LyrArc Article Gist
What is the difference between South Korea and the U.S., Europe in the handling of coronavirus? It is tracking and testing.  President Trump and health adviser Dr. Fauci, see South Korea as the successful model to be followed in controlling the coronavirus. What has happened till now it is accepted with shortage of basic medical supplies and equipment, stress on hospital systems, are merely mitigation actions. South Korea was prepared for the coronavirus crisis because of the MERS and other epidemics, and failures resulting in corrective actions. Labs were centralized and better equipped for testing and tracking the infected. One of the key tools is testing. President Trump says the goal is for the U.S. to exceed and far surpass tests per capita in South Korea. Five million tests are planned by the end of April in the U.S. Where the U.S. falls short is in use of multipronged digital tracking using data from people's use of mobile phones, credit card usage, and use of apps designed to separate infected people from others. South Korea is a democracy with a population of 52 million people, about the size of France. People who were student activists in the democratization era in South Korea say the use of digital technology is a need today. We have to adapt in emergency situation they say. Ki Mo-ran, epidemiologist, and adviser to South Korean government says this is a key part lacking in the European and U.S. efforts to control coronavirus. She says in South Korea we know the patient's contacts, where he goes and stays, so we don't have to lock down everybody. Without digital tracking one cannot know which place is contaminated, which place is clean, so that there can be a lockdown of just that area and not the whole country, says Ki Mo-ran. She asks the question- is one person's privacy more important than the lives of a family or other people who are affected. Is it OK to lockdown every child in the country in a home as in Spain for over a month so that particular people's privacy is respected? These are serious questions for western society, are they exceptions or is democracy not just a western idea but equally cherished in Asian societies, people talk about Confucianism in China and the Asian culture forgetting that the biggest democracies are quite large and functioning well in India in addition to South Korea, Taiwan Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Japan, far larger in area and population than China. The French government has chosen the app TraceTogether as the least intrusive one adaptable to France for use there. The U.S. is having Google and Apple develop one of its own. India will be developing one of its own. The NYT raises the question will it be watered down so much in France or in the U.S. and UK to be less effective than the  dire need for an alternative to lockdowns? ...

LyrArc Article Gist
One fifth of Kviv's population of 3 million has left the city, 4000 apartment buildings are without electricity in Kviv, this winter January 2026. This is the worst of the last couple of winters of the war, as Russia attacks energy infrastructure in Kviv on a large scale even as peace talks continue. Russia insists on control of Donbas region. Much of Ukraine today remembers a famine from the Soviet period, Russia remembers its proud history, language and culture from its beginnings in the Kviv region around the 14th century, that is the what this conflict is about. On one dimension it is about NATO and European Union expansion on another about the history and culture, language in a Russian language part of the world and the effort of Ukraine in the 21st century to seek a new identity. It is a struggle between fraternal people in the Russian region and in that sense a tragedy. It doesn't have to be one for Europe, for Germany. NATO was created when the Soviet Union expanded after 1948 and Britain was a key protagonist of NATO. Would its disbanding after Soviet Union disbanded leaving Russia as a country with centuries of its own history, would this have been the right action. If needed a new organization with a new name and Russia invited to join, would this have helped? Could this have focused attention on a new power as chancellor Merz has said, the new power being China being something requiring attention. The US is beginning to have new thoughts in this winter on 2026. The northern European nations (Britain, Poland, Finland and the Nordic countries, Baltics) have historical conflicts for centuries among themselves, they appear to be using NATO for their own historical conflicts. The US understands this, it is looking for a way to get a peace settlement so it can focus on the western hemisphere and not entangle itself in northern European conflicts that have been happening since 1600 with changing actors. The Republican have taken the lead under DJT for a new approach to put American people and their wellbeing, their right to live free of drugs(Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia), to live free of illegal migrants (Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela), and improve on the shaky supply chains that were concentrated in China to bring jobs home that were lost by the millions (tariff policy), and to make living affordable (energy, agriculture).  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Bernd Riegert in the DW.com expresses the view that the sooner that the "obstinate" Britons invoke Article 50 and start negotiations the better, so that a lot of uncertainty for the European Union can be removed. After the High Court ruling that parliament has to approve Brexit, it says that it is strange that a hairdresser and an investment manager should be the ones taking it to the High Court, but that nothing is strange in the Brexit saga anymore. The political turbulence as Ms.May mulls over calling another election is not in the European Union's interest, Riegert says, as this causes more uncertainty for the European Union that it does not need at this time.

LyrArc Article Gist
Experiences of individual homeowners the at a bankruptcy lawyer Neil Crane offices in Hamden, Conecticut. Nurses with home improvement projects and creditcard debt, truck driver, manager at a fast food place and so on. Economist, Mark Zandl sees the situation deteriorating because of a self reinforcing downward cycle for some time.

LyrArc Article Gist
FDIC program for loan modification at IndyMac Bank. About 3500 loans were modified, and 15,000 borrowers contacted in recent weeks with offers for lower affordable monthly payments. FDIC's innovation is to create a comprehensive program with clear guidelines so that a lot of loans can be modified without doing it on a case by case basis which would take too long. Loans are modified by reducing interest rates and the principal amount so that the payments are affordable each month, and the FDIC has come up with 38 to 40% of the previous monthly payment as about the right amount. It also looks at tax information to verify earnings. There have been complaints about the responsiveness of FDIC Indymac call centers which may have inadvertently turned down some homeowners looking for help. A big problem is that the FDIC can do little for loans sold to other investors so that out of 653,000 loans serviced by Indymac Bank only about 47,000 are eligible for FDIC modification program. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. president Trump's statement calling for a list of goods for tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods leaves China without a clear response and facing new risks. The U.S. exports about $150 billion in goods to China so that China would have to impose penalties to respond at the same level. Placing restrictions on American firms on access to China's market, and imposing other penalties would have the effect of reinforcing the perception of unfair practices targeting American business and lead to hardening of U.S. response.  The U.S. sees itself as being in a better position with the U.S. economy experiencing a growth trend. China with large local government and bank debt faces a difficult situation. President Jinping's policy of reducing the risks of bad debt in the banking system involved sacrificing some growth to stabilize the system. China's GDP growth in 2017 was 6.9%, the target at 6.5%. Future targets and actual growth now look to be much lower.The trade war with the U.S. has the effect of dampening growth leading to calls for the central bank to loosen its monetary stance. In response to Trump's announcement the People's Bank of China pumped $31 billion into the nation's banks. China is studying Japan's response in the 1980's and 1990's when the U.S. took strong action against Japan's growing trade surplus. Japan responded by appreciating its currency and using stimulus to cushion the effect of lower exports on the economy. The stimulus led to the housing bubble and over time a period of low growth and stagnant economy. The large China stimulus in 2008-2009 has compounded the problems in the banking system. Not deleveraging and controlling financial risks in China's banking system because of the trade war would bring a new set of risks. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Is this a sign of things to come, after all the Japanese economy has seen sagging consumption for years with a two tier economy with full time workers and parttime workers with no benefits. The parttime labor force increased from 4.13 to 4.79 million according to the Labor Department and its the highest since 1993. Now people are doing this not by choice but for economic reasons. And employers like Kroger are doing this so that they can hire more parttimers with no benefits and pay benefits to fewer employees. There are also computerized scheduling systems for parttimers that are becoming popular with retail stores that use a lot of partimers.

LyrArc Article Gist
Quiet quitting has become a phrase that means workers are working hard and doing things the way they did before, except that they are not letting a work culture that may have gone astray because of bosses  who set the wrong rules guide their lives. Even as companies such as Stellantis are taking on a new culture because of a new respect for workers work-life balance and getting a lot more from them, other companies are following older set patterns that did not include work-life balance or rejected work-life balance outright without saying this openly. Stellantis, Europe's largest car company itself shows why this is dependent on who is the CEO and what he believes in. The previous CEO had poor health habits including frequent smoking and irregular long hours without a structure of any sort that led to this being carried over into the work culture. The CEO changes and new rules are set and soon it permeates who is hired at different levels that are consistent with his habits and sense of work life balance. A new culture develops over time and gradually you have new work ethic that respects the mental health and fitness of workers and of managers, and that of the CEO. This report in WSJ starts with the premise that workers should'nt feel bad because worker are "quiet quitting" anyway after the pandemic. But in reality the statement is a bad one, as it does not say there are better models out there few as they are, that need to take pre-eminent place after the pandemic rejecting the old ones that recklessly ignored health and mental health and were less motivating for workers, and leading to less productive culture in the workplace. At Stellantis a lot gets done in regular hours so that the time after 5 or 6 pm is devoted to workers getting into exercize taking a bike ride, doing things that revitalize and build a healthy body and mind so essential for productive and good thinking type concentration in work. Emails over weekends need not be replied till Monday, and bringing up work during the weekend is discouraged. And still a lot gets done, the company will take the leading role in EV vehicles in Europe and has aggressive plans for 2030 for new EV models. See the link to Stellantis to see how this new CEO runs a company of about 100,000 employees around the world. His name is Carlos Tavares and he took charge of Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler combined operations called Stellantis in January 2021. This is important as it is the new trend that will take hold of the work culture after the pandemic only if workers and managers ask that it be so and as the word spreads that better more productive companies that can get a lot more done is the result of such an educated workplace that respects health and mental health, and the dignity of workers and families. Look, how can it not be so when the word still has to be spread on climate change in the business world? How can one take place without the other? There is a new sense of dignity in respecting the dignity of the environment, of water, soil, and air, how not so for the mind, the body and its connection to nature around it? And no better place than Stellantis and its CEO Carlos Tavares where the old CEO ran himself down with poor work and health habits and passed away while at work in 2018, to show a new way.  In Germany this new way of work-life balance based work culture is called by a more respectful term "Feierabend" than "quiet quitting" showing that what is wrong is with the work culture and bosses who do not grasp the importance of health, mental health, and what it means to be revitalized for truly productive and thoughtful work. Quiet quitting has that sense of workers having to feel a bit of guilt about this and still thinking it is right  doing it anyway. In Germany"feierabend" is popular and accepted, it means breaking away from work at normal times such as 5 pm or 6 pm when a workday ends so that one can go out and relax with a bike ride  or something that is good for health and fitness and rejuvenates. No email, no nothing so the mind can rest and revitalize. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This view in WSJ about Trump the candidate being no different in 2024 than eight years back in 2016, by Gerard Baker, gets 3813 Comments from Readers. It says Trump today in 2024 is no different than in 2016, only then he faced a candidate Hillary Clinton who had spent so much time in endless foreign travel as Secretary of State, that she had lost touch with the American people. In that situation Trump prevailed and that by only 90,000 votes in 3 states. Baker comes to this conclusion by reading carefully and objectively assessing the meaning of the Mar Lago interview that Trump gave last week. He says this time Trump is up against someone who is clearly in touch and and a seasoned politician. One that is able to give voters a chance to project on a clean slate whatever they want to see. This even though Kamala Harris has well known views from her days as Attorney General and Senator. Baker sees Trump lacking a coherent message and failing to provide a vision for the future, simply restating what was said before. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Rachel Reeves plan to cut disability benefits was very unpopular with Labor voters. You.Gov poll showing Reform UK Nigel Farage party winning more seats than Labor was the last straw. As a public defender Keir Starmer was a lawyer for the Crown, and lacked the confidence to try to understand macroeconomics delegating it to Rachel Reeves. Starmer made the kind of decision that Scholz made that led to disaster for Scholz in Germany. He promised the voters to invest in the economy yet gave the finance minister post to Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats who was openly blocking every move to invest in Germany. Starmer was making the same mistake in UK having Rachel Reeves block every effort for commonsense and honest decisionmaking. DJT in the US is not the old conservative Republican he is commonsense and straightforward. Starmer could not simply cut disability and other benefits after 15 years of Consevatives austerity budget. DJT's cuts come after liberal some could say overspending by 4 years of Biden, so that Labor had to think carefully.  Nigel Farage of UK was simply going to use Reeves cuts to appeal to Labor voters, and to move to show he would support working class voters in different ways, which is why You-gov showed him beating Labor last week. Reeves would prove a disaster waiting to happen for Labor that it did not need particularly as Farage does not have the grasp of the economy that DJT with Bessent at Treasury and Powell at Fed has. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Most Americans pay less in taxes, including state, local and federal taxes, today than in 1980 in inflation adjusted dollars. The taxes have gone down by 2-3% for incomes in the range of $50,000 to $150,000, and gone down by 3-4% for incomes between $150,000 and $350,000. Taxes have gone down over 7% for incomes above $350,000. The main reason is the decline in federal income taxes.Tax rates increased in the period to 1990 and declined from 1990 to 2010. The Democratic party and president Obama are pushing for increase in taxes for incomes above $250,000. Republicans are resisting the changes citing disincentives to investment and growth for small business which generates a large proportion of new jobs created in the U.S. economy. The New York Times study shows the percent of the U.S. population that makes between $200,000 and $350,000 almost doubling in the period 1980-2010 and at the same time its share of the U.S. income remaining the same - many small business owners who hire employees would fall into this income category. Republican's response is for tax reforms that reduce loopholes, deductions and other tax expeditures that disproportionately help the wealthy. Democrats say this cannot create enough revenues to address the deficit, when mortgage deductions, charitable deductions are excluded. The back and forth is leading to stalemate but also opening up discussion for the first time on whether the mortgage and charitable deductions make sense in today's environment. A significant portion of revenues lost in the mortgage deduction goes to affluent households, subsidizing larger borrowings to build larger homes than otherwise, according to the Brookings Institution. Politicians have resisted changes that would go against powerful lobyying groups in the past, yet the impasse has opened up new thinking outside the box because of the pressing need to come up with a solution....

LyrArc Article Gist
This opinion piece in De Zeit says there are different ways to look at Chancellor Merkel's refugee policy, as a failure, as an act of compassion, influenced by her experience in East Germany, her Christian upbringing as a daughter of a pastor, or Germany playing a role in Europe after Barrack Obama failed to provide American leadership in the refugee crisis. It says some of this commentary in the media ignores the fact that it was always the intention to accept a large number of migrants as part of a policy of European humanism in the face of misery of refugees, but to carefully manage this influx, to reduce the flow of refugees, and wind down the flow by vigorously addressing the causes. From this point of view the commentary about Merkel's failure is overdone. It is interesting that some of the weirder descriptions describe Germans conscious of the history as being outpatients in a American clinic closed down by president Obama. In any case American presidents have overreached, consider Reagan and Bush with German's strong or cautious reaction, and underreached with Obama providing cause for concern and efforts to fill in for a missing American role, with both roles difficult to fill for Germany by itself. America is not defined by its presidents and its politics alone, but by its own history, which has reflected the same values since the founding fathers Jefferson and Washington. Germany's policy has merely reflected these same values, at a time when the U.S. was simply taking a pause from its foreign involvements in regions fragmented by tribal, religious and other divisions. In doing so being the true partner it was its intention to be. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Yuka Hayashi gives an exceptional account of the rise of nationalism in Japan. This is especially true of the younger generation. As examples of the changing mood, he gives the popularity of Will magazine with circulation of 100,000 among younger readers, including large numbers of women. Other examples are the movie "Eternal Zero" remaining on the top of box office charts for 2 months, neto uyo or right wingers on the internet are popular, and bookstores display titles responding to China and S. Korea's criticism of Japan. Fringe candidates such as Toshio Tamogami have won 24% of the vote in Tokyo's gubernatorial race, with large proportion of younger voters. The younger generation is not accepting quietly the criticism of Japan's prewar record in the same way as the older generation with memories of the war. It sees itself free to respond to what it sees as China and S. Korea's constant criticism of Japan, even when Japan has apologized repeatedly for its aggressor role in Asia. Weekly magazines such as Bunshun and Shincho carry Japanese criticism of China and S. Korea with sensational headlines about lies. Abe's recent visit to the Yasukuni war shrine- the main object of S. Korean and Chinese criticism and America's concern expressed to Japan- is shown in an Asahi Shimbun poll recently to get favorable support from 60% of people in their 30's. Many of the 119 freshmen members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Mr. Abe also provide support, and some even see Japan needing to defend itself with or without the U.S. Is this level of nationalist sentiment similiar to the twenties and thirties, or to periods of tension in the 1990's and other post war periods? Only recently in 2010 the Democratic Party of Japan under a young prime minister Hatoyama and premier Naoto Kan, a civil rights activist, presented another side of Japan seeking closer ties with China- even distancing itself somewhat from the U.S. on the issue of bases in Okinawa. Naoto Kan also enjoyed a 60% level of popularity as premier Abe has in 2014. Which is the real Japan, or is it a reflection of fatigue among younger Japanese with always having to say you are sorry, as has happened to the younger generation in Germany. Hatoyama resembled Obama as a younger politician bringing a new optimism in Japan after years of LDP rule. Unfortunately president Obama distanced himself from Hatoyama on the base issue and failed to support Hatoyama at a time of tensions with N. Korea, leading to his fall in ratings and resignation. This may turn out to be a lost opportunity for the U.S. for building peaceful neighborly relations in Asia. In 2007 Chinese premier Wen Biao a speech to the Japanese parliament, the Diet, saying: "With history as a mirror it does not lead to long-lasting hate, it points to a better future." Japan's premier at the time? Shinzo Abe. What has changed? China's economy has doubled in size, and so have global Japanese corporations such as Toyota with advanced technologies, economic insecurity is unfounded in a globally linked interdependent economic system. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Syrian refugees number 1 million in Germany and Austria. In Turkey 3.5 million, in Lebanon 800,000, Jordan 600,000. 6-7 million Syrian refugees all over the world. The figures are large for displaced people and refugees worldwide. About 60 million displaced, over 30 million refugees and about 6 million asylum seekers. (UNHCR figures). Some are in transit as one report in The Times shows 800,000 entered Greece in 2015. It was at the time of the financial crisis in Greece and other countries, putting a great strain on resources. Even as illegal migration is criticized in many European countries, the fact that Europeans have given refuge to so many at risk of strain in their social systems is also something the says a lot about the goodwill and resilience in European societies after two world wars. A similar show of sentiment is appropriate from these countries in the Middle East and Africa, from the diaspora, and needs to be translated into action by looking at better models of managing the economies and government of these nations so that mistakes of the past are not repeated and there is a place for all. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Protectionist sentiment in the USA is keeping tariffs high on ethanol to keep out Brazilian ethanol. Some of the arguments used for keeping it out are concern for the Brazilian rainforests, for food prices, for labor. Are these concerns real or just a way of keeping out imported ethanol by farm lobbies in the USA. Brazilian ethanol packs 8.2 times as much energy as the energy used to make it compared to just 1.5 times for corn ethanol, according to the Woodrow Wilson Center. It is grown in Sao Paulo state or the northeast miles away from the Amazon so it is not deforesting the Amazon. About 65% of it is grown on land that was previously pasture, the rest was used for other crops according to Conab, a government agency. Also sugar cane occupies only 7 million hectares or 17 million acres of Brazilian farmland compared to 200 million hectares for cattle ranching so it is not pushing cattle ranchers into the Amazon. So it does not have a noticeable impact on food or beef prices. And sugar cane production may benefit from higher yield varieties with more research. In 2005 of the 440,000 workers, 453 died, 17 were killed in accidents according to a study by a researcher at the the University of sao Paulo. In the same year of the 2.16 million workers in other branches of Brazilian farming, 2900 died and 135 were killed in accidents, so the situation in the sugarcane industry is not much worse than the rest of Brazilian agriculture. Moreover cane cutting is getting mechanized. At Santelisa Vale 60% of cane cutting is mechanized. So the arguments of protectionists in the USA about environmental impact, labor situation, and others do not carry much weight. The tariff on Brazilian ethanol makes it less attractive to import ethanol from Brazil and it creates uncertainty about future imports if the prices of corn based ethanol drop in the USA. Removal of the tariff is supported by John McCain. The tariff is 54cents on each gallon of imported ethanol. Importing ethanol from Brazil would have less impact on corn supply in the USA and on on corn prices so it would put less pressure on the world food supply and world food prices. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The remarkable story of coronavirus vaccine given at 14,000 feet in the Himalayas of Arunachal Pradesh in India. A team trekked for 9 hours to reach a village in Tawang district so that 16 yak grazers could be given the vaccine. These grazers were away from home grazing their yaks and had missed an earlier vaccination camp. The village is aerially 30 miles from the Tibet border. The trek took them through dense forests, swampy stretches, and the Luguthang river, crossing two mountain peaks.

LyrArc Article Gist
The president telling Kamala "go for it kid. I love you.," and Kamala saying "I love you." The president saying that he is all in this campaign. The staff in Wilmington, Delaware grasped the emotion of the moment, and what it means for America. It may not be fully understood but it serves well the moment and this time in American history- there are now two candidates for president, Biden as the honorary unofficial presidential nominee, Kama as officially presidential nominee, and the to be selected nominee for vice president, not two but three in that team for the first time in American history- all inseparable to take head on the dangers to America's democratic institutions that George Washington by paying so little attention to himself, that Jefferson and Adams, TR, Wilson and FDR fought to protect through 2 World Wars, dangers from social media and television degenerated divisiveness. Katie Rogers tells the story of how on one summer afternoon in July, on July 22, 2024, the Biden campaign was converted into the Harris campaign all the way down to the memes popularity for Kamala. The president's call "to embrace her," the Biden staff with little time to express their emotions, all staffers in Wilmington become Harris staffers knowing also the deep loyalty that Kamala Harris had shown throughout the long weeks for Biden, and her strong feelings for being on the president's team. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
US fuel exports are increasing with higher fuel prices overseas. The exports of oil, diesel and jet fuel from US Gulf Coast ports increased by 32% in the first quarter of 2022 over previous year says this report in WSJ. The exports of natural gas by pipeline or tankers to Mexico and Canada increased to 22% of total US production in the same period. Companies and exporters are gettting higher prices overseas than they could get in the US. This is also pushing gas prices higher in the US to over $5 a gallon.

Demand for US exports has gone up exponentially say experts and a lot more US exports could take place to Europe and other countries. And domestic prices have had to rise to keep supplies in the US. With the increase in natural gas prices come increase in cost of electricity and households are expected to limit their use of energy as this happens.

LyrArc Article Gist
English parents struggling to feed their children even this preschool teacher in London, as Emma Bubola reports for the NYT from London, UK. It is atrocious says a church minister running a food bank in Derby, in central England, that working families are having to come to food banks. Prince Charles talked first about people at food banks in his Christmas message this year. One estimate is that a fifth of familes are from families with jobs but unable to keep up with the cost of living. Warm spaces are being set up in Methodist and other churches. One food bank worker says you see ambulance crew, teachers, and asks what does this say about the community, about the country? Ten years of Tory austerity policies have made things worse. On a recent night a nurse walks into a food bank in the east London neighborhood of Hackney. This isn't a normal Britain.

LyrArc Article Gist
Arthritis drug Humira from Abbvie is shown in this NYT report as having made $114 billion from Humira using the US patent system to delay the introduction of competing products that would have lowered prices for Americans suffering from arthritis. NYT says the114 billion was made just since 2016 when competing products were coming to market. In 2022 this is ending as nine competitors including Pfizer come up with their competing products. In many ways the system of market competition does not operate in the way textbooks or free market advocates say. It is considered ok to engineer advantage within what is a supposedly a market competition system and to turn a blind eye to it. Is it acceptable when it comes to health products and when prices increase from the exorbitant to the outrageous. The Inflation Reduction Act of president Biden included efforts to prevent just such abuses of a market competition system to restore fairness after years of egregious behaviours.

LyrArc Article Gist
Indian security officials say Chinese troops have moved back several miles at 3 disputed border patrol points in one of the Himalayan areas. Reduction is not substantial but it shows intent of the two armies said the official cited in the WSJ report. China also removed two dozen armored vehicles. India has also withdrawn some of its vehicles and troops from the front lines. This is after the two sides met for de-escalating tensions. In 2017 for 2 months there was a standoff in  a stretch of land near Bhutan. This one is near Ladakh region in the high Himalayan mountains. The border is 2000 miles long in the mountains of Tibet, Ladakh, Bhutan. This one was near the Pangong Tso lake which is pictured in the WSJ report at a high altitude. India has tried to match Chinese road building and infrastructure efforts in the area in recent years.

LyrArc Article Gist
The story of Milkha Singh, India's fastest runner, is told wonderfully here in the Indian Express.

Milkha Singh came through a period of life growing up in a poor part of the Punjab, then partition, and finding a place in post independence India on track and field. He joined the army on his third attempt. Finished fourth in the Rome Olympics, just 0.1 seconds behind Pence and with it missing a Bronze medal.

He said after this - that he was taken for an interview, and he could only say in whatever English he knew, "your son has fulfilled his duty, and I demand this from every youngster in the country." This could be the message to all the youngsters in the country that are volunteering for the PM's effort for 100,000 trained healthcare youngsters to help with Covid work in villages and towns throughout India.

LyrArc Article Gist
BBC News looks at the situation in Bordeaux, France, after the Front Populaire wins the election. The NFP has a seasoned candidate in this parliamentary seat who can greet people by name. The RN candidate is 18 years old and is new to campaigning, showing that the RN of Le Pen had to field candidates with very little time for preparation in a snap election. People in Bordeaux and NFP supporters say 2025 and 2026 are years in which the Front Populaire has to deliver on cost of living actions to improve the lives of people struggling to make a living. For this to happen Macron has to give the NFP the chance to govern in the interests of the people of France and not obstruct actions needed to tackle cost of living. The Socialist parties have the experience to govern and obstruction would only further reduce the popularity of the Les Republicains and Macron's party.

LyrArc Article Gist
Dan Osborn is a union leader who led the strike at Kellogg Omaha plant in 2021. He is running for the US Senate seat in Nebraska which is conservative and Republican. He is shown here campaigning with Shawn Fain of the UAW autoworkers union at his side.

Osborn says he does not see Republican or Democrat or any color just a fair fight for fair wages for workers.

Osborn says-

“I didn’t see men or women or black or white or Republican or Democrat on the picket line. I just saw people that wanted to go to work for a fair wage and some good benefits.”  

This is what 2024 is also turning into in the US a fight for wages and for managing the cost of living in ways that bring a better life for workers and their families after years of neglect.

LyrArc Article Gist
What is the oldest man alive like. Bob Weighton was presented with his certificate by the Guinness World Records this week. He lives in a assisted living home and is self isolating. Here is someone who has been through the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic that took millions of lives all over the world. What is he like? He was a professor of Marine Engineering at the City University of London till he retired at age 65 in 1973. Weighton says he is very pleased he was able to live so long and make so many friends. He has had serious medical operations but nothing he has experienced is like the coronavirus and self-isolation. He calls it "bizarre." But his advice is that there is nothing you can do about this so you might as well do what you can and  never mind about what you can't. He has 3 children, 10 grandchildren and 25 great grand children. He and wife Agnes traveled and worked around the world then settled back in the UK. She and his wife Agnes who passed away in 1993 volunteered in retirement as marraige counselors and helped youth groups in Alton.  ...