourist trap with about 72% of people on the avenue tourists. It is shunned by Parisians and most people who have seen it deteriorate so much. Now mayor Anne Hidalgo is planning a 200 million euro redesign to turn it into a garden space for locals.

LyrArc Article Gist
Infrastructure, airports and energy supplies are being set up in an area the size of Singapore in Dholera, Gujarat, 100 kilometres from Ahmedabad, near the Gulf of Khambat.  It is entirely a greenfield site.There prime minister Modi hopes to set up new semiconductor factories for Make in India in chipmaking.

LyrArc Article Gist
With the possible loss of Senate seat in West Virginia vacated by Joe Manchin, Democrats hope to flip the Senate seats in Texas and Florida held by Ted Cruz and former Florida governor Rick Scott. Scott won by less than 1.2 percentage points and Democrats see an opportunity in Texas.

LyrArc Article Gist
A sports minister from Zimbabwe, twice Olympic gold medal winner follows German fencing champion Thomas Bach to the top job of International Olympic Committee president. She had Bach's backing for this job over Coe of UK and Samaranch of Spain whose father held the job from 1980-2000.

LyrArc Article Gist
Steve Jobs of Apple never intended the iPhone to be used as an ubiquitous device that is there all the time with user attention riveted to it. A computer scientist, Prof. Cal Newport of Georgetown University, says the vision of the iPhone presented by Steve Jobs at the Mosconi Center in 2007 was very different from what it has become today. It was an iPod that could make calls, help you listen to music, not a device on which you had to constantly check emails, constantly be on the alert for messages, use for getting instant breaking news you didn't need all the time. At the time in 2007 the App store did not exist and Jobs by design did not focus on apps believing that whatever apps there would be would be better designed to be aesthetically good by Apple engineers. It was an iPod that made calls, a engineer on the team that developed the iPhone at that time tells Newport. Jobs vision was of an iPhone that did a few activities well- helping people listen to music , get directions, make calls. What he did not want to do was to change the rhythm of people's lives. Newport calls it a shame that this vision got somehow diverted and disrupted by what happened afterwards. We have become so used to the constant companion model that we forget its novelty, only a little over 10 years ago none of this existed. As a computer scientist writing about the influence of technology on culture Newport says it is important to remember the magnitude of this unintended shift, to know that Jobs got it right the first time and that it would be better for many of us to return to the minimalist vision for the phone that Jobs espoused. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
President Trump reset the border debate after the government shutdown on border wall funding by emphasizing immigration issues but not repeating his threat to call an emergency. This time he was more conciliatory on the border wall issue, explaining that it be " a smart, strategic, see through steel barrier, not just a simple concrete wall," and deployed in areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need. On withdrawal from Middle East, the president said "great nations do not fight endless wars." Trump now faces a rocky second half of his term because Democrats control the House of Representatives after the 2018 Congressional elections. He said "if there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be a war and investigation." He faces the Mueller investigation by Special Counsel Mueller on the meddling by foreign powers in U.S. 2016 presidential election, with the arrest of lawyer Roger Stone recently, and Democrats in no mood to compromise on the wall. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Upskilling the workforce has huge potential to add jobs in India, says this report in DW.com. It cites India Skills Report 2021. The federal government's new education policy is intended to tackle some of these issues, yet more needs to be done to focus on this issue for Skills India and improvement for the future.

LyrArc Article Gist
Biden's hard work and going into details and seeing that projects are delivered on time and in quality for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law will make him an enduring president in the 21st century. Tyler Pager gives this report on the Biden style of making decisions and of getting things done on time that are making a big difference for the ease of living for all Americans.  Of Biden using his 36 years of negotiating in the Senate more than any Congressman including LBJ who only had 12 years, and the hard work from someone who commuted by Amtrak for all those years and attended to every detail. For the president who started out as county councilman in Delaware details matter, he looks into the details of rebuilding infrastructure by delivering projects on time and on scale. In late 2022 Tyler says Biden checked into the details of delays and wanted specifics which projects were not delivered on time for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law passed a year earlier. Seeing this only one leader comes to mind prime minister Modi of India who is faced with a huge task of infrastructure projects and investments that are intended to make India the third largest economy in the world. Modi like Biden uses his experience of getting into details and checking that work is delivered on time, putting in the hard work in earnest, from Modi's work with state projects in Gujarat when he led the state for 15 years as chief minister. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Andrew Jacobs provides this exceptional account of the tense atmosphere in Brazil, and the split between supporters of the government and the opposition, in April 2016 with the impeachment effort against president Rousseff.

LyrArc Article Gist
Former Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi (2012 -2022) and its senior official makes these comments at the Munich Security Conference on US shooting down Chinese spy balloons. Yi says it was "absurd and hysterical." He says China is going to put out a paper on Ukraine that would underline the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty. For China its crucial relations with Germany, trade with Europe are critical for its economy and growth. Germany's coalition government itself is divided on investment by China in the port of Hamburg, with the Greens not supporting that decision by chancellor Scholz. The issue for Biden is not simply the balloons. As The Guardian points out the US is pushing for China to withdraw or at least make conditional its support of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine that is a clear violation of the UN Charter that China says it supports. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Supreme Court Justices, Roberts, Jackson, Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Alito remain unpersuaded by TikTok arguments before the Court. TikTok's foreign ownership and possibility of the enormous data it collects being over many years in the hands of foreign powers is not taken lightly by the Court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. -“Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?”  Justice Elena Kagan- “How are those First Amendment rights really being implicated here?” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.- It is “an enormously powerful, popular application” that is “gathering an arsenal of information about American citizens.” Justice Kavanaugh- “There is a long tradition of preventing foreign ownership or control of media in the United States.” ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Senators Lankford (R- Oklahoma) Murphy (D-Conn), and Sinema (I- Arizona) are working hard to negotiate a deal which combines aid to Ukraine with an agreement to tighten border security. This report in The Washington Post shows how hard it is to reach a deal on intricate details and how it might not take place till January 2024. It is important to reach a deal as migrant push across the border has happened under both parties and a common solution is needed. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Dairy farmers struggle against a historic drought in the San Joaquin Valley in California, that is driving up cost of water and cow feed. This north coastal region produces 90% of the milk in California. Dairy is California's biggest farm industry, bringing $20 billion to California's economy.

LyrArc Article Gist
BBC says this England team is fighting to avoid the worst Ashes cricket performance in a century. England lost the Second Test at the Gabba in Brisbane by 8 wickets- again. Mitchell Starc with 6 wickets for 75 runs in the first innings and batting in second innings for 77 runs was agains the key player in Brisbane. Neser with 5 wickets for 42 runs for Australia in the second innings reduced England's chances.

LyrArc Article Gist
Texas under new state law S.B. 4 can  impose criminal penalties of upto 6 months in jail on non citizens who illegally enter Texas from Mexico. It allows state judges to order deportations to Mexico- without Mexico's consent- and allows local law enforcement to carry out the orders. The US Supreme Court upheld the US Court of Appeals 5th Circuit decision that says the law S.B. 4 passed in Texas can be enforced temporarily till it is submitted to the Court for final decision. Both Biden and Trump have visited the Texas border with Mexico. This was after Biden and Schumer passed a immigration bill 70- 30 in the Senate which Jim Lankford  Republican of Oklahoma had negotiated with Democrats. Biden said he would sign it to close the border- it would also change parole and asylum law to stop large illegal migration entirely. The former president intervened to stop passage in the House to keep the issue alive for 2024.

LyrArc Article Gist
Gerald Seib in the WSJ gives 3 reasons for reluctance of president Trump to get involved in wars in the region on behalf of the Saudis- the U.S. is less dependent on Saudi oil with its increased oil production, China, South Korea and Japan depend on Saudi oil making it necessary for these countries to pay for the conflicts not the U.S. Other reasons are the U.S and Mr. Trump's opposition to endless wars that lead to neglecting U.S. priorities such as infrastructure and building its economy.  If the wars cost trillions of dollars the U.S. expects the Saudis or Asian countries to pay the U.S. for the cost of these wars. Japan is the most dependent on Saudi oil and it is playing a constructive role to reduce tensions between Iran and the U.S. Mr. Macron of France is playing a role because the EUropean Union also imports oil and wants to prevent the Iran nuclear deal from being ditched or at least for it to be renegotiated.

LyrArc Article Gist
With foreign exchange reserves of $677 billion India is well placed to deal with the effects of the Ukraine conflict. The economy is better placed than European economies, says Governor Shantikanta Das of the Indian central bank, the RBI. The RBI and the Monetary Policy Committee see no risk of stagflation in India, Mr. Das says.

LyrArc Article Gist
 A number of exercizes that strengthen the quad and the legs are shown here by tennis professionals who say this helps in playing tennis. These exercises which include a number of squats are a way to strengthen the legs and lower body including stability ball squat, medicine ball toss, and lateral band walk.

LyrArc Article Gist
Spain's fight against mass tourism shows that at some point  mass tourism lowers the quality of life and access to housing for locals. Did you know that Spain is the second most visited tourist country with 85 million tourists a year. France is the first with 90 million tourists.