LyrArc Article Gist
Antonia Romeo new UK Cabinet Secretary Feb 2026-  precocious yet "warm and forthright"  in civil service interactions active as Consul General and at Home Ministry. After Westminster school and Oxford University, and a stint working at Oliver Wyman in management consulting, she joined the civil service. Becoming permanent secretary at the Department for International Development and the MoJ, and spent time as consul general in New York. She spent time with immigration and boat migrant issues at the Home Ministry, and is now keenly aware of the issues facing Britain. That bit of precociousness is needed at this time to set out a plan of action and get results for Starmer and his team. Based on what Labour stands for building on the skills of everyone in Labour not just those who go by labels as centrists, left and right, false labels that ignore that common sense means something else entirely. Getting results means addressing tough issues for the economy, cost of living, housing, through honesty, resilience, hard work and dedication. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Removing nuclear material has already been done for Kazakhstan and Georgia by the US in the past. The same methods and advanced technologies could be used to get all of the nuclear material out of Iran. Special operations set up for this purpose can also be used to get this done. This appears to be the only safe and certain way to avoid the nuclear proliferation. Despite what the media has been saying, even the Pope and others like Starmer and Macron are saying, who have never brought this up, but is the only way to tell the whole story,  the US and the world is safer without nuclear proliferation -especially in the most volatile region of the world for the last 5 decades. This is all the US is doing and getting more than its share of blame when all it is interested in is making it safe for the people of the world , including the people of India, Brazil, China and Russia, European Union and Africa, Latin America, whatever their leaders say.

LyrArc Article Gist
The details of the deal negotiated by the EU, Germany, France and other eurozone countries for a Single Resolution Mechanism, Single Resolution Board and Single Resolution Board in December 2013.

LyrArc Article Gist
One Big Beautiful Act will generate $64 billion from fees and Medicaid savings. It will reduce incentives for migrants to enter the US by imposing fees on migrants entering the country for economic reasons yet using asylum laws meant only selectively for humanitarian purposes. In past American history in the 1930-1954 migrants entered the country only for agricultural activities, for the first time in 2000-2024 asylum laws intended strictly for a limited number of thousands for humanitarian reasons were being used by millions of migrants from Asia and Latin America. 

The new fees in the One Big Beautiful Act are $5000 for entering the country illegally and another $5000 for not attending a legal proceeding. The social safety net will apply only to American citizens.

LyrArc Article Gist
The opposition in China and South Korea to Japan's release of slightly radioactive water into the sea stems from a distrust of Japanese data that supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency says the discharge does not affect public health. By next March 2% of the accumulated water will be released. In all 1.2 million tons are planned to be released over 30 years starting August 24, 2023. That water contains small quantities of radioactive tritium which Japan says is less than what Chinese nuclear plants release into the sea. TEPCO which manages the Fukushima plant decommissioning says it will post the data on release and level of radioactive material on its website with comparison to the levels seen as not affecting health that WHO has set.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Economist points out that a third of the output of Japanese companies is made overseas. Japanese firms are increasing profits with the weaker yen but not sharply reducing prices. South Korean companies have also moved production overseas. As a result the Economist says concerns about the weaker yen leading to depreciation by other countries are not realistic.

LyrArc Article Gist
Google AI tools Gemini is shown as failing when it comes to civics and democratic form of government. It is in these vital issues for a democracy that widely used tools can fail particularly in AI, and which makes them hazardous. Ai tools shown here are not able to differentiate between good leaders and bad leaders who caused major wars in the 20th century. Humans and human thinking process and sentiment are essential for democracies to function, for people to exercize their rights and fulfill their responsibilities so that a good state can serve its citizens.

LyrArc Article Gist
Paul Hannon in the WSJ tells the story of how the Swiss now support the 15% corporate minimum tax. 78% of Swiss voters support the new tax in a referendum. Switzerland is now trying to change the bad reputation it had gained as a place companies moved to shift profits to low income tax locations. Switzerland now joins 35 countries implementing the 15% corporate tax in 2024 and 2025, including the 27 members of the European Union, Australia, Japan, France and the UK. 15 other countries say they will do so in that time frame.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ editorial says the U.S. should use what little influence it has to prevent Egypt from descending into civil war after the violent crackdown on protester camps in Cairo on August 14, 2013 by the Egyptian military. It says that continuing military aid will not be politically possible if the violence continues. A separate comment by Marc Lynch of the George Washington University Institute for Middle East Studies in online Foreign Policy magazine, says the Gulf States will make up for U.S. aid and the important thing is for the U.S. to be credible in the region in the long run.

LyrArc Article Gist
The country that pioneered coal power stations will be down to its last coal power station in Nottinghamshire with the closing down of a power station by EDF in 2022. By 2024 with the government deadline for no more usage of coal Britain will have taken a major step in the fight against climate change.

LyrArc Article Gist
An ancient custom in Provence used to catch thrush birds by putting glue on twigs and branches so that birds get stuck is now banned by European Union rules. The French government plans to ban hunters from using this practice any longer. Hunters use the birds to act as call birds to attract other birds for hunting.

LyrArc Article Gist
Fears that the coronavirus will restrict supplies are pushing up prices of commodities such as sugar from Brazil and India, coffee from Brazil and parts of Africa, Vietnam, and Latin America, and cocoa from Ghana, cotton from India. Coffee and cocoa are up by 14-17% and cotton and sugar by 10-19%.

LyrArc Article Gist
The home ownership rate for the U.S. in March 2012, is 65.4%, the same rate as in 1997 before the housing bubble, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The irony of this is that the housing bubble was inflated by politicians in Congress and mortgage lenders and purchasers of mortgage securities. Fannie Mae and Countryside worked together ostensibly to promote home ownership while pursuing profits. In the case of politicians they pursued goals of raising employment and growth without understanding the risks of artificially inflating home ownership, and without consideration for incomes of subprime borrowers. A less benign view of the interests and goals of politicians comes from reflections on the impact of political lobbying by Fannie Mae and other housing lenders in the U.S. Congress. The consequences in terms of foreclosures have been devastating for minorities as well as other middle class homeowners. It has also damaged the U.S. banking system, credit growth in the economy and prospects for recovery, which will take years to correct. The federal government is also saddled with large losses at Fannie Mae because of its quasi government agency role. That role led to inflation of the bubble. Most of the consequences will be borne by middle and lower income households in the U.S. The pass-through effects in a global economy affect Europe, and emerging market countries. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The U.S. Congress passed free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, in October 2011. The deals are expected to increase U.S. exports by $13 billion, including $11 billion to S. Korea.

LyrArc Article Gist
The jawboning by ECB head Mario Draghi in July 2012, when he said the ECB would do whatever it takes to support Spain and Italy, has produced exraordinary results in calming financial markets.

LyrArc Article Gist
Greece's national statistics agency Elstat shows data indicating a rapidly deteriorating Greek economy. The unemployment rate went up to 20.9% in November, up from 18.2 % the prior month, with the total number of unemployed at 1.029 million. Industrial output declined by 11.3% in December 2011 compared to the prior year. The unemployment rate is 48% for young people ages 15-24 for November 2011 compared to 35.6% in the prior year. For women the unemployment rate was 25.4% in November, compared to 17% the prior year. In the region of Attica, which includes Athens, the unemployment rate was 21.1% in November compared to 19.2% in October, and 13.9% the prior year. This creates new concern whether austerity measures will work and whether the Greek people can go through a decade of austerity programs, with debt still at 120% of GDP in 2020 under the program designed by the EU and the IMF, or whether there are other solutions that offer more hope of recovery.

LyrArc Article Gist
Documents cited by German magazine Der Spiegel show the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) spying on the European delegation to the UN. An open letter to Britain's prime minister David Cameron published on Sept. 1, 2013 in Nordic newspapers, Sweden's Dagens Nyheter, Finland's Helsingin Sanomat, Denmark's Politiken, and Norway's Aftenposten, says: "We are deeply concerned that a stout defender of democracy and free debate such as the United Kingdom uses anti-terror legislation in order to legalize what amounts to harrassment of both the newspaper and individuals associated with it." The reference was to the Guardian newspaper which was asked to hand over Snowden document files to the British government. The Guardian newspaper destroyed computer equipment containing Snowden files after being pressured by the Birtish government. The open letter said Cameron's action "were undermining the position of the free press throughout the world." The issue of spying by the NSA has aroused strong sentiment in Germany and the Nordic countries because of memories of the period before 1945....

LyrArc Article Gist
Camp counselor saving 16 little girls in Texas floods at the Mystic campgrounds, by climbing to higher ground again and again in the dark. Washington Post gives this story from a Christian camp next to the Guadalupe River in Central Texas.

LyrArc Article Gist
Iraq is being dragged into Iran War with Iran backed Popular Mobilization Forces as part of the current Iraqi government. Today there are Sectarian divisions Shia and Sunni jostling for influence and power in the state of Iraq, a state created artificially in 1921 by Britain to protect its regional interests. After the Ottoman Empire 1524-1918 was broken up, after the WW1 in 1918, the British in subsequent negotiations got the League of Nations Mandate for Mesopotamia- historically the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It was made up of three provinces of the Ottoman Empire Basra, Baghdad and Mosul. Basra had a large Shia population, Baghdad and Mosul had a large Sunni population.  To this date no census has taken place except in 1987 and 2024 and never one that shows which portion of the population is Shia or Sunni, so no one really knows. Britain installed Faisal 1 as the King of this artificially created kingdom in 1924. The British operated in this way controlling the Shah of Iran at the time, and the Iraqi king, Egyptian king. Britain and France tried to install a Caliph in Istanbul who would rule Turkey and protect British and French interests but failed because of a Turkish military officer Ataturk who declared a independent Turkish state based in Ankara in the 1920's and defeated British sponsored armies and forces from Greece.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in WSJ sees a huge increase in green credits for reforestation as companies offset emissions by buying carbon credits. 

LyrArc Article Gist
The question of identity that looms large over the retirement years is explored from personal experience by Stephen Yoder in the WSJ.

LyrArc Article Gist
How to travel solo in US national parks and immerse in nature is shown here by Emily Edwards in The Washington Post.

LyrArc Article Gist
For anyone trying to understand the Middle East read the gripping story told in Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's own words-"The Great Speech- Nutuk," it is on Kindle Amazon. It shows week after week  Mustafa Kemal as he fought the colonial powers  the British and the French, and then turned a Caliphate into a modern country. If the Vietnamese who fought the French were seen by JFK in the way he saw Ataturk (hear JFK's words on Ataturk in Lyrarc.com) then there would be no Vietnam War. Ataturk's Republican People's Party in opposition for 2 decades wins by a landslide in Turkey's main cities- in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Antalya. In Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu wins by a margin of 11.5 percentage points. In Ankara Mansur Yavas wins by a margin of 28 percentage points. Voter turnout was 78% surpassd only by the 87% turnout in the presidential election. Imamoglu is now the contender for the presidency. This is a delayed reaction by voters to the economy with inflation having reached 86% in February and a slowdown in growth, with hardships for ordinary families. Ozgur Ozel, 52 years, replaced an aging civil servant Kilicdaroglu who hung to leadership for 13 years losing repeatedly to Mr. Erdogan and not able to exceed a 25% of the votes. Imamoglu supported Ozel to change leadership of the party founded by Kemal Ataturk in fighting for Turkey's independence from foreign powers in the 1920's. Under Ozel-Imamoglu leadership the Republican party won 38% of the vote to 35% for Erdogan's Justice Party. This is a historic win and sets Turkey on a new path, which could also set a new path for the Arab nations in the Middle East because of the tone of moderation and modernization, good governance, scientific mind, set by Kemal Ataturk. Hear JFK's remarks on the 25th anniversary of Ataturk in Lyrarc.com. If JFK had said the same for another nation building effort in Vietnam similar to that of Ataturk there would be no Vietnam War but a negotiated peace- that is if Kennedy was alive and his life not cut short in 1963.  Few people in US and Europe even know how Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic in the place of the Caliphate type of structure in Ottoman Empire, and defended his homeland from the French and British colonial powers who sought to dismember Turkey, then the remaining parts of the Ottoman Turk Empire. It is told in his own words in the Kindle book "The Great Speech Nutuk," and it is a story that is gripping in its detail of the fight against colonial powers effort to dismember Turkey in the 1920's and even maintain the old Ottoman structures to their benefit. The story is told as if it was happening right in front of our eyes. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Ada Colau and her fight to introduce fair practices for mortgages and change Spain's mortgage banking laws. Her organization is PAH- Platform for People Affected by Mortgages. The need for consumer protection in Spain's mortgage laws.

LyrArc Article Gist
Toyota is reducing senior management positions to 60 from 77. The board of directors will also be smaller, with 11 members instead of the current 27 members. It was felt that the large board did not enable discussion of important issues and slowed down decisionmaking. This is part of the new Business Plan and the new global vision for Toyota. The thrust is on sales in emerging markets which Toyota will target for increasing sales to 50% of the total sales by 2015, up from 40% currently. Sales in developed markets are set to decline to 50% of the total sales by 2015, down from 60% currently. The other push is in the hybrid sales area. Toyota will roll out 10 more hybrid vehicles by 2015, in addition to all electric cars, plug-in hybrids. Toyota will continue to have an all-Japanese board, and will use a committee of outside advisors to stay abreast of opinion in other countries. Akio Toyoda announced these plans recently and did this by himself, as he puts his own ideas to work for setting Toyota's direction....