LyrArc Article Gist
Policy on China in the second year of the DJT Administration- shift from adversary positions to cooperation. A shift in policy after the meetings with Chinese leaders Xi and Wang Yi at Busan, South Korea in 2025. WSJ Analysis looks at what happened in the first term of DJT, the Biden Administration that followed and in 2025 in US-China relations and how the posture changed, how Xi and his team built rapport with DJT and his team over the tumultuous period in 2025. US turned to Xi in getting Iran to the table for negotiations in Islamabad meetings after the month long effort to take out Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program infrastructure. This was arranged in the early hours of Tuesday April 7th 2026. Throughout the US air campaign in Iran China pursued the policy it had set at Busan of not letting it affect US- China relations and the DJT visit to Beijing believing it sets the basis for the future course of US- China that affects the whole world beyond regions such as the Middle East where little headway has been made in bringing about peace. China US, EU, India, Brazil, Latin America, Africa, Indonesia, make up most of the world's population and China remains focused on ensuring the US and China can through their cooperation maintain peace in the world overall. This is reflected in this statement of China's Foreign Ministry on Busan meeting as the beginning of something new and big for the world- "Over the past seven decades and more, we have been working from generation to generation on the same blueprint to make it a reality. We have no intention to challenge or supplant anyone. Our focus has always been on managing China’s own affairs well, improving ourselves, and sharing development opportunities with all countries across the world. And that is an important secret to our success. China will further deepen reform across the board, expand opening up, and promote higher-quality economic growth while achieving an appropriate increase in economic output, and advance well-rounded human development and common prosperity for all. This will also expand the space for cooperation between China and the United States." This relates to China's worst fear, worst nightmare - that before it can become a fully developed economy for 1.4 billion people it would find itself in the situation that faces Japan of an aging society and weak growth something Japan faces as a fully developed economy much smaller of 120 million people. Japan per capita GDP is at $36,000 2.5 times China's at $14,000 and about a fifth of Germany's at $64,000, about a seventh of the USA at $92,000. So that if China does not continue along the path of development it has followed since 1990 working with the US and EU it faces the prospect of losing forever the prospect of joining Japan and fall into lower than middle income status when large parts of the interior of China a third of its economy that is rural are still living in poor economy status with per capita GDP of $3500, which is 8% of the GDP per capita of the poorest state heavily rural state of Mississippi in the US. Even Shanghai and Beijing with about $32,000 per capita GDP are only about 58% of the per capita GDP of Louisiana in the bottom one third of US states. Xi Wang Yi, Lifeng are doing what China must do to compete with advanced US and European economies and Japan- continue to work with the US on the development model that has worked the best for China since 1990. It is not about supplanting anyone China is serious when it says here- "Over the past seven decades and more, we have been working from generation to generation on the same blueprint to make it a reality. We have no intention to challenge or supplant anyone. Our focus has always been on managing China’s own affairs well, improving ourselves, and sharing development opportunities with all countries across the world." ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The Guardian looks at high street, the small downtowns in urban areas across the north of England and the Midlands, coastal towns in decline, where Reform UK is offering an alternative to the decline.  Are Britain's best days in the past, and after the failure of Austerity, Brexit and the disappointment with Starmer, what lies ahead. If Farage wins and falters will this put Britain in a spiral of permanent decline? Boarded up shops, closed department stores and banks, with the rise of online shopping and online services, is creating a new situation on streets in mid and small towns in England. People see the decline all around them and this is creating anew mood in favor of trying something else after Labour and Tories have promised and things are taking a turn for the worse in the physical appearance of neighborhoods. Across the UK 34,000 shops closed in 2024, that is 37 a day, and this is true more for the north of England, the Midlands and deprived coastal towns, where Reform has come close to Labour in the last election. In one focus group in You.gov and other research a participant used strong words- that it was "soul destroying" to see the extent of the decline. Across Europe, in Germany as in UK, in France, the same sense of high street decline is evident. Underinvestment in transport, policing, healthcare, and social services. University of Warwick professor Fetzer  has studied this and the effects of austerity first under Cameron and Brexit under Johnson, the covid period, return of Labour but no lifting up program of large investments that would create a feeling of change, to replace the sense that somehow Britain was "going to the dogs," with half a million shoplifting offences in 2025, up 13% in 2025 over 2024, and the homelessness. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The new head of India's Space Agency ISRO, Kailasavadivoo Sivan, talks to DW.com about the Space Agency's plans for the future. ISRO launched a mission to Mars which went into Mars orbit, at a very low cost.  The Mars Orbiter Mission vehicle is orbiting the planet Mars since 2014. In 2008 ISRO sent an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon. The future missions include a second mission to the moon, and a mission to the Sun. The solar mission Aditya-L1 will study the properties of the Sun. Mr. Sivan says his focus includes use of High Throughput Satellites(HTS) for providing high data-rate transmission. This is now available in cities, and the HTS will enable this for remote regions of India. Other focus is in agriculture with information on crops increased from 8 to 15 crops so that farmers have more information on fertility of soil, crop yields. Sivan says progress can be made with more international cooperation and sharing of technology, particularly with India leading the way with low cost high tech applications that benefit education, agriculture, and bringing space applications to people it never reached before. Sivan comes from one of India's villages, which are now experiencing change through India's rapid modernization efforts. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
President Trump's focus in the State of the Union message in 2020 in the U.S. Congress was on what he had done for U.S. prestige and perception- "In three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America's destiny. We have totally rejected the downsizing." "We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never going back." The theme of the speech- "The Great American Comeback." No longer were other nations be allowed to take advantage of America, American interests would come first, and this also meant blue collar working families and middle class. Trade deals with Mexico and Canada, trade deal with China, reversing of the trade deficit, bringing back about 12,000 of the 60,000 thousand factories lost over two administrations Democratic and Republican of the last 16 years with many more factories in the pipeline, increasing jobs and incomes in an unprecedented way, were all the focus of the speech. The president basically sidestepped the impeachment for Ukraine policy and implementation, and focussed on the optimism from reversing American decline in trade, jobs, and manufacturing under past Republican and Democratic administrations.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The $42 billion withdrawal on Thursday March 9 from SVB bank is the largest one day withdrawal in US banking history, over twice that of Washington Mutual when it collapsed in 2008, says this report in the WSJ. By concentrating on Silicon Valley, SVB bank went on a growth spree, but its concentration in the Valley proved to be its undoing. The optimism turned awry in 2021 with the decline in NASDAQ of 33%, and tech companies facing layoffs with more scrutiny from the government and the US Congress, efforts to breakup monopolies, the Fed chairman Powell's and president Biden's efforts to focus on the cost of living crisis.

LyrArc Article Gist
Why are home covid test kits harder to find in the US compared to Europe and other places? Part of the reason is that the FDA was more stringent in approving home tests than in Europe. During the focus on vaccination in mid 2021 there was less demand for home tests so that Abbott and other makers of home tests actually cut back on production. European governments continued buying them in bulk to distribute them free as the tests were required to enter restaurants and public transport in Europe. With Omicron in December 2021 pharmacies in the US quickly ran out of tests and prices were high at $25 for test kits.

LyrArc Article Gist
A key base of support for DOnald Trump is faltering after the release of a lewd videotape of Trump's comments on women. A Reuters/Ipsos poll now shows Trump having only a one point lead over Clinton among evangelicals. This is a key base of Republican support in any presidential election. Christianity Today is cited here in an editorial saying support was impossible for a man with the background of Trump for "greed and sexual morality." It also said that such support only gives people next to us wonder about whether we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, and only proves the self focus we are wrapped up in.

LyrArc Article Gist
President Trump accepts the Republican nomination at a White House event resembling a rally.  His focus remained on the economy and putting America first.

Many of the 1500 people at the White House gardens did not wear masks. The WSJ report says not every attendee was tested for coronavirus.  The WSJ also says this was an unprecedented use of the White House as the lectern for the president was set right on the South lawn facing the White House. The speech was followed by a performance from an opera singer and a fireworks display over the Washington Monument. 

 

LyrArc Article Gist
Signs of a permanent shift in property and housing markets in China in 2014 as the new administration of premier Li Keqiang shifts policy to focus on employment and indicators of wellbeing such as pollution, education, and healthcare.

LyrArc Article Gist
Varghese George of The Hindu provides this analysis of the elctions in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh.  He points out that primeminister Modi's own popularity may have prevented a worse result. There are questions about how much Hindutva politics will play a part in 2019 elections and the role Yogi Adityanath plays after campaigning in this election. There is alo a question of how the opposition can unite if the Congress party becomes an alternative to the BJP, and the lack of any particular leader in the non-Congress opposition. How will the campaign take shape in the 2019 election in which a national election without the local incumbency politics and local issues makes a national focus emerge between competing visions for the future- that of the Congress and the BJP. And how these visions are articulated and not lost in the clamour and din of political wrangling particularly in the case of the BJP's focus on development that pushed it forward in the last election. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Microsoft generates most of its profits from its Windows software and the Office Suite on the 315 million PC's sold annually. The Bing search engine and the XBox videogame have been marginally profitable or sustained losses. Ballmer's focus was on protecting the Windows franchise from new technologies and products. In the process Microsoft was not able to capitalize on new opportunities as technology shifted including cloud computing, smartphones and tablets. A new CEO after Ballmer is expected to come up with a new strategy.

LyrArc Article Gist
Japan's International Cooperation Agency plans to fill some of the gaps in western participation in accelerating African infrastructure building that have opened up in the last  two decades. Unneeded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led to lack of attention and focus on much needed development in Africa by the US and Europe. This is changing and the JICA with its long history of participation in African development is also now taking on an important role to give Africa a new opportunity to accelerate economic progress after the pandemic.

LyrArc Article Gist
The first Quad Summit of leaders of US, Australia, India and Japan takes place on March 11, 2021. The Quad is a force for good says the Indian prime minister, with its focus on vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies. 

The leaders affirmed the need to ensure equitable access to the vaccines for speedy economic recovery and benefitting global health. Mr. Biden affirmed the need for the Indo-Pacific region to be "governed by international law, free of coercion and upholding universal values."

LyrArc Article Gist
China's president Xi Jinping visiting a trade fair in Shanghai, says China will shift to larger imports as it responds to calls from the U.S. and Europe to further open its markets, and buy more rather than focus on selling to the world. He said "it is China's sincere commitment to open the Chinese market." More than 80% of China's trading partners have trade deficits with China with severe complaints and tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the U.S. president Trump.

LyrArc Article Gist
Manjoo of the NYT describes Apple's new product HomePod which is similar to the Amazon Echo, a smart speaker that has inside it a Amazon virtual assistant. The price tag of $349 is twice that of the Echo.

Manjoo says the surround sound is better and can be customized to the room you are in, though from a distance Echo works better. Apple is now building its capabilities in the cloud services and artificial intelligence field to do better than Amazon in the home assistant product segment. This will help Apple make its personal assistant Siri handle requests better, in many languages. This is a part of the transformation at Apple as it shifts from focus on hardware to focus on "deep learning," and " machine learning.," fields that are now considered transformative.

 

LyrArc Article Gist
The Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow was prescient in predicting problems of declining support for Mr. Putin before the December 2011 parliamentary elections. Work with 32 focus groups by the Center in May 2012 shows a continuing erosion of support for Putin as efforts to open the political system have faded. The discontent focusses on the delivery of basic services such as healthcare, education, law enforcement, infrastructure.

LyrArc Article Gist
In the final debate for the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump dodges the question from moderator Chris Wallace about accepting the election results. He tells Wallace "I will tell you you at the time," and when asked again says- "I'll keep you in suspense." Most experts think Clinton appeared to be the better candidate, especially with her closing statement to voters. She spent more time preparing which showed as she made crucial points on Putin, Trump's tax returns, the economy, and brought the focus onto Trump's behaviour during the campaign denigrating women and minorities, using scare tactics.

LyrArc Article Gist
We live in a period of anxiety, some anxiety is natural but when facing extended periods of anxiety for over 6 months causing distress and impacting day to day life, do something about it, says this expert. About 18 percent of people in America over the age of 18 will suffer from anxiety disorder each year, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. This increases to 28 percent in the course of a lifetime for Americans. Take a walk, reduce alcohol intake because of the association with anxiety, exercize, deep breathing, and yoga. Meditation is highly recommended and a natural way to combat anxiety and stress in life. As anxiety includes an excessive focus on future that we don't feel we control, it helps to let go. In meditation practice start with 5 minutes and deep breathing called pranayama in yoga. Yoga routine with simple basics can be part of the morning exercize. Any yoga studio can help or it can be done at home. Creating a safe space that is calm and healing helps a lot. Medical experts also recommend spending time with nature and natural surroundings. It takes away some of the stuff that is worrying oneself, and shifts attention to the  to the trees, nature outside. Turn off the phone ringer and put away the iPhone. Reduce other activities that crowd one's schedule to focus on calming activities such as these.  At other times read poetry or a book that relaxes, or a program showing scenery on television. Being with other people in settings such as volunteering to help others, and connecting with friends and family in a comfortable setting are also part of healthy living.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This NYT editorial on the Jeb Bush Tax Plan says Bush has taken into account the shift in voter sentiment and focus on increasing inequality, with Trump, Kasich and Huckabee sounding these themes in their campaigns. The WSJ editorial on the same day also mentioned the plan's effort to help improve worker wages by increasing business investment, and creating the kind of growth where workers could share in the benefits. Jeb Bush made the lack of economic mobility a focus of his speech at the 2013 CPAC conference, a theme he shares along with his concern for fair treatment of Hispanic immigrants. In his speech at the 2013 CPAC conference Bush said: "the central mission of conservatives is to reignite social mobility in this country- restoring the right to rise," and pointed to the loss of economic mobility in the U.S. compared to any point since World War II.