LyrArc Article Gist
Melenchon got the largest support from 24 to 34 yer olds, and ended up with 22% of the vote only a few points behind Le Pen. A lot depends on how his support base votes in the next round vote on April 24. Marie Le Pen got most of her support from people 50 to 59 years old, and Macron from people over 70 years, says this report.

LyrArc Article Gist
England goal keeper Mary Earps was third choice of coaches at the 2019 World Cup. After the Sweden game win 4-0 when Earps made some amazing saves including one from Sweden's Stina Blackstenius from an unstoppable angle she now looks back. Earps looks back at these years in the wilderness struggling to make it to the national team and working part time at business jobs. She was with Manchester United, and with Wolfsburg teams mostly in reserve roles.

She says she remembers many times thinking "this is the end of the international road game for me," when coaches passed her over for other players. She was top choice for Euro 22 only after another goal keeper had an injury. She says she is proud to be part of this England team. Her teammates have said some amazing things about her and she feels "I want to be the best I can be for them."

LyrArc Article Gist
Pep Guardiola talks about the toll on his players from playing so many games. He says most were exhausted after the game with Bayern Munich. Ofcourse he says they all want to play, they all want to play, but he has to assess their physical condition. He says it is not about that game but about the many games every 3 days, that "the mental fatigue is big." Talk about winning 3 titles, FA Cup, Premier League, Champions League, is just that, far, far, away. He faces Real Madrid in the next match in the Champion's League semi-final, a team that has its own record.

LyrArc Article Gist
Senator Rubio, Republican nominee for Secretary of State, is given good points by the Wash. Post for helping negotiate a 2013 bipartisan deal on immigration that passed the Senate but could not pass in the US House of Representatives. And for his willingness to compromise.

On Ukraine and Eastern Europe after the invasion of Ukraine Rubio with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) inserted an amendment into 2023 defense authorization bill that prevents any president from withdrawing from NATO unless two thirds of the Senate agrees.

LyrArc Article Gist
Strategic siting in renewable rich areas (Dallas center the largest is in renewable rich area) and fair cost allocation to not burden small businesses and households are major issues in Data Center building. Data centers for AI -rows and rows of servers 5000 in hyperscale data centers- used 4% of the US total electricity use in 2024. This is growing rapidly. By 2030 this is expected to grow by more than double, by 133%. About 60% of this to power the servers and 30% for cooling the servers. About a third of these servers are located in Virginia, Texas and California. How will this affect Cost of Living concerns, affect electricity prices? Carnegie Mellon working with North Carolina State University did the modeling on the energy and emissions implications of data center buildup in the US in their Open Outlook Initiative. A 8% annual increase in electricity prices is expected on average and as high as 25% in Virginia by 2030.  Total of about 40% increase over 5 years. Between 2014 and 2024 10 year period average cost for a home electricity use went up 25% from $114 a month to $142. This would now go up by 40% to about $200 by 2030 in just 5 years significantly impacting cost of living in the US. In which states will it strain electricity grids? In 2023 data centers consumed 26% of the total electricity supply in Virginia. In North Dakota 15%, Nebraska 12%, Iowa 11%, Oregon 11% according to Electric Power Research Institute. What are the energy types used? Natural gas is used for 40% of the data center electricity, wind and solar 25%, nuclear 20% and coal 15%.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Margraten, Netherlands, where over 8000 American servicemen are buried,adopted and remembered for their contribution to the Allied victory through France in 1944-45 on Veterans Day 2025. A visit to Margraten and guest essay in NYT by Jonathan Darman, author of the book- Becoming FDR.

LyrArc Article Gist
The split of the global internet into three with the emergence of a closely monitored internet in China, and Google developing the Dragonfly version to enter China in cooperation with the government. The European Union will have its own version that rivals the U.S. with its own regulations and rules. Each has its large home base. A fourth base is in South Asia where a home grown internet is still to develop. The split will be based on home versions such as Baidu in China and Google, Bing, Safari in the U.S. and the EU version with different rules for privacy and protection. Openness, limits, regulation, government rules and control in home countries, will characterize the patterns in each. This Editorial Board article in NYT says the U.S. version may not end up being the best.

LyrArc Article Gist
In a wide ranging interview with the WSJ Zelensky says China is a bigger and more powerful country than Russia that has a role in bringing about peace- "I would not want such a country to stand by and watch people die." He added that this is not a painting or a museum, this is a real war, with horrendous damage on all sides.

LyrArc Article Gist
Wisdom shared by students on picking a place to study. Ten people look back to reflect on how their college was chosen, their experience at that college, the cost of tuition. Some changed to other schools where they fit in better, others struggled with large tuition bills when the same education could be obtained at state universities with lower tuition fees. You are never stuck says one of them as you can change schools if it is not the right one. Others point out the risk of relying on "the best school", the most "rigorous program," and one engineering student points out that one can get a good engineering education at many less costly or famous schools. The general feeling is find what will be good for you without being overawed by big names, consider cost carefully, one can get a good education at most universities and colleges just find the place where you feel valued as a person and which fits in with your sentiments and mental makeup. The rest is effort studying and concentration which is entirely upto you.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
For years Peter Bernstein has watched the US markets, from the postwar recession of 1958 till today. He is now 89 years old. He sees 2 culprits one is oversecuritization and the second is years of overborrowing by financial institutions and consumers alike. He rules out a V shaped business cycle. he sees an L shaped business cycle or a a flat U. It would be a flat U because it will take a long time for the memory to recover from the excesses of recent years and the consequences. He remembers the early years after World War II, it took a very long time to get the depression out of business and banking decisions. And he says one of the things that helped people take risks was the feeling that the central bank had got things right and knew what it was doing but he says the Fed too now is going to feel what it should do now is less clear. So the feeling going forward will be to be very careful. He thinks this will take a long time to clear up, much longer than people think. Not 2009, he is sure they are wrong, there has to be a respite along the way is how he puts it. He says until credit is going up instead of down you can't have growth. And he thinks housing has to be a part of this. And then there is the uncertainty. What if, what if China goes into a recession? His point that " nothing can go in one direction forever." And China has been growing like this for twenty years since the 1990's. It just does'nt go on forever. and there has to be a respite. Again here him speak: first he goes to housing, he says somehow housing has to flatten out. Then he shifts to say "we have to underpin the consumer" and with that he shifts to saying this is why its different, and to saying this is why its like nothing we have had before. And then he turns to investment, saying its investment that made the V at the bottom of the cycle but he doesn't see the consumer in the USA coming up with a positive till he has worked out the excesses of overspending. Exports or consumer overseas? He thinks they maybe too infected by us to do it. Though Asian growth will help....

LyrArc Article Gist
Jonas Vinegaard of Denmark settles the race with a fast time working himself upto near exhaustion and adding 7 minutes to his lead during the trials in the 17th stage of the Tour de France. From 10 seconds in earlier stages of the cycling race in Basque Spain across the Pyrenees mountains and into France Slovenian cyclist Pogacar was only 10 seconds behind Vinegaard. With this time in the trials and putting up a great effort in the Alps near Geneva Vinegaard now has a 10 minute lead over Pogacar, enough for him to make it to Paris without the pressure that would otherwise be seen. Vinegaard shows a new kind of resilience, strength, strategy and skills that has endeared him with a new generation of cycling enthusiasts, with a humility that comes naturally for him.

LyrArc Article Gist
Wilkins was British inventor, scientist and educator with profound unbelievable impact. Some thoughts on what it means for America to reject Science in 2024 for Climate Change in the face of sudden floods, wildfires- for Western civilization was based on Science since 1648, Eastern civilizations missing it completely. When George Washington was fighting in the Pennsylvania country against American Indians and the French, on the other side of the Atlantic a Britisher from Somerset was part of the British East India Company that had won control of Bengal in northeastern India. In 1760 Wilkins arrived in Calcutta a youth of 21 as clerk for the British East India Company, rising to examiner for new employees at the company. It is Wilkins as a printer who creates the first typography for both Persian and Bengali, and who translates for the first time the Bhagavad Gita into English from Sanskrit in 1785.  This is of interest mainly because the American colonists were fighting an Empire whose chief base of the Empire was in Bengal and which generated the funding of the British war against the American colonists led by Washington, Adams and Jefferson. This was before Bengal also funded the British fight against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal. And by the 1850's funded Britain's wars in Chinese ports including Hong Kong. Wilkins is key to this puzzle about India and China- why they succumbed to European colonialism? Gandhi says the Indians invited them in as they were mainly shopkeepers and commercial interests. It is also true that after the end of the 30 years war in 1648, the British, French and Dutch followed Science creating the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution, that India and China missed.  Imagine then what it means to reject Science in the West in 2024 on Climate Change? Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj in November 1909 on the boat Kildonan Castle from London to South Africa. In it he says Indians have to look in the mirror and accept that it is they the princes of India who invited the British sepoys of the British East India Company into Indian states for their wars and losing Bengal, then the rest of India. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
New York Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit against Mr. Trump uses a New York state law that gives the Attorney General wider scope to tackle corporate fraud. This includes inflating the value of assets to get corporate loans on favorable terms. NY Supreme Court Justice Engoron is hearing the case and the judge will decide the case in a bench trial- there is no jury. Justice Engoron made a sweeping ruling against the Trump properties and holdings and said the contours of the case have now changed as he ponders about what further action to take. He cancelled the certificates that the Trump properties need to operate.

LyrArc Article Gist
Most questions about the vaccines from Oxford, Pfizer and Moderna are answered in this Q&A in The Times.  The Oxford vaccine is the only vaccine that is being provided at cost to the public at a cost of 4 pounds, Pfizer using German technology at 15 pounds and Moderna from Cambridge, Massachusetts, at 28 pounds. The Oxford vaccine can be stored in a fridge, the others use mRNA technology of messenger RNA which requires ultra low temperature storage. Astra Zeneca could have handled the trials and methodology for results in a better way. As the two trials one that produced results of 62% and the other results of 90% cannot be combined to give results of 70% but are two distinct and separate trials. However too much emphasis has been placed on the vaccine, as other prevention measures remain important for 2021. Other vaccines are being developed in Britain with new technology and in India by ICMR which are in trials stage and about which not enough is known. The Russian and Chinese vaccines have not released detailed data limiting their use around the world. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Jenny Medina looks at America's Biden 10 months into his presidency. Biden compared his presidency to that of FDR in his first years in office in 1933 with America in the depths of the Great Depression.  This report says FDR was better able to communicate how the New Deal would help families and workers in the face of distrust. Biden needs this today. During the ten months of the presidency Biden has already taken the tough decisions that are needed. For the vaccination drive, for the vaccine mandate on the coronavirus pandemic. On Afghanistan Biden took a similar tough decision to step away after learning the lessons of that conflict. He has quietly moved forward to build the alliance with Europe. On the infrastructure plan he has made the tough decision to make certain the essential components of spending on healthcare, education, childcare, support for mothers and older Americans are put in place, so that one bill for infrastructure is not passed without the bill for healthcare, childcare, mothers, elderly and education. Only this can provide the needed credibility for Republicans in states such as Tennessee who support community college open to all to come behind the overall Biden families and workers plan, and for working families throughout the whole country to support further spending for renewal of America.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Buried in the Pew Trust study in 2017 showing that only 9% of French, 24% of British, 36% of Germans and 37% of Americans feel their children would be better off financially, is the divide between college educated and those with a high school diploma. Only one third of Americans are college graduates, and 69% of them are satisfied with the economy's condition. Of the high school diploma holders or the rest of the population, only 55% think so. This is likely to take a long time to correct, particularly with the loss of good manufacturing jobs and drop in wages in manufacturing of the last two decades,  the need for more technology and skills in the jobs environment, failing schools and families in the social environment.

LyrArc Article Gist
Juliet Small on ECHR how it got to this in 2025 where it ignores the right of governments to protect their own ctiizens. Of law turned upside down by lawyers in Strasbourg in 50's and 60's and after to where the legal class appears to have messed it up so much and left it to politics to clean up this mess in Europe.

LyrArc Article Gist
This essay in WSJ says Asian Americans and Hispanics are showing greater interest than whites in classical charter schools of Texas. The desire to advance in America leads immigrants to learn about the Nation and its founding, its unique nature among all nations, and the desire to join in the task of nationhood that has happened since the 1850's.

LyrArc Article Gist
Bernie Sanders presents the case for Medicare for All, healthcare for all legislation in the U.S. Congress introduced in September 2017. It has the support of 15 Senators. He says the current system is costly, wasteful and bureaucratic. It is time says Sanders for the U.S. to join the rest of the industrialized world, join Britain, France, Germany and other countries of Europe, Japan and Australia, Canada, with healthcare for all Americans. After all he says only 50 miles north of his electoral district in the Burlington, Vermont area is Canada, where the system of healthcare for all works better than in the U.S.  And the Canadians, Germans, French, and British do this spending less than half the U.S. does. In 2015 the U.S. spent $10,000 per person for healthcare, this means that it cost less than $5000 per person in these advanced countries and the way they do it can be studied and its best aspects adopted by the U.S.  He says this is because the U.S. healthcare system is designed to maintain profits for the medical-industrial complex. A major problem is the manner in which the issue is distorted by different sides on the issue of health care in the U.S., without a consensus being developed on what the common interest is in a civilized society. Mostly because the U.S. unlike other societies is still grappling with the issue of what values it embraces on healthcare being made available to all. Under this legislation the transition to healthcare for all would take place over 4 years. In the first year eligibility for Medicare would start at age 55 years, and children under 18 would be covered. In the second year the eligibility starts at 45 years, in the third year at 35 years, in the fourth all are covered.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Jean-Luc Melenchon, for two decades at the fringes of French politics, has a carefully prepared program to address the concerns of working class voters in France. He has not appealed directly to yellow vest voters so as not to affect relations with other moderate voters. He is now accepted by French business because of his detailed action plan for the French economy and French workers. Other voters see him as the only one with a serious action plan with his plan for the Sixth Republic removing the powerful executive presidency setup by De Gaulle and drafting a new constitution.

He has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine yet says it does not help to humiliate Russia and setup more NATO countries close to its borders. During any negotiations both Russia and Ukraine have now accepted the idea of Ukraine enjoying neutral country status in the same way as Sweden. 

LyrArc Article Gist
At one time Spotify's headquarters in World Trade Center 4 took up 16 floors of space. Today Spotify employees can work from distant locations. Spotify told employees they can work remotely, even in another state. Company after company is vacating space or reducing the amount of space it uses in the high rise buildings in New York City. New York may never look the same. The sight of thousands of employees entering he high rise office buildings to go to work spaces may now be a thing of the past.

LyrArc Article Gist
Indian PM Modi says about the future of Madras (Chennai) region "it is very important that an NDA double-engine government is formed in Tamil Nadu. When there is a government here, which works harmoniously with the Union government, it will be easier for investors to place their money here." India is increasing ties with the European Union and Germany, and all parts of the world. In this context PM Modi emphasized the importance of investment in the Chennai region with a government in the state that works on rapid development of the state such as the NDA state governments in other states that work with a single minded focus on rapid industrialization with the federal government under PM Modi.

LyrArc Article Gist
Britain's Keely Hodgkinson, 800 metres gold medalist at Paris, talks about the pressure building up, her experience after an injury, the slump and her recovery in 2025. After a difficult period and an injury while going to London for her MBE, she says she is chilling, and has gained something from the experience to let go off the pressure and just be herself.