LyrArc Article Gist
Pope Francis makes atonement for the treatment of 150,000 tribal children from Canada's Indian tribes in Quebec and Ontario. These children were separated from their families in a program of forced assimilation that failed. Indian tribal people and the regions of Quebec and Ontario are only now coming to terms with the treatment of tribal people who inhabited this land for centuries before the first European settlers from Britain and France arrived in North America through the Atlantic ocean voyages. This scene is relevant as India's leaders including Mr. Modi select a tribal woman from Odisha (Orissa) Ms Murmu a school teacher in India's northeast to the position of president of the Republic of India. It was never thought of this way yet tribal people exist in Indonesia, Philippines and many parts of Asia. In India tribe population is 106 million and makes up anywhere between 8 to 30% of population mostly in the northeast and tribes are the dominant population in the border regions facing China in its occupation of Tibetan region. This shows there is a lot to learn in how to respect the dignity of the people in these regions especially now when with climate change  sustainable living is the first priority.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
South Africa feels a sense of relief as omicron cases follow a pattern of very steep upward increase, followed by a short period of a month, and then a very steep decrease. Cases in South Africa with a population of 60 million, about the size of Britain, dropped from 27,000 at the peak to about 15,000 on December 21, 2021. The area around Johannesburg was hardest hit. The median age is 27 years in South Africa, 40 in UK and 43 in Italy. With younger populations in India and parts of Asia South African population demographic is closer to India than it is to Europe where populations are much older. Scientists do not want to extrapolate from the South African experience with Omicron for this reason. Immunity from vaccination and prior infection could be contributory causes to the less severity of omicron say NCID scientists. "In South Africa this is the epidemiology. Omicron is behaving in a way that is less severe," says Dr. Cheryl Cohen, of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NCID). "Compellingly together our data really suggest a positive story of a reduced severity of omicron compared to other variants," he said at a conference with other scientists on Wednesday, Dec. 22.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
British prime minister Theresa May, says Britain opposes the unilateral declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament. The Foreign Secretary and the shadow Foreign Secretary also expressed the need for Spanish constitutional integrity and sovereignty. The European Union has not supported the Catalan move.

LyrArc Article Gist
Greg Ip of the WSJ provides this exceptional report offering readers remarkable clarity on what the Republican Tax Law does- its high and low points.  High Points 1. It reduces the corporate tax rate to bring it in line with other advanced industrialized countries. The corporate tax rate in Germany and Japan is 30%, in the UK it is 19%. For 5 years businesses can write off capital equipment immediately instead of depreciating over a couple of years. This could boost investment and growth. 2.  The law takes aim at deductions that led to distortions. It limits the mortgage interest deduction, and caps the deduction for state and local taxes. This removes the incentive to pay more for homes that exacerbated the housing crisis in 2008. The Alternative Minimum Tax is largely removed. The Low Points 1. The biggest drawback is that lawmakers did not properly fund the tax cuts. Of the 10 costliest tax breaks nine were not touched, including employer health insurance, retirement savings, capital gains. Only the state and local taxes deduction was reduced. And a new tax deduction  was created, a 20% tax deduction for small business (proprietors and partnerships) paying taxes on their individual tax returns. Taxes on the wealthy or value added taxes, reducing tax breaks, is how other advanced industrialized countries paid for the corporate tax cuts, but did not happen here. Additional economic growth  to generate added tax revenues is the way Republicans in Congress say this is funded. Yet this is a questionable assumption as Britain reduced the corporate tax rate to 19% without seeing a surge in economic growth, as Greg Ip pointed out in an earlier WSJ article. At best the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates $500 billion over a decade in added revenues from added growth leaving $1 trillion to be added to the deficit. The WhartonPenn Budget Model (WPBM) estimates only $140 to $367 bill from the additional economic growth resulting in added tax revenues. Under this model only 0.03 to 0.08 percent added U.S. economic growth per year is expected from the Republican Tax Cuts. Such a situation would be bad  for the U.S. as the gradual improvement in Debt to GDP ratio to 78% following the financial crisis of 2008 would be sharply reversed taking the ratio to 97% by 2027. An unsustainable trajectory which will require tax increases in a few years and hurt investment in education, health and infrastructure into the future. This is what worries many experts most on both sides of the political spectrum today about what the Republican Congress has pushed through for a legislative "victory." This is why experts believe this is not serious tax reform and will require a new effort after 2019.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ podcast looks at the influx of 3 million refugees into Poland from war torn Ukraine. During the last two decades many people from Poland left the country to find jobs in the European Union and Britain. As a result there were more elderly in many parts of Poland and acute shortage of workers. In the long run Polish officials see the refugees as assimilating easily and welcomed by the people in Warsaw and other cities. The influx of new people is seen as a positive for Poland in the long run. Yet in the current situation there are concerns about the ability of Poland to cope with social services needed for the elderly and traumatized refugees.  About one million of the three million refugees now in Poland from Ukraine are children and there is a dire need for school teachers and other help. Many are women and elderly with young men remaining in Ukraine. Poland has asked the US and Canada for help with dealing with the huge influx of refugees in a period of 2 weeks. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
As Eliud Kipchoge sets a record with running the marathon under 2 hours in October 2019, The Times looks at another time and another record- Roger Bannister of Britain running the mile in under 4 minutes in 1954.

The contrast- the BBC showed the Bannister run only afterwards, Kipchoge was shown on 25 television networks. Both had pacemakers, runners who set the pace for them and fell back. Weather was carefully planned for Kipchoge, Bannister took a chance on May 6, 1954 at Paddington grounds. Bannister was a medical student, Kipchoge was working at running going to sleep and back to running. Bannister had a ham salad, Kipchoge had oatmeal before the run. Both tried to break records at the Olympics and decided on this as an alternative for a personal best and setting a time record.

LyrArc Article Gist
With the departure and replacement of Dan Cummings, the prime minister gets someone with extensive financial and other experience to replace his free wheeling adviser who lacked experience. Dan Rosenfield who worked at Treasury till 2016 under both Labor and Conservative party chancellors is the new choice for prime minister Boris Johnson's chief of staff at 10 Downing Street. Experts say less games, more interest in what matters in managing the costs of covid budgets. Here Mr. Rosenfield is described as the person at Treasury who put together the Olympics budget that came out at a little over 9 billion pounds after little preparation was done and Britain won the bid for the Olympics by bidding only 2.3 billion pounds. As Rosenfield puts it, there wasn't even a cats in hell chance of doing the Olympics at that cost, and the only option was to control costs as aggressively as we could. Britain now faces the task of keeping Covid budget costs manageable and getting a recovery in place in 2021-2022. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Elections in December in Britain are rare, with this election in 2019 in Britain being the first in one hundred years. It also poses big risks. There is the flu season, the National Health Service being stretched to provide services, the weather, and voter turnout.  It poses risks for Tories and Labour, and Boris Johnson's bid for Leave seats held by Labour is a bold one that could turn out either way. Labour plans to run on a positive program of change and not just the Brexit issue. Johnson will campaign without being able to have Brexit behind him. The close association with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cummings brash style could also play a part in the election creating another level of uncertainty. Mr. Hammond, a leading Tory rebel says he is not sure if he wants to see the Tories win, adding another level of uncertainty. The SNP in Scotland hope to take Tory seats in this election and the Lib Democrats are campaigning on canceling Brexit altogether to get Tory Remain seats. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Labour leader and prime minister of Britain met Donald Trump during a trip to speak at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 26, 2024 Starmer has misgivings that Trump may withhold support for the United Nations and its framework for maintaining peace in the world, and tackling issues of development and climate change. Britain's leader Starmer told the UN General Assembly- "People talk about an age of polarization, impunity, instability and an unraveling of the U.N. charter. And I feel a sense of fatalism has taken hold.” “But our task is to say no … This is the moment to reassert fundamental principles and our willingness to defend them. To recommit to the U.N., to internationalism, to the rule of law.” With Macron's shaky coalition government in France, and a coalition government in Germany with less popular Greens, FDP and Social Democrats, Russia engaged in a conflict with NATO in Ukraine, Starmer speaks for Europe at an important time to recommit to the UN Charter and uphold the principles of the UN for the betterment of mankind. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Witte, Booth and Adam of the Washington Post describe the situation Britain's prime minister Theresa May finds herself in after calling a snap election. A badly run campaign by May focusses on Brexit, and leads to election losses to Labor. Without the support of voters in Scotland who voted tactically to prevent Scotland from breaking away, the Conservatives would have no chance of forming a government. May now needs the 10 seats of the Democratic Unionist Party in Scotland to have a 3 seat majority. Labor leader Corbyn despite a barrage of negative publicity from British tabloids, maintained his cool and composure. His focus on the austerity politics of the Conservatives under Cameron and now May, enabled Labor to get 40% of the vote compared to the Conservatives 43%, with the Scottish National Party getting 3% and the Liberal Democrats 7.4%. Giving the parties that have never seen Brexit as a priority for Britain over 50% of the vote. The Democratic Unionist is a small party with less than 1% of the vote (0.9%), which in some countries makes it ineligible to take seats in the legislature. In the mixed up out of focus nature of British politics today this party is the kingmaker. The UK Independence party or UKIP party that started the whole affair of Brexit- that prime minister Cameron responded to to gain votes for the Conservatives by promising the referendum on Brexit- won just 1.8% of the votes cast, in a election where 69% of voters went to the polls, winning zero seats, down from 10.8% in the 2015 election. This is the state of British politics today  following the failure of political leaders, as Theresa May acts as if the election results are not sending a message about Brexit, say Witte, Booth and Adams.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Labour party in Britain is removing a never used anti-labour minimum services law that tended to worsen industrial relations and make it difficult to negotiate and resolve disputes over wages and conditions. The minimum services restricted the ability of 5.5 million workers to negotiate wage increases- it affected ambulance services, fire and rescue, teachers and rail services, border security to take industrial action, by requiring that a minimum level of service had to be provided. It was adversarial in nature and Angela Rayner call its effect as "poisoning industrial relations." We’re consigning it to history,” she said. “Scrapping this toxic legislation is our first step in ending the scorched-earth approach that has blocked negotiation and compromise to resolve disputes and prevent disruption." “This government’s new deal will create a new partnership between business, trade unions and working people and is fundamental to our growth mission.” A White Hall (British Civil Service) source says it was never used, Business did not want it, the legislation never worked, and Britain still lost more days to strike action than France or Spain. He says "it is the first major step in terms of resetting our relationship with the trade unions of this government." Jonathan Reynolds the Secretary for Business and Trade says- "The strikes act has not worked; it was a gimmick which inflamed tensions and only made serious negotiations harder, ultimately harming our public services and economy. It is telling that no single business ever used this pointless legislation. Putting an end to costly strikes that impact people’s day-to-day lives is key to getting our economy moving again and ending the chaos for our public finances.” ...

LyrArc Article Gist
After all the talk of slowing growth in Britain the royals keep up the spirits in England with the rebound in their activity.

Shown here with David Beckham and Dame Helen Mirren, the royals including Charles and Camilla, are bursting with energy after an illness. Charles is keen on filling every open hour in his daily calendar, not wanting any downtime. Charles sees this style of staying occupied all the time as the best way to staying healthy.

Camilla and Kate Middleton are doing the same with their own busy schedule visiting schools and boosting spirits around England.

After an event with an Italian chef "slow" food dinner Charles says it would be a British understatement if he said he was looking forward to a visit to Italy in April 2025.

LyrArc Article Gist
A look at countries in Europe shows different strategies for tackling coronavirus Delta variant as schools reopen in September 2021. Italy requires all teachers to carry a covid digital certificate that shows vaccination or PCR test results. France, Germany and Spain do not require vaccination for teachers to go to schools, and rely mostly on social distancing and mask requirements in schools. Britain not only does not require vaccination digital certificate, but also has not made masks and social distancing mandatory. Health experts say there are serious risks in this approach with mass return to schools and offices after August 2021, and the fall weather with more time indoors. This could lead to a surge in coronavirus as in the US where the reopening of schools and Delta variant has led to surge particularly in states such as Texas, Florida, California. In UK 65% of total population is now fully vaccinated, in Italy 62%. Teachers in Italy fully support the new rules. In Lombardy region with Milan as the capital, only 300 out of 300,000 workers returned to schools without the green pass, according to regional officials. Britain remains an outlier says this report in the WSJ, taking more risks than is proper at this time, and simply hoping for the best. Not the best strategy in this situation.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Centuries of neglect of Asian education and students by European nations during colonization is now turned on its head. Which is also not a good thing, in fact something just as bad.  A British professor has to remain anonymous to ask for an honest conversation on why British universities are so dependent on foreign students. Seven of ten University students in Britain studying for Masters degrees are overseas students. This is a shocking statistic and only goes to show the lack of the same opportunity for higher education for students from England, Scotland and Wales. Students at home cannot afford the 30,000 pounds that students from China or other countries pay. Not too long ago British funding made it possible for British people to attend British universities. It points to the lack of funding of higher education in Britain to give the same opportunities as students from other countries to the British education system that has taken hundreds of years of gradual investment to establish. It points to the consensus in society that neglects the importance of higher education which is as important for the future as the system which channels young people based on aptitude to take the course of apprenticeship training after high school for better incomes in industry and manufacturing. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Americans pay a lot more than people in Britain for cellphone service in 2014- approximately $110 vs $68 in Britain for one month. A big reason is that Britain requires companies to lease their networks to competitors at cost. Service at Verizon Wireless costs much more.

LyrArc Article Gist
Cygnus is the rehearsal for a full blown pandemic that the British government conducted in 2016. After preparations accelerated following the SARS crisis in 2009 and the H1N1 pandemic in 2015, the British government accelerated its preparations for H2N2 the next pandemic. The exercize took place in October 2016 for 3 days, for a worst case scenario flu pandemic affecting 50% of the population and causing 400,000 extra deaths. For 3 days people were told to imagine being in the 7th week of the pandemic, facing peaks in demand for health and hospital care. Cobra meetings were to be held. This report in the Guardian gives details on the Cygnus exercize. It showed a lack of UK readiness.  By July 2016 prime minister Cameron was replaced by Theresa May in the Conservative Party and a full blown crisis emerged for Brexit. Britain lost interest in Cygnus or the pandemic prevention effort as Brexit consumed Britain's energies. Soon it was forgotten by the time Boris Johnson became prime minister and won the Brexit election. This shows how even a sincere effort and preparation over years of planning can result in nothing. This also happened in France. See France 24's coverage of this and our groups and links on this. One insight was that while every agency acted there was no coordinated response with someone in the central authority guiding the entire effort step by step. Care homes entirely privately run were also identified as a concern and anticipated significant pressures because of staff absenteeism at these social care centres in a pandemic, as reported in the Guardian ...

LyrArc Article Gist
“My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA." European perceptions of recent happenings in the Ukraine war and the war's progression from the beginnings over three years will matter in 2025 as Europe, as Germany, France and Britain take on the role of bringing a fair peace to Europe that closes the war and does the reconstituting of defense architecture of Europe under new institutions that needed to be taken up in the 1990's after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Republicans and DJT's perception of Europe as 27 states is likely to be false. Germany and France in the 21st century may just be stepping into a role that was prepared since the formation of the European community in the 1950's with Germany and France at the core of Europe. It may surprise many that Europe just steps into this role. And with it a reconstituting of the defense architecture of Europe that needed to be done after the fall of the Berlin Wall and not left to the vagaries of free market capitalism that have created the present situation. “It was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelenskyy, but obviously a manufactured escalation,” Merz of Germany has said recently of recent White House happenings.  “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,” Germany's Merz says and means it even if it confounds the US, China and other nations. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Economist cites estimates from the Bank of England showing Britain's national output peaking at 1.5 trillion pounds in 2007 and not likely to return to that level till 2015. It points to fears of a lost decade. Meanwhile debt is rising from 600 billion pounds in 2008 to 1.1 trillion in 2012, making reducing the debt to GDP ratio by 2017 even more difficult. Lower growth affects tax revenues even as social benefit costs increase. Part of the problem is that from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 public sector net investment declined from 48.5 billion pounds to 28 billion pounds. The Economist suggests Chancellor Osborne take up an additional investment in infrastructure of 28 billion pounds, even borrowing 14 billion pounds in the bond markets if needed, as a prudent step to revive growth. Small improvements in rail, roads and bridges could make up for a lack of large projects. Other suggestions include expanding the "funding for lending" scheme with banks to get capital to small business, finding more savings in the National Health Service, and changing the way Britain taxes development land that remains undeveloped. Britain, now joins, Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, in the failure of austerity measures alone creating a return to economic growth and lower deficits. In 2013 improving competitiveness and boosting economic growth become critical following years of austerity measures....

LyrArc Article Gist
Reaganomics, trickle down economics, it is clear don't work. James Mackintosh says in WSJ, the latest version of Reaganomics, in the form of the LIz Truss budget in September 2022 with cuts in corporate taxes, no relief for vulnerable populations in the cost of living crisis as in all other major European countries and in the US, is already getting a bad reception in financial markets with the tumbling of the British pound.Times have changed there is nothing to be gained in its approach as there are no trade unions strangling growth as in Thatcher's time that need to be restrained, and not that much red tape to increase business flexibility. Most of the privatization has already been done and some of the state run companies are operating much better today than privatized companies handling water and other services.   Instead the problem is one of much needed investment in infrastructure and public services, and social protections after the pandemic. Businesses are not being crippled by high corporate taxes. Instead the opposite is the case, with windfall profits, so that the opposite approach taken by president Biden to use the higher tax on profits of Tech, oil and other companies to finance social protections and a huge climate energy initiative made more sense, leading to the passage of the $369 climate bill  and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.  The WSJ makes these points- Britain has a higher current account deficit and higher debt at over 100% of GDP compared to the period of Thatcher in the 1980's when debt was only 40% of GDP. Most important is what the WSJ says about what has happened since the 2009 financial crisis and the austerity policies pursued after that crisis that were worsened by the pandemic so that public services in Britain are actually crumbling. Politically this lacks popular support and little backing at a time of a recession in the British economy, because such policies require public support to go through a tough period . And taking this trickle down economics today when Britain faces a cost of living crisis may be an unwise act of taking an approach that is no longer relevant or shown to be working at the worst possible time, says the WSJ. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Germany is now in the same situation as France, Spain and Britain during the second wave with over 500 deaths daily in the first week of December. The partial lockdown with closing of the leisure sector and keeping work open, and retail shops open has not helped keep the virus in check as hoped. Christmas is an important holiday period in Germany and crowds continue to form in many shopping areas spreading the virus. Chancellor Merkel lacks authority in a pandemic as the law says states have to decide how best to tackle a pandemic.

LyrArc Article Gist
India under the leadership of prime minister Modi hosting the G20 meeting of world leaders may have for the world passed the test of the ages on November 16, 2023. On that day the G20 with China, India, (and Russia's Lavrov), and the US issued the statement saying-  "The use of threat of using nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are vital. Today's era must not be of war." The words "Today's era must not be of war," were words Modi had stated repeatedly to the Russian president.  In dire situations that it can be conceived that small nuclear weapons with half the destructive capacity as Hiroshima bomb that could be put on a small missile could be used is a new threat. Hennigan in the NYT reports that as Ukrainian forces moved towards Kharkiv and other Russian held territory and were seen as a threat to Russian held Crimea, on October 23, 2023 the Russian minister of defense Sergei Shoigu, contacted the Defense ministers of US, Britain, France and Turkey about Ukrainian fighters it believed planning to launch a dirty bomb -a conventional explosive wrapped in radioactive material- on their own territory to frame Moscow. Hennigan in this NYT report says US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and Jt. Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, held 3 phone calls in 4 days during this time around October 23, 2023, with their Russian counterparts. By November 16 Indian prime minister Modi and Chinese president Xi had their discussions with the Russian president to prevent accidental nuclear escalation. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
India stands true to the principles of Mohandas Gandhi and joins Pope Francis in strongly condemning the killing of innocent civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Gandhi would have done in his own way when he even paused the nonviolent struggle against the British after the burning of police stations in British India. Of no less significance is the danger of food insecurity caused by the war in Asia, Africa and Latin America which India is meeting. India is America's true partner in the free world in a way that even Germany, France, even Britain fail to be now that we know Merkel's policy "errors" and Macron's lofty ambitions for Europe, emboldened Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. American and German business integration of the American and German economies with China may also have emboldened Russia and China in their perceptions of world affairs that directly conflict with China's Buddhist history, Gandhi's view of the world, and India as the land of the Buddha.  Mr. Biden will talk with Modi about the invasion of Ukraine , the Indo-Pacific, and the building of strong India-US partnership. A major issue that has not been discussed at this level is the challenge India is facing and meeting of food security after the war in Ukraine. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and many developing countries are feeling the effects of the war with soaring food prices denying access to basic necessities in these countries. This extends to countries from Asia to Africa and Latin America affecting hundreds of millions of people.  India is providing food assistance following its effort to share vaccines in a remarkable effort that has not received the world's attention. Vaccination for over a billion people in India has taken place in one of the significant achievements during the pandemic. This was combined with food security assistance to hundreds of millions of people in India in India's population of 1.2 billion people. India is now in a position to meet some of the world's food needs with its own efforts in agricultural production. In this way the role played by the US since World War II for peace and security is being met by India as a significant partner in the free world, and in a way this is returning the kind of help the US offered India during the period of famine in the sixties. US president Biden understands this as he will discuss "mitigating the destabilising impact on global food supply and commodity markets" of the war in Ukraine. These are the hidden costs of the war that are not less painful than the gory war scenes unfolding today in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and because they are about food they are of no less importance. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Britain's general election results show Conservatives losing their majority in parliament. Conservatives gained 318 seats, but only because voters in Scotland voted tactically for Conservatives to avoid Scottish independence, leading to 19 fewer seats for the Scottish National Party. Labor gained seats in England and Wales. The Liberals added 3 seats. The final tally was Conservatives 318 seats, Labor 260 seats, Scottish National Party 35 seat, Liberals 12 seats Democratic Unionist Party 10 seats, others 13 seats, UKIP 0 seats. Conservatives can form a government only by joining with the Unionist Party based in Northern Ireland to have the 226 seats for forming a government. This election creates questions about the whole idea of Brexit, as a majority of the voters supported Labor, SNP and Liberal Democrats, with a total of 50.4% of the vote, according to BBC, for parties that did not see Brexit as the priority for Britain. Labor 40.0%, SNP 3.0% and LD 7.4%. By contrast UKIP, Conservatives and DU, pro-Brexit together had total of 46.1% of the vote. Any Conservative government is likely to be weak, and according to this report in WSJ may lead to new elections by the end of the year. The high turnout of 69% shows voters wanted to send a message about their doubts on Brexit. A Labor government cannot be ruled out. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Fears in France about multiculturalism presumably of the Anglo-Saxon type with ethnic communities living separately side by side. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, says in his recent book that the French are not like Anglo-Saxons with communities of ethnic people living next to each other but not mixing. This is not true of London and New York, or Melbourne, say people on the other side. Comments by prime minister Valls similiar to Sarkozy's are interpreted by experts in French history as reflecting France's predominant political language of Republicanism and fear of fragmentation. These issues have come up as immigrants issues have led to movements such as for Brexit, and the Trump campaign in the U.S. with anti-immigrant sentiment. The French like to see themselves in a different light though the banlieus are as much a fact of life in France as segregated communities in the U.S. and Britain, say observers.

LyrArc Article Gist
Jack Draper of Britain joins the ranks of inspiring British sports athletes such as Brayshaw of the British women's Olympic rowing team who had suffered injuries in an accident to come back for the gold medal. Draper after suffering hip pain flareup and much preparation, hard work, gets to the finals of the Indian Wells Open to bean Rune of Denmark. Draper had no sign of nerves throughout his game. He had struggled in pre-season with flareups of hip pain. “I felt like I deserve it, in all honesty. The amount of adversity I’ve been through, the amount of sacrifices and time all the people around me have put in and the hard work, it’s an emotional feeling to know how much you’ve gone through and put in. To be here now and say I’m going to be No 7 in the world, honestly I can’t tell you how much that means to me.” Draper acknowledged the efforts of his team in a picture shown here in The Times. About his own effort Draper says- “I wasn’t expecting this. I put in a lot of work over time. I am just so grateful and so happy to be out there and able to play with my body feeling healthy and my mind feeling great. Just all the work I have done in the last few years, it feels like it is coming together on the big stage." In 2022 a new player 19 year old Carlos Alacaraz of Spain burst into the top ten by winning the US Open over 23 year old Casper Ruud of Norway. In 2025  23 year old Jack Draper of Britain beat Alcaraz and 21 year old Rune of Denmark to win the finals 6-2, 6-2 of the Indian Wells US tennis championship. There is now a generational shift in tennis. And not just men's tennis. The women's tennis final was won by 17 year old Mira Andreeva of Russia after losing the first set to Sabalenka 6-1, she maintained composure after a toilet break to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. ...