LyrArc Article Gist
The U.S. responds to Iran's threat to close the Straits of Hormuz, a vital route for oil tankers.

LyrArc Article Gist
The average European worker has 11.3 sick days vs 4.5 days for the average American according to the OECD. And the cost of the lost workdays is as much as 1.3% according to a OECD economist. Belgium has one of the worst sick leave problems. Some Belgian government departments average 35 days of sick leave per year compared to 17 for Belgium and 5 for the USA.

LyrArc Article Gist
Larry Summers role in developing the Stimulus Plan, the plan that Geithner presented for the banking crisis, and in discussions on a whole range of other issues like housing and the budget. The President calls him Professor, or with his other policy wonks he calls them "propeller heads." Summers is quick to respond nowadays, to drop other things for instance to meet Speaker Pelosi, and is careful to let his boss decide and to give his boss credit. And the President understands his rough edges from Summers' experience at Harvard, and can say "you absolutely do" when Summers overstresses a point with the "I don't want to overstress this". On the lack of bipartisan support for the Stimulus plan in Congress, Summers says "politics are hard to predict", and he says Geithner's plan details when announced will show that it is "tough and ambitious", on the Stimulus Plan he says that the President "has got what I think is the right economic plan." A colleague Romer says Summers is a different person nowadays, with less of the rough edges. Others say he listens nowadays instead of lecturing....

LyrArc Article Gist
Southwest started flights to New York's La Guardia and Boston's Logan airports in 2009 but has cut service on other routes. It is cutting capital expenditures in half 2009 and recently cut flight capacity by 4%. It has locked in 40% of ts fuel needs in secon half 2009 capped at $71 a barrel, and 30% of its fuel needs for 2010 at $77 a barrel. The new contracts allow it to use planes as collateral withcounterparties.

LyrArc Article Gist
The British Council in Colombo, Ceylon, as far back as the 1960's, has shaped the founder of Lyrarc.com's knowledge of Britain in shaping the ideas of the Modern World we know today, knowledge of its parliament and democracy, that are vital in shaping society in China, India, and other nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa to this day. For this reason the closing of the British Council facilities around the world to pay a loan it had taken years ago under the Conservatives during Covid, is to be seen as a major blow. This report in The Guardian is about fears the world's leading soft power agency, which is more than that a transmitter of ideas that shape the Modern World and all our democracies in Europe and America, Asia, other parts of the world, will disappear in a decade. The Madrid building which houses the British Council in Madrid at 13 Paseo del Martinez Campos in Madrid's Chamberi district, has been put up for sale to pay Covid era debt. About 5000 Spanish students attend classes in English and prepare for exams in 35 classrooms. Over the years hundreds of thousands of Spanish people passed through this building. 320 jobs will be lost, employees with passionate dedication who it will be difficult to replace. Another center in Barcelona also is expected to close. This comes at the wrong time when Britain needs to make its voice heard in the world, when a mediocre level of British parliamentarians and leaders since Blair and David Cameron have allowed this to happen. English language classes in Italy at the British Council are also being shut down. Paris building may also be sold, and shrinking operations in the Baltic Republics, Croatia and Austria. This will be a major blow to helping spread knowledge of British parliamentary traditions, its history and participation in shaping the Modern World we know today.  It is now hoped and this is a message to Labour's Andy Burnham who studied English at Cambridge, to restore Britain's image and the value of its parliamentary and other lasting contributions to the Modern World, to the benefit of all nations, to cancel this debt and give the British Council new leadership for the next 2 decades. Neil Kinnock, a Labour leader, and a chair of the British Council says- “The British Council does not want to make these cuts. They are being forced into it by the conditions required by the Treasury." “I sympathise very much with the staff, so does the leadership,” he said. The British Council had “camped out” in the Foreign Office for last three or four years and put up a “hell of a fight”. Kinnock said: “What the government should do is either find a way of cancelling the debt, or even rescheduling the debt. Because it’s to absolutely nobody’s advantage to lose the British Council.” A desperate effort to pay an outstanding £197m debt from a Covid-era Conservative government emergency loan on commercial terms, with interest to be repaid by September, is what is causing this massive destruction of a century old institution that belongs to Europeans, to Asians, and to the world at large for better societies through knowledge. Who runs Treasury in Britain? Rachel Reeves, who has no concept of the role constructive Britons have played for two hundred years from the time the British agent at Rajkot encouraged Mohandas Gandhi (Gandhiji) to study in London in 1888, a role that the British Council has played since its founding. His name Sir Frederick Souter, who wrote the letter of recommendation for Gandhi to enter the University College, London. Sir Dingle Foot, Solicitor General of the UK, another Labour leader, played that role for a youngster of 22 years at the University of Baroda in India, for Law School at the University of London in 1969, after years of educational experience at the British Council in Colombo, Ceylon. Now the founder of Lyrarc.com. We call upon Andy Burnham to make this one of is first priorities to put Britain First, and India, other European nations, the US, to assist in this effort, to preserve one of Britain's brightest contributions in throwing light on the brave scientific, educational and industrial endeavors that built the Modern World. ...