LyrArc Article Gist
The nuclear threat in the war in Ukraine is the subject of this report in The Guardian.

LyrArc Article Gist
Times of London gives same reasons as Lyrarc.com for picking Healey as chancellor 5 years experience with Treasury and a year at Housing working for Gordon Brown and Labour. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1999. In 2002 he was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and in 2005 Financial Secretary to the Treasury. In 2009 he was Minister of State for Housing and Planning. Shadow Secretary of Health in 2010 and 2016, Shadow Secretary for Defense under Starmer after supporting Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party. Then Defense Secretary under Starmer. It is the Treasury experience plus holding positions in Housing, Defense, and covering trade unions as a journalist, 30 plus years in parliament from a constituency in Yorkshire that has suffered the same sort of decline that Burnham wants to fix, that make Healey not a surprise choice but the obvious choice for the hope that Burnham wants to bring to Britain. Because hope also depends on sound policy and that depends on an experienced team that knows how to get things done for the reindustrialization of Britain, for improving living standards of its people and restoring faith in Labour. It means having the right people in the right positions and hard work, after "honest reflection" on what has gone wrong for so long. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The failure of Labour and Keir Starmer in Britain to offer a clear and viable alternative to the floundering Tories is the subject of this report in The Guardian.

LyrArc Article Gist
Repair cafe in North Carolina to reduce stuff that goes to landfills- old sewing machines, tea kettles, old sweaters, old shoes,  Schwinn bike, a lawnmover, toaster oven, generators,chainsaws, on and on. By getting together volunteer mechanics, electricians, sewers, fixers, this adds resilience in a North Carolina community. It goes further to roads and bridges. And there is a sense of exhilaration when people come together and talk.

LyrArc Article Gist
With the gradual decline in the second wave of the coronavirus in India, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted some of the progress and the plan ahead -to achieve macroeconomic stability in the face of coronavirus spending and needs, the progress in GST for formalizing the economy and getting tax compliance, the infrastructure investment and forward looking timely completion of projects, increasing foreign direct investment flows into the economy, and making India an important part of the renewal of supply chains of America and Europe. The highest ever GST, Goods and Services Tax collection, helps build the framework for revenue to support investment in new infrastructure. Ease of doing business in India was a key goal to increase new inflows of foreign investment. Coordination of domestic and foreign trade and investment policy was part of the effort to build the environment for partnering with US and European Union countries, and UK, so that implementation in supply chain renewal could take place. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The CSU wins 36.4% of the vote in Bavaria and the populist Free Voters gains ground with 15.3%. Both will continue the government in Bavaria. The AfD advanced in Bavaria to 16%. The CDU wins 34.5% of the vote in Hesse, with the city of Frankfurt in Hesse. CDU will continue to form a government in Hesse. The AfD won 18% of the vote in Hesse. The FDP got less than 5% threshhold for representation and the Social Democrats went from 19% to 15% in Hesse. The economy and immigration played a part in the losses of the Social Democrats and FDP.

LyrArc Article Gist
Signs of an opening for improved relations between North and South Korea as the two countries agree to hold military talks. North Korea will send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. North Korea did not offer to put the nuclearization issue as a subject for the talks. Critics see the effort by North Korea as an effort to reduce the effect of sanctions as it moves ahead with its nuclear program.

LyrArc Article Gist
China's export dependent economy with 4% decline in fixed investment Jan-May 2026 and 27% jump in exports.1 million car exports per month in June. Exports make up 20% of China's GDP. China is challenging German companies in their home markets in Europe. Domestic sales of cars are down 16% in June. What this means is that China's growth now depends on exports alone, with construction slowdown, and weak consumer spending. How does this tie into China's posture in trade with the US? It negotiated from a position of strength on rare earths not to give in to DJT tariffs yet knows the importance of trade for the Chinese economic model, importance of US and EU markets, markets worldwide. China's strategy is to shift some of the lost US sales due to tariffs to other countries in Latin America and Asia. A top priority is to keep trade with the US and European Union on a good footing, so that its exports can be absorbed. How does it affect Hormuz? For China Hormuz as an oil source is much lower in importance and China can do without Iran, it absolutely cannot do without the US and European Union to take a big part of its exports. It also does not openly say this but it also shares concerns similar to the US, on nuclear weapons in Iran. India, Japan and the EU have similar concerns. As shown in the articles on this page China has large unused oil in reserves and coal supplies, has lower oil demand at 4% growth, and is accelerating renewable energy, so that it is now importing 8.5 million barrels a day down from 12.5 million barrels a day. By doing this China puts this oil back into the world supply leading to lower oil prices. This means the world can do without the supplies from Hormuz, keep lower oil prices, and go on as before if Hormuz remains closed. The US can focus on domestic issues and its involvement in the Middle East can be limited to naval blockade which the US Navy is capable of doing. This is good for China, good for the US, and good for the World. Local governments in China, provincial authorites, pushed growth in building road, bridges, factories during the 30 year growth phase 1990-2020. In 2026 local governments with debt loads and lack of good projects for investment are a bottleneck to growth. This is the first time fixed investment is in decline, except for the years in 1961 and in 1967. The year 1961 is a result of many mistakes made by chairman of CCP, Mao, by shifting 2 million in farm labour to work in iron foundries, and the shift from private farm plots to soviet style commune farms, coupled with floods leading to 43-46 million famine deaths (1994, Chen Yizi, top advisor to CCP General Secretary Zhao Zhiyang). 1967 is the chaotic situation of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution launched by Mao. What it shows is that the China Miracle like the Japan Miracle and the German Miracle of recovery after World War II, is based on certain conditions and will enter a phase of lower growth closer to 3% like other industrialized nations over time. India and Indonesia are larger than China and will be the next growth story, which is also shown on these pages this week, with the address to the Indonesian parliament by Modi, and Indonesian president Prabovo's saying that he has studied Modi's economic changes and is copying them as there is no copyright. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Gramer and Kubota of WSJ report on Lindsey Graham's last days- visiting Kviv, and getting the US president's support for a new sanctions bill on Russia, meeting colleagues McCaul and Coons in Ankara at NATO Summit. On Iran, on Ukraine, on contentious issues Lindsey Graham persisted when he saw what he perceived as the US interest and what action the US should take. As the president shifted back and forth on Ukraine Graham held on to get Ukraine the help it needed to end the war, to take action to get Putin to end the war. It is now believed that both Russia and Ukraine are looking for an opportunity to end this war. On Iran Graham had expressed concern about the Memorandum negotiated by J.D. Vance and the power struggle between the IRGC military and the elected president, with the IRGC not interested in reopening Hormuz or discontinuing its nuclear weapons program, its ballistic missiles development. It was a bipartisan effort with Graham having dinner with Senator Coons of Delaware in Ankara, and Graham working with Democrat Blumenthal in the US Senate on the new sanctions bill. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
In a remarkable statement of how he sees India in 2022 US president Biden goes all out- "There's so much that our countries can and will do together, and I am committed to making the US-India parnership among the closest we have on Earth." "The closest we have on Earth" is a statement of how the US and India partnership should be given the work of Mohandas Gandhi and its leaders in the nineteenth and twentieth century including Vivekananda, and India's history as the home of Buddhism and the Vedanta. No one has ever put it in such words till Biden in his outspoken way and style. 

LyrArc Article Gist
The huge task of getting across policies to voters in the US who have been left out either through the presence of social media distracting attention or the busy lives of voters keeping them less informed as they struggle to get by. The message on the White House Biden and Harris site does not get through to these voters. The television and newspapers have only now gone into the policies Harris has announced at Wake Tech community college in Raleigh, North Carolina. This reaches a Democrat audience but what about it reaching the voters who are unaware in rural areas, of North Carolina and the rest of the 51states, in other areas and parts of the country where it is still fuzzy fuzzy with misinformation or counter advertising muddying up the clear picture of Harris policies. 

LyrArc Article Gist
What is 2 metres apart social distancing? This BBC video shows how. It is as if you are holding a broom. Thats how far you should be from someone else. In buses or transport no one in front or back of you. In conference rooms a similar distance. In parks outside 2 benches long distance. Be sure to see this video as it is critical in the fight against coronavirus. Most people don't get it that a large number of people have it and are asymptomatic, (its not like the regular flu where everyone has symptoms) yet they are carriers of the virus and spreaders of it. That is how the problem got worse in Europe and America in congested areas where restrictions were relaxed for too long. This is why the 2 metres rule (6 feet) is a safety rule, just like not crossing a red traffic light.