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The First Letter to the Editor in Lyrarc.com July 27, 2016 more true in 2024- "What is missing today is a sense of hope and optimism about the future compared to the early postwar period. There was much less - no ipads or iphones, just radio - much less of everything we take for granted, but there was hope, optimism about the future, a sense of can do and endless possibilities... A singular feature was the broader consensus to do good and to do right, a larger sense of public spiritedness in politics and society." To restore hope, optimism, one must judge our actions by words of George Washington in a letter to Thomas Jefferson Feb. 1783-  "To merit the approbation of good and virtuous men  is the height of my ambition, and will be a full compensation for all my toils and sufferings in the long and painful contest in which we have been engaged." Without this Jeffersons words about "holding these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with some inalienable rights," that inspired the world for 250 years would have come to nought.   ...

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The Irish prime minister Varadkar says it is time to move on. When he assumed office he was the first from an ethnic minority background to lead Ireland, the son of an Irish mother and an Indian immigrant father. He took Ireland through the crises of coronavirus pandemic, Brexit, and improved unemployment and budget shortfalls. Recently he accepted defeat on a referendum intended to remove language in the Irish Constitution on a clause about "a woman's life within the home." Disagreements over the language of the referendum led to its not getting approved on International Women's Day by about 70% of the vote with 44% of people voting. It suggest there was no enthusiasm and its relevance at this time was not understood. It is not clear why there was a need for this referendum in the first place to remove one text of the constitution that respects the role of family and mother's contributions in the home. During the pandemic for instance women played a major role, and sometimes took on a greater share of the burden. Efforts to have women's participation as shown in Japan and India does not require constitutional wording to be changed. Japan has done remarkably well and India is about to do this. And removing the wording about women's role at home, instead of encouraging or adding wording about women actively participating in the workforce and actions to make that possible, accomplishes little. Coupling this with a wording that includes gay families in the definition of family while removing the role of women in the family language seemed to be making changes that had little to do with each other. ...

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Sweden has a progressive system of taxes. Higher taxes are willingly paid because much of the taxes go into producing public goods such as infrastructure, transportation, healthcare and education. Not a welfare state but a well funded plan for public goods that are essential for all citizens. The perception and the plan are together so that people do not worry about getting sick or getting a good education, and to have good transportation and other services.

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Monica Hesse gives this exceptional story of Gladys Ament, which is the story of American women as they voted in election after election after the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920. In 2016 she is 96 years old and used an absentee ballot to vote for a first women president for the U.S.. Ament gives this touching and graceful account of a woman who lived through many presidents, and never failed to exercize her vote in every election held since the day she was born on Aug. 26, 1920. That day Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment giving it the majority needed to become the law of the land. This was the year Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was in office. Her story starts in a two room schoolhouse in Lonaconing, Maryland, population 2054, when America was largely rural and rapidly urbanizing. The girls did the housework and the boys worked in the coal country, and women were not considered to be the ones in the home to go to a college or university. She dated a man who worked for the phone company, and later was drafted in the war. She joined Montgomery Ward filling catalogue orders. Her first vote was for FDR in 1944, in reality for Eleanor Roosevelt. And then she voted for Harry Truman, who she liked for his plain talk manner. Then Eisenhower, Nixon, Humphrey, McGovern, Carter, as she fulfilled the role of a mother and teachers aide at a school for special needs children. Her husband was not sure her daughter Mary needed to follow the two sons to college, but she made sure Mary did even though tution money was tight. She loved the self-respect which came with working, she was patient. The opportunities came and it was Mary who pursued her education and became an administrator who also supervised men. Things had changed, nobody thought of it twice, what Gladys had struggled with was now the accepted way of things. Then came a granddaughter and by this time young women had more opportunities, and there were as many women in universities as men. Gladys voted for the first black president and then for a first woman president at 96, 96 years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the vote in America. After that election in which she really voted for Eleanor Roosevelt- who was all over the country making speeches and talking to people to bring hope during the Depression years- she could see the potential in a next woman as president. She had seen some of the 18 presidents who had led the country as good leaders and some not so good, some who were seen as good in their years in office but later seen as having done poorly, she could see that women could do just as well or better after all these years of her voting and learning. ...

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Prof. Dynarski cites evidence from studies at Princeton and UCLA showing that students with laptops in classes performed worse in knowledge of the lecture given by the professor compared to students without laptops. He says there is growing evidence that laptops and tablets actually do not help in learning and absorbing the lectures- that students learn less when they use laptops or tablets in class. Conclusion: laptops act as a distraction from learning. 

By extension laptops distract also in meetings leading to less productivity, and do the same as lectures in universities in the high school classes.

Research shows that as students type out the material in the lecture as the professor talks, they are not duing the substantive processing in their heads as they should be doing. Also important is the negative effect observed in people around you as you use a laptop in class

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The US midterm elections as seen from Europe. This headline in FR24 says Mr. Trump's grip over the party is waning. In Pennsylvania's crucial Senate seat Trump supported an affluent TV health show host Mr. Oz who failed to beat a small town mayor Mr. Fetterman who turned this into a scrappy contest in every county in Pennsylvania. Fetterman saying he would fight for workers and families every step of the way. In race after race for governors and for Congress many of the more Trump loyal candidates did not do as well against Democrats who had learned that they need to put up a determined and scrappy fight for the working class and families.

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This report shows the level of coronavirus testing as of March 27, 2020 in different states in the U.S. The U.S. testing program and supplies of tests are being ramped up quickly. About 65,000 tests are being done on Americans each day. The need is for 150,000 tests a day say public health officials. Testing is slow in California compared to aggressive testing in New York which has 60% of all coronavirus cases. California with twice the population of New York has done 77,000 tests compared to 122,000 in New York. Texas has done only 21,000 states by comparison. Every week new testing technology is being developed in different labs, medical companies, and universities. Including tests that can be conducted quickly and not requiring health workers or health workers with protective gear. Speed of processing test, least point of testing contact, and the protocol for quarantine, are all part of the testing and isolating of clusters mechanism to tackle the virus. This is critical in the coronavirus action plan being developed by Dr Brx of the U.S. White House team. ...

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The Japanese Consulate in Lithuania is about to close in 1940. Jewish people from Poland have moved to Lithuania. As the Germans move across Europe the vice consul in Kaunas, Lithuania says he has to do something to help Jewish people to get to safety. Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan had authorized issue of visas to applicants. He uses this authority to issue 2100 visas, one visa sufficient for each family. 

It will be an extraordinary journey. From Lithuania to Vladivostock, Russia., and from there by boat to Japan. In Kobe the Jewish community there gets the 10 day transit visa extended so that a final destination can be planned. The journey then begins to to other parts of the world.

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Phillipe Pons in Le Monde on social media and disinformation popular with young people who have fewer employment prospects in the middle of sluggish economic growth.  Japan's Ministry of Education erasing Japan's wartime atrocities in school books in the years LDP in power since 1950's. Sanae Takaichi's comment about Japan willing to intervene if China attacks Taiwan was popular in Japan. Among young people 18 to 39 surveyed by Yomiuri 64% support Takaichi. Broadly speaking straight talk and nationalism iis becoming popular in Japan. The LDP has lost its majority in the lower and upper house in parliament and the Sanseito party with 15 seats and other smaller nationalist parties are increasing in popularity. The Ministry of Education has for many decades kept the Japanese wartime atrocities such as at Nanjing in China of the 1930's, the harsh Japanese occupation in China and Korea, out of the textbooks. The result is that Japanese young people do not have the same level of grasp of what happened in the twentieth century. ...

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The Guardian gives this story of Khamanei's rule in Iran after 1989. He was made president in 1981 in a landslide win at that time just 2 years after the revolution in 1979 that toppled the Shah of Iran's monarchial regime. Khamanei comes from a the family of a modest cleric in the town of Mashaad who was immersed in the anticolonial writings coming out of Arab North Africa's liberation movements. His policy towards Israel and the US, difficult relations with Arab countries in the neighborhood, and pursuit of nuclear weapons technologies, led Iran to become isolated and face sanctions that hurt its economy and its oil industry for three decades. It created its own version of governing and in setting up proxy militias but this resulted in huge investments diverted from the economy of Iran, neglect of its oil industry and production under western sanctions, that led to economy collapsing and student protests every decade. This expanded in 2025 to broad sections of the population calling for a new direction. Protests were suppressed leading to a disconnect with the people by 2026. To truly understand Iran one has to step back to the 1900's ( as one must also do to understand China or India), as Iran was ruled by the Qajar dynasty at the time. The first Majlis parliament was set up in Iran in 1906 -with the help of "good" Britishers like the British agent in Rajkot who helped send Gandhi to London to study law- wished to see a constitutional setup similar to Britain and limit the powers of the monarchy so that reforms in agriculture and in the civil service could be made. It lasted until 1908. At the time other Britishers in the British Empire both in India and in London sought to maintain British influence and keep out Russian influence. It was not a coincidence that the Majlis lasted only till 1908. That year in 1908 the first discovery of oil in West Asia was made in Khozestan province by George Reynolds, with investor backing of William D'Arcy. The following year 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company( later Anglo Iranian Oil Company and later British Petroleum) was formed. The oil concession was given by the Shah from Qajar dynasty. From that time on Iran became the scene of oil company interests, monarchial interests first under Qajar dynaasty and then under Pahlavis dynasty (which set itself up like Napoleon II in France from humble origins, after 1925 to replace the Qajar dynasty), and the emerging middle class lawyer and civil service, agricultural landowners class, all competing for power and influence in a Asian region with Shihite Islamic embedded in the fabric of the society. Power swung to different groups from 1925 onwards for 5 decades to the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi temporary replacement monarchy that worked with British oil interests. West Asia became a meeting point for anticolonial writings emerging from Arab North Africa and other places that took the form of and led to a socialist style anticolonial Baathist influnce that overthrew a monarchy in Baghdad Iraq in the "Free Officers" coup of June 14, 1958 led by Karim Kassem. Out of that Pan Arabic Iraqi mood emerged S. Hussein who with weapons systems imported from the US and Europe initiated the war with Iran in 1980. The Iranian counterrevolutionary movement to Iraq began from that time with the leadership of Khomeni and Khameni from 1981. This is what one has seen swing back and forth in the West Asian region for about 5 decades to 2026, the regional Arab states mostly Sunni monarchies ranged against Iran with its Shiite and also modernizing population. US oil interests in Arab monarchies of the West Asian region from the time of FDR's meeting with Saudi's Faisal in the WWII period clashed with Iranian public interests competing with oil interests (US and British) allied to monarchial interests, and the emergence of Shiite Islamic authority in Iran in these clashes. Iranian public interests that started out with the Majlis and parliaments set up by the "good Britishers" never got a chance in Iran just as the modernizing effort of Sun Yat Sen in China in the 1900's never got a chance in the middle of the surviving monarchy in China by 1910, and the Japanese colonial interests in China from that time competing with the Nationalists Koumintang and the Communist Chinese workers movements emerging in the 1930's, all competing for influence during the Chinese civil war and in its aftermath the emergence of Mao and the CCP of China. This is the situation we in the world face today. ...

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There is concern that though President Da Silva has had success in his term in office, he is leaving problems for the new administration. One expert says he leaves a giant question mark behind him. One of the problems is high spending by his administration. After the financial crisis of 2008, the government flooded massive state run banks with cash, ordering the banks to to lend heavily to businesses and consumers. The government also increased its own spending on contracts and projects. Public spending has continued to grow since 2008, and federal expenditures as a percentage of the economy have doubled during Da Silva's term in office. In an editorial recently, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, says the government should have used the high growth in the economy to cut public spending and improve the public finances. Because the Rousseff administration is a continuation of Da Silva's administration, and includes many of the same people, the daily asks if the Rousseff team's promises to cut spending in 2011 are believable. Inflation in 2010 is at 6%. The other serious problem is an highly overvalued currency, and volatile capital inflows from developed countries. The boom in China has helped Brazilian commodities and agricultural exports, a slowdown there would affect Brazil's economy. ...

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Rebuilding in Ukraine is focused on destroyed bridges and infrastructure as Russia continues to destroy apartment blocks, and targets the electricity grid.  Many of the apartment blocks destroyed outside Kviv in Irpin in this story are hard to rebuild because of the constant attacks most recently with hypersonic missiles that are hard to detect. A couple fled from Donetsk, settled in Irpin in a new apartment only to have to flee again after a Russian missile attack left their apartment building in ruins. How do you build in the midst of a war is the question Ukrainians ask themselves every day. About 150,000 apartment buildings and half the electricity grid is destroyed, so also 1500 schools and 20,000 kilometres of roads. It would cost $350 billion to repair. It would require policy decisions on what quality of building materials and how many to apartment buildings to build and how quickly.

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Clearly New Yorkers can as a community do better. As Paris gets ready for the Olympics the efforts of City Hall and the French local and federal governments can be something for New York to learn from. Clearly as home to Wall Street New Yorkers should get their priorities straight and invest in the subway system taking a page from Tokyo and other cities that are doing infinitely better in their subway systems with modernization and attractive subway facilities. Surely this takes investment in people and facilities on a scale with tens of billions of dollars in investment which can be diverted from wasteful spending in many startups, and tax dollars going into what comes first for New Yorkers using the subway system every day. Today New Yorkers are like the people of Mumbai who until the efforts of the Modi government to invest in the complete modernization of subway and trains had given up hope so entrenched were old systems and old ideas.

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Krugman says crypto currency has become a huge, really huge player in campaign finance. He says it accounts for almost half of corporate spending on political action committees PAC's in 2024 election year in the US. He calls it startling that this is happening even though crypto currency destroys value. Krugman says crypto is not like fossil which is doing the same thing getting people to deny climate change yet with benefits from using fossil as a transition fuel, crypto not being a real industry at all.

Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman is clear that it has dangers for the American economy-

He says crypto rests on nothing but a perception that some day there might be a genuine use for these products. That we do not know when the government gets serious about regulating crypto marketing practices and policing its criminal uses. And adds that much of the $2 trillion in crypto may simply evaporate.

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Julia Preston of the NYT looks at Mr. Trump's speech on August 31, 2016 in Pheonix, Arizona, and compares what one can discern about the Trump policies on immigration with that of president Obama. She points out that it is similar to the deportation that was conducted under president Obama in some ways, but is more extensive in its dimensions. It includes sanctioning sanctuary cities, expanding the deportation law enforcement personnel, and deporting about 2 million people with criminal backgrounds. The estimate under the Obama administration is for about 176,000 people with such backgrounds. The Trump estimate appears to include people with minor offenses says Preston, because it is so much higher. As a result this could also include people who have no criminal background and disrupt families on a large scale, with hundreds of thousands of longtime residents and families deported. Under the sanctuary example of Trump, Denver, New York and counties in California would be places where Trump would cut off federal funding. On the wall itself, Mexico's president Nieto says he told Trump Mexico would not pay for the wall, and Trump says exactly the opposite that Mexico would pay for the wall in his speech to supporters.  A Gallup poll shows that 76% of Republicans, 91% of Democrats favor a path to citizenship for those here in the U.S. illegally. For the whole population only 15% oppose giving illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship and 84% support doing this. Which suggests that Trump is only appealing to his base of support, not adding to it, as Cillizza points out in the WP fact check.   ...

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US is shutting down 10% of airport traffic because of government shutdown in November 2025. Democrats are holding up the passing of the new budget till Obama's Affordable Care Act healthcare subsidies for low income Americans are restored. Republicans who control both houses of Congress are unwilling to restore these subsidies saying it will cost $350 billion over 10 years. Editorials in the Washington Post in November see Obama's Affordable Care Act as a bandaid approach for a broken healthcare system in the US. Public opinion in the US supports this assessment. Trade unions and labor have called for an end to the government shutdown. Democrats are acting as though the party is for low income Americans and labor yet this is not the party of FDR who fought hard for labor over vested interests, Democrats today are the vested interests whether from Tech which is taking a disproportionate share of the Nation's wealth and resources and pouring it into projects that do not reduce the cost of living or rebuild crumbling obsolete infrastructure, or from Banks which were not sanctioned for their part in the 2009 financial crisis, or from healthcare interests that oppose restructuring the entire healthcare system for fairness in insurance, pharmaceutical pricing and wellness. Republicans are making an effort to displace Democrats in the role of FDR and Lincoln under newcomer DJT who rejects both the incompetent Bush (Republican) and Obama (Democrat) administrations that wasted money and resources in foreign wars while overlooking America's many challenges and strengthening foreign powers including China, while weakening the US. The US government is cutting airport traffic to relieve unpaid traffic controllers. Also at risk are SNAP benefits which are for the loew income Americans. The US president is asking the Senate to drop the filibuster rule which requires 60 votes in the Senate for the biudget to pass it and pass it by majority vote. The Senate Majority Leader Republican Thune wants to keep the filibuster because it acts as a brake for hasty legislation passed by whichever party is in government. ...

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Is increasing taxes in the UK a good idea in 2025 for middle income people? Why Reeves is the wrong chancellor for Starmer and Labour in 2025 with her insistence on having everything balance to the last pound without looking at the big picture- people's strained finances and the need to do what DJT has done with the One Big Beautiful Act- to support mothers with childcare, the retired with nearly eliminating social security taxes, and finding the funding to do this in other ways, reducing taxes on small business to create new investment.

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Indian oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri says India has diversified its sourcing of oil supplies to avoid dependence on the Straits of Hormuz. It has weeks of reserves. Saudis have 5 million barrel a day pipeline to bypass Hormuz waterway and UAE 1.5 million barrel a day pipeline to bypass Hormuz waterway, so that 6.5 million barrels a day could be added to meet Asian oil demand, in addition to convoys escorted by US warships  in Hormuz waterway to meet demand from China, India and Japan. This would mean China is itself dependent on American seapower to maintain it's oil supplies, a third of which come through the Hormuz waterway and keep important sealanes of navigation open. China, India, Japan, and other World are critical for the world economy manufacturing sector and comprise 3.5  billion or about half of the world's population. In addition Latin America and Africa are dependent on oil supplies and prices.  New pipelines, renewable energy, will become more important in the years ahead, and figure more in planner's minds after this Hormuz episode. ...

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The mirage of progress presented from Silicon Valley in the form of FTX crypto exchange ends with $8 billion in losses to investors and a 25 year sentence for the founder in 2024. More proof of the excesses of the "free to choose" post-Reagan era with misallocation of capital leaving the vital needs and priorities of America unfunded, underfunded, or totally neglected from infrastructure, health, education to climate change action. An aversion to government taking action where it is needed that goes back to the 1930's when Franklin Roosevelt said in the State of the Union speech to Congress in 1935- "We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and, to our misfortune, over public affairs as well. In building toward this end we do not destroy ambition, nor do we seek to divide our wealth into equal shares on stated occasions. We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power."   ...

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In a two and half hour news conference prime minister Li Keqiang of China gives some insights into the new thinking of China's leadership on issues of trade with the U.S.,charges made against Huawei, and handling China's slowing economy. On Huawei or Chinese tech companies conducting spying for the Chinese government Li Keqiang stated: This is not consistent with Chinese law. This is not how China behaves, We do not do that and will not do that in the future." To tackle the slowing economy Li said the government is reducing taxes and cutting interest rates and the money banks are required to hold as reserves. By reducing expenditures the government will save 1 trillion yuan ($148 billion, collecting higher dividends from state firms, and retrieving unspent state funds allocated earlier. The purpose Li repeatedly emphasized is to free up credit to help private companies and prevent "layoff waves." On the trade issues with the U.S. Li believes it is not possible to uncouple the two countries economies, and said he expected the trade talks to lead to a positive outcome. China's national legislature he said passed a new foreign investment law as proof of its commitment to creating a fair environment for foreign companies, including complaint responding mechanisms, transparency in information disclosure and fast followup in issuing regulations that put the law in effect. ...

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Kamala Harris is profoundly influenced by the Gandhian ideal of public service coming from the influence of her mother Shyamala and her mother's father P. V. Gopalan, who was a leading civil servant in the transition to independence under Gandhi in India in the late 1940's. P.V. Gopalan was 31 years old during the Quit India Movement launched by Mohandas Gandhi in 1942. In this sense what even Martin Luther King Jr experienced about Gandhiji from a distance came to her directly in ways that may be inscrutable even to Kamala herself.  Robert Draper looks at Kamala Harris at different points of her childhood, university education and work as District Attorney for Alameda County, California, and Attorney General of California. He describes her as a daughter of highly educated yet stoic parents and one with a reverence for law and order, methodical and diligent, a caring and compassionate person to the people in the communities she lived in. As one who would experience disrespect as a woman of color many times she chose not to complain but to do something about it in bringing about a better life for all Americans. Not only did she do this, Kamala Harris also was always striving to do better for the people she served, putting all her energies into that task, always keeping in mind "We the People." ...

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This article in the NYT provides a look at the features of the Republican House Health Care Plan- Both the Affordable Health Care Act and the House Plan provide incentives for buying insurance- the ACA bases these incentives on income levels whereas the House Plan does not provide additional help for low incomes or elderly. Incomes at $20,000 would see a loss greater than  $2000 under the House Plan and as many of the elderly poor living in high cost areas may not have the resources to make up for this loss of subisidies they may forgo buying insurance or have insurance coverage that protects only in a limited way. President Trump has given assurances that all will be covered. For people with incomes of $50,000 or $75000 the loss of $2000 subisidies would also have some impact. At larger incomes or the well to do the subsidies are not handed out under either plan. Under the ACA the emphasis was on income levels and high cost insurance areas the subsidies were greater, under the House Plan the subisidies would be higher for the elderly compared to the young but very low income levels are not given additional help.     ...

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India has 2.3 million of the 9 million tuberculosis (TB) cases reported annually. About 100,000 of these are drug resistant strains. Existing treatment methods do not work for drug resistant cases, actually exacerbating the conditions as the strains thrive if the antibiotics fail. Cases of drug resistant TB are reported in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. Experts say the $236 million India spends on TB treatment and control is not enough to deal with the problem. India lacks the machines that can detect drug resistant TB in 2 hours and patients with drug resistant TB wait for months taking treatments that fail before it is detected. The WHO provides these machines at a cost of $70,000 per machine and each patient test is $16. The first cases were detected in 2006, and India began building labs for this strain in 2008. So far 37 labs have been built treating 5000 patients. The WHO has tried to persuade India to get the diagnostic machines since 2010, which can do the work of detection for drug resistant strains much faster. These machines are in pilot programs and India will buy more if they work says Dr Kumar, head of India's TB program. Doctors at Hinduja Hospital in Bombay, including Dr. Udwadia, are not convinced and see the efforts as slow and bureaucratic. Dr Kumar says the government has focussed on regular TB which only costs $9 or 500 rupees to treat and cure compared to the $1800 or 100,000 rupees it takes to treat drug resistant TB....

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Starmer says he would not bring in lower environmental or food standards than the EU or reduce worker's rights. He was speaking at a meeting in Canada bringing together liberal and centre left politicians. He said "most of the conflict" after Brexit has arisen because the UK wants to "do things different from our EU partners." And he added "We don't want to diverge, we don't want to lower standards, we don't want to rip up environmental standards, standards that work, food standards and all the rest of it" He was responding at a Q&A in Montreal.