LyrArc Article Gist
President Biden made the decision to allow about half a million Venezuelan migrants who cannot be deported because US has no diplomatic relations with that country, to work legally. In New York half of the 100,000 migrants who arrived there in 2023 are putting too much pressure on the social safety net, a crisis for the school's shelter system, schools and budget. New York Democrats lobbied heavily for a change in the system. Mr.Biden made the decision to allow the Venezuelan migrants to be able to work legally. NY Mayor Adams and NY Governor Kathy Hochul lobbied heavily. The city had to house 60,000 migrants and it imposed a strain on the system. It was estimated to cost $12 billion for the city over a number of years. In the long run it will help New York State and the US with shortages of workers, yet in the short run the Republicans and immigration skeptics are protesting the arrival of migrants. Migrants arriving here after August will not be covered to not increase migration over the Mexican border.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Harris attended the Munich Security Conference 3 years in a row and met with world leaders in the last 2 years. She has also learned from working with Biden who was over a period of 30 years chairman or senior most member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. No other president comes close. Harris has as foreign policy adviser Phillip Brown who did his PhD. on French Gaullist security policy. Her close links and great understanding of India are also an asset as India is a key part of US policy in Asia with Japan and Australia, and is expected to be the third largest economy in the world over the next decade. This will help in setting economic policy along with foreign policy. Under Biden domestic policy worked hand in hand with foreign policy to achieve domestic policy goals of industrial strength and manufacturing in the US. Harris is likely to continue this policy approach. Harris is a close observer and learner of the conduct of economic policy under Biden, and can add in some ways to bring fresh look at foreign policy. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Asbit faces months of protests in Hong Kong with no end in sight China decides to take the long view. Carrie Lam has said that China is playing the long game in Hong Kong as it has too much stake in world affairs and its trading relations. This is particularly true today with trade tensions with the U.S. and a wary Europe. 

The story is one of two cultures, with Hong Kong very different from the culture president Jinping and Mainlanders know. There is little space in between so being patient appears to be the best way. Jinping met Carrie Lam recently in China and says he trusts Carrie Lam, a civil servant in the British tradition, who is caught between the two conflicting cultures and wants to take a break from the chaotic situation in which she can rarely go out without meeting protesters.

LyrArc Article Gist
The U.S. Supreme Court  narrows the scope of the ban to people who have no bonafide relationship with a person or entity in the U.S., and allows partial implementation of the ban on 6 countries sought by the Trump administration. The court will hear the full case with oral arguments in October to decide. Earlier lower courts had reversed the travel ban, and president Trump filed an emergency appeal at the high court. The narrowing of the implementation is also applied to refugees. Chief Justice Roberts worked to negotiate a compromise on a middle approach, getting Justices Kennedy and the four liberal justices on board for the unsigned opinion. Conservative Justices Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch offered a partial dissent saying that the compromise was not workable in practice.

LyrArc Article Gist
Textualism or strict interpretation of the Constitution word for word may be back but one can never be sure. No sooner is one decision made in a certain direction with a particular approach to the law whether it be textualism or something else it then comes up for rethinking a few years later, under a different approach to the law or from a new angle. This is the law practiced in most British style courts of law including the US.  Former Justice Breyer of the US Supreme Court replaced by his law clerk Ketanji Jackson, is interviewed by NYT's Adam Liptak. Today so much is written about Breyer as a non textualist, and Gorsuch, Kavanaugh recent additions to the Court as textualist or strict interpreters of the Constitution based on when it was written with what intent. Yet as thinking individuals who like the rest of the American people grow in their understanding all Justices cannot be categorized  in this way. Breyer says he worked with retired Justices Kennedy and Souter and found them to be willing and keen on hearing all angles. Then it has to be said that both Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were law clerks for Kennedy. Much of American law at the highest court actually is no better than any other human creation - it tries to approximate as best one can the people of the US. Sotomayor coming from Puerto Rican descent, Ketanji Jackson from minority black, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch from Georgetown preparatory schools where Kavanaugh's paternal grandfather attended Yale something even JFK could not claim, Chief Justice Roberts coming from a company professional type background, Barrett a professor at a Catholic university, Kagan with a Bostonian JFK style background, Alito old Italian and Clarence old minority black background. Breyer retired recently to make way for a younger judge, Judge Ketanji Jackson who was law clerk to Breyer. Breyer is writing a new book which he hopes the conservatives on the Supreme Court will read- Justices Kavanaugh, Barrett and Gorsuch. The book coming out March 26 has the title- Reading the Constitution- Why I Chose Pragmatism not Textualism. He hope these Justices will read the book and say their colleague was making sense, would say that it was not a bad point. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Children in the US should not be directed to educational content developed by tech companies using writers in Kenya and Philippines who lack the education to do this. A data labeler that hires people in Philippines and Kenya at $8 an hour, hundreds of thousands of low cost contractors, to create content. Some of the content is of such low quality that it had to be redone by Scale employees, says this story in WSJ. It started out providing this to self driving technologies companies needing data labeling, and now does this for AI.  Samples of questions for content are - explain a moon landing to a 6 year old, says the WSJ. Serious questions about quality of content going to AI and the willingness of Tech companies including Google and Apple to not make this a priority.  Education requires a different approach for quality of content and the tech monopolies are not the ones who should be in this role to build the educational content that a team of scientists and faculty envisioned in cultural literacy for the US under ED Hirsch since the 1970's. More than at other times in US history this is important to preserve the Nation the founders envisoned. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
FactSet Research Systems shows that of 13,339 ratings of U.S. listed companies 96% were buy, hold or overweight. Only 4% were sell or underweight. Mike Mayo describes the difficulties he faced giving true ratings of banks that reflected loan and other problems- in over 2 decades as a bank analyst- in his book "Exile on Wall Street." A significant culture change is required, says Mayo, for the hundreds of analysts who do the ratings to perform their function of providing proper scrutiny of companies. The clout of banks in the American capitalism of today also works to the severe detriment of the economc system to perform the way it should. He says the U.S. should look to the Financial Services Authority in Britain for the kind of actions that are needed for the financial sector supervisory officials. He points out that the FSA fired many of its existing staff and looked for new talent, at the same time increasing the salaries and benefits so that regulatory supervisors were not looking for opportunities in the private sector....

LyrArc Article Gist
Biden's very conservative choices for his cabinet which one British reader of The Times calls UK One Nation type choices. Many of the cabinet members could easily have served under a Republican administration before Trump or a Democratic administration in the tradition of Harry Truman in the 1950's. No members of the cabinet belong to the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party.  A look at the Truman administration after 1950 shows John Wesley Snyder, who headed a bank in St Louis and worked for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation under Franklin Roosevelt performing a key role for integrating 8 million GI soldiers into the economy, and implementing the Marshall Plan. A similar job awaits another banking official Janet Yellen in Biden's cabinet to keep people employed during the pandemic. Xavier Becerra, currently attorney general of California, and formerly Congressman for 24 years, who endorsed "medicare for all" is the new Health Secretary. He grew up in a one room apartment with his Mexican parents. Secretary of State goes to Anthony Blinken, Dean Acheson was in this role under Truman as the Cold War surged with the Berlin crisis and the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. Today the challenges from Russia and China are taking the shape of a revival of tensions. George Marshall who led American forces in the war, was secretary of defense. This position is given to a soldier Gen. Lloyd Austin who led forces in the wars in the Middle East. This has the potential to deliver better results after the years when America veered off course under the administrations of Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama, following the Truman, Eisenhower administrations that setup the recovery after World War II. Today after the banking crisis of 2009, disastrous healthcare and infrastructure neglect in the U.S., followed by the pandemic, a recovery like the one after World War II is needed.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Gerald Seib, executive editor of of the WSJ, attributes the divisions in America both on the left and the right to a deep skepticism among people about the intentions of the U.S. political and financial establishment to conduct the country's affairs in a way that benefits all people. Both the traditional Democratic and Republican establishments, the Bush-Reagan, Clinton-Obama politicians and the financial community were seen as self-serving and looking after their own interests. The right of center supply side economics and the the tolerance for immigration levels of 30% rise in the last decade were discredited. A much larger recovery program was seen as needed from the deeply bruising effects of the financial crisis of 2008, started by the reckless financial establishment behaviours, than either the Reagan supply siders or the Obama people had understood or planned. This opened the way for Mr. Trump to take up the cause of ordinary Americans with a message of ambitious infrastructure development, confronting China's use of trade adversely affecting American workers, and slowing down immigration. And within the Democratic party the emergence of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders with programs for a wealth tax that would finance Medicare for All and college education supported by the federal government. Both the traditional Republicans under Bush and Democrats under Clinton Obama were seen not upto the task, after the 2008 financial and economic crisis created deeper scars than were imagined possible. The lack of effective policies under Bush or Obama simply aggravating the situation further. The culture wars have split Americans down the middle with a breakdown of the traditional American family and social structures creating deep anxieties in America. Obama's comments unsettled people in the heartland when he said that economic decline in the Rust Belt had made people there to "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them."   The trillions of dollars spent in wars in Asia and the Middle East were seen by Mr. Trump as an enormous waste when much needed investment was deprived of attention at home. Mr. Trump hammered this point home till today it is well accepted across America.  Even as political divisions persist they are now on how to tackle the redevelopment and growth of the U.S. The new focus of agreement has shifted with agreement across the country that infrastructure development in the U.S. and defending workers rights to jobs and opportunities is the top priority. That trade relations need to be reshaped keeping this priority ever present in negotiations. As a result all parties could agree on infrastructure and the recently concluded agreement for trade with Mexico and Canada and phase 1 of negotiated agreement with China. In overseas affairs the U.S. under Trump seeks cost sharing with a 2% of GDP defense spending by other nations so that money can be diverted to use at home. In this sense the debate has already shifted in the U.S. and the UK to how to address the problems of uneven development and growth across the two countries and better allocation of scarce resources to needs at home. Which is for the U.S. a good thing in the middle of all the perception of divisions.      ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party wins election for president in South Korea 2025- 49% to 41% for Kim Moon-soo for the conservative candidate. South Korea's election was the result of the ouster of conservative president Yoon, who was a former prosecutor who split South Korean politics with a hardline stance and was ousted recently. Lee is a factory woker who seeks to keep South Korea firmly with the US in Asia, yet also seeks to balance this with good realtions with key trading partner China.

Biden invited Yoon to the White House as he sought to bring South Korea and Japan as firm partners in the Asia Pacific only to see Yoon ousted over losing support within his own conservative party for conspiracy theories and declaring martial law, lack of flexibility. The election of Lee offers an opportunity to bring South Korea back to moderation and unity in its internal affairs.

LyrArc Article Gist
The future both of Turkey and Europe at stake in the elections in Turkey. Turkey has been hit by inflation of over 60%, a severe earthquake, difficult relations with the EU and the US, a lack of foreign investment. The mayoral elections in Ankara and Istanbul went to opposition parties. A civil servant is heading the opposition parties contesting the election with Mr. Erdogan who has led Turkey for 2 decades.

LyrArc Article Gist
This Politico report looks at the political career of Nikki Haley, 52 year old former governor of South Carolina. She comes across as a woman of resilience who did not at all let her situation as an immigrant's daughter in a southern state in the US faze her. Her parents come from highly educated background in India, and this may have given her that extra layer of resilience at home.

LyrArc Article Gist
A proposal by the former FDIC chairman, Sheila Bair, to now extend the U.S. Federal Reserve loans made to American bankers to everybody in this country. This will level the playing field, and bring a true sense of equality, with everyone entitled to the same benefit. And this could be done in Europe too, because the ECB could level the playing field by making the low interest loans it made recently to European bankers now available to everybody in Europe. And wouldn't that be a good idea? Yes, it comes from someone who has a good knowledge of banking, seeing us all through a financial crisis, and a keen sense of what is good for the U.S. and Europe. Bair makes her point in a novel way, yet it voices the feelings of the middle class in the U.S. and Europe.

LyrArc Article Gist
Dana Milbank of the WP says the views of some Democrats on Trump as a good Republican nominee based on the notion that he has high negative perception with voters is fraught with dangers for U.S. democracy. Milbank points out that this ignores what is good for the country. Having Trump as the nominee of one of the two main parties would create a divisive atmosphere and is not good for the country, says Milbank. In comparing Trump with Cruz, he says Trump is likely to follow his instincts to operate outside the U.S. constitutional system. Cruz as a person believes in the U.S. constitution and would never endorse violence or action against minorities. Cruz has not done enough to come across as a likable person with his persistent focus on conservative or Reagan values to the exclusion of everything else. This is changing in mid-April 2016 following a CNN interview with the Cruz family, a MSNBC town hall answering questions from undecided voters, and NYT coverage of Cruz at a Brooklyn bakery, that shows a different human face that people have never seen about Cruz. Cruz's self-deprecating humor in a NYT article where he talks about voters not liking "a hectoring scold," is part of this needed change that could have happened earlier in the campaign. About Trump Milbank cites Conservative party prime minister Cameron who says Trump would unite all Britons against him if he ever came to Britain....

LyrArc Article Gist
Modi's visit to Moscow and Vienna could be symbolic in setting the stage for a Ukraine peace settlement. Here is why- Austria was occupied by the western powers and the Soviets in 1945. By 1955 Austria sought to become a free country free of occupation zones. It offered its neutrality and asked Indian prime minister Nehru to convey this to the Soviets. Nehru was seen by Austrians as the only person in international affairs who could talk to the Soviets about Austrian neutrality to end occupation. Nehru and his ambassador to Moscow Menon met with Austrian officials. When Russian foreign minister Molotov was approached on the Austrian neutrality proposal by Menon in Moscow Molotov said such neturality could be revoked, Russia needed better assurances. It was the death of Stalin in 1953 that led to the Russian position changing and relaxing its occupation of Austria. Bruno Kreisky, Austrian prime minister, says in his memoirs that the name of Nehru will forever be connected to Austrian neutrality and independence. This led to an independent Austria being formed in July 1955. As Austria accepted entry into the European Union in 1995 and identified with US and EU this part of its history is now forgotten. So it is again that Indira Gandhi in 1983 and Narendra Modi in 2024 visit Vienna. In 2024 Modi can be seen as the only person in international affairs who could take the message of a peace settlement in Ukraine to Russia. For this reason and because of India's call that the war cannot be settled on the battlefield that Modi is stepping into the role that Nehru played in 1955, even though this role is in its early stages. This shows the relationship with Russia has meaning for Europe even as India sees itself as a partner of the US and Europe and Japan. As in 1953 the results are not there, yet as in 1953 this and a changing world situation could finally lead toa breakthrough in this war in Ukraine.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Of 161 million people employed in 2024 about 40-50 million in vulnerable groups living from paycheck to paycheck and without savings to support them in a medical emergency is a real problem in the US economy. It is why even as unemployment looks good at 4% and inflation down to 3% there is a lot of angst for Americans for cost of living. Fifteen million baby boomers who will turn 65 years for retirement between now 2024 and 2030 face a situation where they have less than 250,000 in savings. Many who were born between 1945 and 1962 called baby boomers are in this group with diminished savings. In the prime of their careers they were hit by the 2009 financial crisis caused by bank speculation risk taking. They also were hit by the pandemic in the peak years of income growth. Other such vulnerable groups are young people with high student who are being helped by president Biden. There are also the low income groups that have been hit by medical costs and a family emergency that were pushed into poverty. Other groups in the millions are the people at the low income levels who are working paycheck to paycheck because of housing costs. About one fourth or 25% of apartment renters are people whose households budget shows 50% or more going to housing costs which have increased 20% in the last 2-3 years, which includes the pandemic years 2022 and 2023. President Biden seeks to limit apartment rent price increases to 5% and Kamala Harris has proposed help for families for the portion above 30% of household income going to rent. The jump in cost of living from automobiles, automobile repair and housing, cost of groceries have affected other groups with large credit card debt. This is a result of the supply chain concentration in China which comes from American business overconcentrating production in China and previous administrations doing little about this. Biden's answer is to bring jobs and manufacturing knowhow and investment back to America. During the pandemic some people resisted getting vaccinated and lost their jobs, a million people lost their lives, others took early retirement seeing the stress ful lives during the pandemic, others including women quit to take care of children. This has reduced the labor supply to business leading to tight supply higher prices.The result is that there are about 5 such vulnerable groups each with about 5-10 million people for a total of about 40-50 million people at risk. For these people the cost of living presents huge challenges, including childcare. It includes young people and retirees, single women and families on low income hourly wages that have not kept up with inflation.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The return of sound money is good for the US economy and US savers among the common people. The end of tech excess valuations and profits is also good for the US economy. Joe Davis of Vanguard talks about ways in which the policies of the Biden administration and the US federal Reserve's Jay Powell are benefiting the US and the American people including millions of savers after the excesses of Tech and the financial sector since 2009. The return to a more stable long run economy is now facing the US, says Davis.

The rest of us other than them, other than the Tech sector and others who benefitted from negative rates, we will benefit from this change. By Vanguard calculations ten year return forecasts will increase by 2% percentage points annualized for equities and for fixed income since last year. This is a good thing for America.

LyrArc Article Gist
French voters turned to parties outside the mainstream left Socialist Party and the right Republican Party for the first time in a run off presidential election. The National Front's Jean Le Pen made it to the runoff in 2002, then lost to Chirac of the Republican Party who won 78% of the vote. This time the Republican Party candidate Fillon had about 20%, the Socialist Party candidate Hamon won just 6% of the vote with the rest of the socialist vote going to a far left candidate Jean Luc Melenchon who had 19.6%. The winners were Emmanuel Macron, a former Economy minister under president Hollande of the socialist Party, getting about 24% and Marine Le Pen, the daughter of Jean Le Pen of the National Front, getting 21.5%. Compared to the U.S. the situation is slightly different in France because of the very high unemployment rate for young people- younger voters supported the National Front, and people especially in rural areas in the north, north east, and the south of the country around Nice and Marseille supported the National Front. Macron's movement En Marche, centrist party drawing support from centre right and centre left without clear ideology except to renew France and pro-EU, was strong in urban areas, among more educated people, especially in Paris and the area around Bordeaux and Toulouse in the south east of the country. Fillon did not do well in some traditional Republican Party areas including Nice, with inroads from Le Pen, who defined the party around anti-immigration, closed borders, and withdrawal from the European Union. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Under Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong's constitution stated Hong Kong would pass legislation to stop national security crimes such as treason, secession and espionage. The Basic Law also had a provision to grant universal suffrage. It is important that the universal suffrage or democracy was never granted or made a priority by Hong Kong people during the boom years under the British, as a French commentator for La Croix aptly points out in FR24. He says he watched incredulous as Hong Kongers selfishly pursued money.  The Article 23 also provides for the National Peoples Congress to add laws for national security. The last time that Hong Kong people were faced with the National Peoples Congress passing such laws was in 2003 when half a million came out in protest. This was shelved at that time. It is now law today. Why now? More protests are expected and an election in July would bring more seats in the legislature for the pro-democracy parties, says the WSJ. Another factor is that Hong Kong at one time represented 16% of China's GDP in 1997, today it is down to about 3% in 2019. It is no longer that important to China, even while continual protests from Hong Kong detracted from other vital issues facing China as it shifts away from its trading relationship with the U.S. and as the U.S. imposes strict conditions on trade, investment and technology flows. Under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed by U.S. Congress in 2019 an annual assessment has to be made by the State Department whether "one country, two systems" is operating. This is why Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State has made his comments that "no reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China." The new assessment would diminish confidence among foreign businesses in the city, in addition to ending its special trading status with the U.S. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
One Big Beautiful Act passed in US Senate with Vance casting tie breaking vote. It renews the tax cuts from DJT's first term in office in 2017 and provides tax cuts to seniors, middle class, and small business. It provides 100% expensing for business to increase investment. Mothers get child care credit that is doubled, senior citizens over 65 years get a $6000 deduction. The seniors deduction means 88% of seniors will now pay no taxes on social security benefits from 64%. Medicaid changes so that able bodied Americans will have to put in 80 hours of work to qualify.  Note that the Medicaid program was becoming unworkable and unsustainable- starting with the idea of helping people unable to work and transitioning those who could work, it jumped to $228 billion cost in 2000 from $28 billion in 1980, ten times over 20 years. Going up to $918 billion in 2024, 4 times the 2000 level. Medicaid is now 62% of what Social Security costs, $918 billion compared to $1480 billion for Social Security. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ reporters Corkery and Yoon give a remarkable account of the individual homeowners and investors inside one toxic subprime mortgage security from Countrywide Financial Corp. named CWABS- 2006-2007. There is Amanda Gavini of Fort Myers who continued making mortgage payments against the odds after a illness and death in the family. And a couple Donald Mudd- Patricia Starr who were approved by Countrywide for a $171,000 adjustable rate mortgage loan at 8% with a $10,000 down payment for a home in Port Charlotte, Florida. The approval came only 3 months after the couple emerged from personal bankruptcy in 2006, and by 2009 Mudd was missing payments. Other borrowers such as Mrs. Gavini in Florida took out two loans at 7% and 11% in 2006, have continued making payments and are still unable to refinance under the HAMP or HARP government programs. It is because of these homeowners who continue to make payments helping the security price recover, that one of PIMCO's funds which owns a stake in this security has made good returns. Hedge fund Marathon Asset has also made good returns on this security because of the U.S. government's Public Private Investment Program to help banks recover by providing government incentives for purchase of these securities from banks. This was a way to get banks holding these subprime securities to resume normal lending in financial markets....

LyrArc Article Gist
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General says he welcomes the conditions only approach outlined by president Trump for the allied role in Afghanistan. This means taking the appropriate action depending on conditions. NATO will move forward with expected commitments of its members as the U.S. counteracts the deteriorating situation there to prevent a vacuum from developing. This happens following the disastrous results of the Obama administration's withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 against the military's opinion, leading to a reversal of all the hard won gains and increase in terrorism, adding millions of refugees. Gen. McMaster and Gen. Mattis who developed the new plans in 2017 were in Afghanistan during that period.

The split between U.S. and other members of NATO in the current effort by the U.S.to increase others contributions is- 7000 U.S. troops and 5000 troops from other NATO members.

LyrArc Article Gist
The resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis comes as a result of Mattis being unable to change plans by president Trump for a withdrawal from both Afghanistan and Syria. WSJ discloses that at a meeting on December 18 at the Pentagon, with John Bolton, White House National Security Advisor, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, and John Dunford, chairman Jt. Chiefs of Staff, Mattis could not temper the president's plans. On Thursday December 20th Mr. Mattis decided to resign. He then met Mr. Pompeo and onto the White House to meet president Trump. He and Mr. Trump discussed their contrasting world views in a 45 minute meeting, and Mr. Mattis handed over his resignation letter to Mr. Trump. Military officials were particularrly blindsided by the withdrawal from Syria. U.S. policy has vacillated back and forth in the intervention in Syria with president Obama also hesitant to commit troops in Syria. In the meeting Mattis understood that even a minimal presence in Syria was unacceptable to president Trump who ordered the removal of the 2000 troops there. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was also a result of limited patience with the war there in the 18th year and no sign that the Taliban influence had diminished since the war began- after Trump added 3000 troops to the 14,000 stationed in Afghanistan. The U.S. has 5500 troops in Iraq and there is talk about drawing this number down. The concern for the defense department is that how U.S. allies will see the withdrawal, and their perception of how reliable the U.S. is as a partner. For president Trump the cost is measured in terms of the long period the U.S. was engaged in the region without any tangible results, and U.S. not allies bearing most of the cost.      ...

LyrArc Article Gist
In a effort to improve nutrition for the urban poor in India, the Indira Canteens formed in 2017 have already made substantial progress in Bengaluru (Bangalore). The canteens backed by the state offer subsidized meals, breakfast costing 5 Indian rupees or 7 U.S. cents, lunch and dinner costing 10 rupees or 14 U.S. cents. About 65 million Indians live in urban slums, a highly marginalized group, many migrants from nearby villages who now live in slums that are often near neighborhoods of the affluent and upper middle class. In addition to low income groups, rickshaw cab drivers, and laborers, this program has benefited school and college students who also use the canteens. More than 170 canteens have been set up in Bengaluru in a hub and spoke model with canteens located near colleges and hospitals and supplied from central kitchens nearby. An app gives the menu, nearby locations and takes feedback. It costs the state 16 million euros from a state budget of 26.4 billion euros, and is an imitation of a similar project Amma Canteens in neighboring Tamilnadu state. It reaches 250,000 people a day in Bengaluru. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The US president DJT says he is on both sides of the issue. He will never forget the farmers who supported him and he wants them to do well knowing their need for good agricultural workers. As the move to return illegal migrants proceeds under ICE DJT is considering a way to allow the farmers to keep the workers they know and be responsible for them. Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins has told the president the importance of having the agricultural workforce for farmers in the US.

Even in the similar program under president Eisenhower in 1954 called Operation Wetback,  on which the current program is modeled, there was an effort to keep the agricultural workers on farms for essential agricultural activity. For a long time the Bracero program with Mexico was designed to do this with legal pathways to work in the US in the 1950's.