LyrArc Article Gist
The pact of competitiveness is designed to bring a closer integration of the eurozone. It includes proposals for increasing the retirement age to 67, ending indexation of wages to inflation, and involvement of other eurozone countries in controlling out of control deficits in some countries. Germany sees this as necessary to convince the German public that financial responsibility is being exercized by countries in budget crises that get help from Germany. This may buy time but it does not come to terms with the reality of Greece being insolvent already, which may be true also for Ireland and Portugal. Some experts see the need for debt restructuring, and the need to start early, especially if Germany is unwilling to make large transfers to these countries.

LyrArc Article Gist
McDonnell is making plans for Labour's manifesto in Britain that includes taking on tax avoidance including "the big accountancy firms" that act as enablers. he says. "People are offended by the scale of not just tax evasion but tax avoidance by some of these big companies," says McDonnell who would be the Chancellor in a Labour party administration.

LyrArc Article Gist
A professor of economics of innovation and public value at University College, London, says one-off deals such as the one with Land Rover to produce electric car batteries is not an adequate response to the big industrial strategies of the US and the European Union. Mariana Mazzucato says in this Guardian article the UK's decision to leave the EU is costing 100 billion pounds in output. Of 100 leading Uk manufacturers about half say their suppliers in the EU are more cautious about doing business in the UK. She compares the US industrial strategy that combines public and private investment of $3.5 trillion over the next decade, and the EU's for $2 trillion with Britain's effort. She says of the UK that it has nothing like this and worse with austerity it is moving in the opposite direction. Another problem is the change in governments of the Tories and new industrial policy every time there is a new minister. Business investment in UK is 19% less than the G7 average. The civil service needs investment, as she says Britain has become addicted to outsourcing the core functions of the public sector. Mazzucato says the government for aid to the private sector should do what Germany and France have done to expect reduction in carbon emissions, or as the US has done with Biden's Chips Act of giving aid given that there are no share buybacks by companies.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Paris RATP transport chief says she will have 70% of the transport system operational on May 11 when the lockdown will be lifted in phases. Only 30% is operating at this time. Social distancing will not be possible on subways so that wearing masks will be required.

LyrArc Article Gist
Grady Cash is an active runner at age 71. A sports hernia sidelined him at age 50 but he has found his way back into running. After a 2 year hiatus he returned to the track. He entered his first national track and field competition in 2004, and by 2015 eleven years later he was running in the 200 metres at the 2015 USATF Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships. Here he cam in last and had a revelation. Most of the runners were shaped differently than the long distance 1500 metres runners. These people were V shaped with tiny waists, broad shoulders and big leg muscles. From this he learned to do weightlifting at a local gym in Nashville and hired a trainer. After his retirement from financial planning he set up his own routine. He runs with a group at the Vanderbilt University track two afternoons a week ages from mid 20's to 76. A typical workout is eight repetitions of 200 metres that are sequentially faster. He does easy recovery runs on the trails. Mot important he tries to remain injury fee in the kind of routine he selects and listens to his body all the time not to overwork it and run  injury free the next day.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Changes at CBS News and CNN News to better reflect news events. CNN is considering an offer from Paramount that improves on an offer from Netflix.  This would change the editorial content of the site. Polarization in one direction supports polarized thinking in the other direction when what is needed is free and honest, fair reporting of people and events. This leads to people constantly exposed to only one side of the story, which makes running a country more difficult, and leads to all sorts of distortions in policy that hurt the public interest and the national interest. It is not only about profit because reporting is how people get news and analysis of events, which determine what policies are taken up by the nation, leading to good or bad results or very good and very bad results.

LyrArc Article Gist
In Feb 2026 after Minnesota protests and Agent Bovino violated rules set by Border head Homan, this is what Democrats want ICE to do- wear ID badges, no masks, and rules on warrants, on where agents can operate. Homan found Bovino's actions under Homeland Security head Kristi Noem's leadership to be not necessary to fulfill the mission of the organization, counterproductive when the goal was to ensure safety of the streets it actually created disturbance in neighborhoods. Minnesota presented a special case as actions in Tennessee and other states did not meet opposition of the kind it met in Minnesota. It was also a place where Kamala Harris's running mate Walz is governor who encouraged the protests. Now that there is some reflection on all sides Democrats are changing their position on abolish ICE calls by protestors to working to ensure ICE operates in ways that win confidence of neighborhoods that it is only enforcing the law and doing it in ways that Americans can accept without masks and military uniforms. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
DJT MAGA factions in general support action in Venezuela and in Western Hemisphere for Monroe Doctrine, this includes J.D. Vance, Steve Bannon and Hispanic supporters from Cuba and Latin America in Florida. They support action to bring drug traffickers to justice in the Western Hemisphere. Essentially supporting the Monroe Doctrine that no colonial European or other foreign powers should interfere in the running of Latin America in the western democratic tradition set by Britain and the United States, and now popular throughout Asia and Latin America and Africa. The government in Venezuela say Canada and Britain is illegitimate and lost the 2024 election by a huge margin 30% or lower to 67% for the opposition under Machado and Gonzalez. And the drug trafficking by Maduro and his associates against the US is an offence that can be tried in US courts, is something Republicans support, and has general support in America. Worse drug trafficking to the European Union constitutes something the Europeans should be worried about because of its growing scale and damage to Europe. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
In this exceptional report from Monrovia and the countryside, NYT's Helene Cooper shows why the Ebola outbreak could occur in Liberia. Basic healthcare, functioning schools, electricity and running water were all scarce in Liberia following the civil war and military misrule in the country. Liberia was barely recovering from the severe breakdown when the Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014.

LyrArc Article Gist
The Guardian looks at Dina Asher-Smith, Britain's greatest sprinter. She is from the London suburb of Orpington, on the fringes of south east London, which has parks everywhere where Dina did a lot of her early running. From Perry Hall summer athletics program to the World Junior championships this report in The Guardian looks back at how she took up running. With 3 A's at A level she studied history at King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a first. 

Today about 7 million people go out running in Britain and Dina Asher-Smith has made running more popular in schools. 

LyrArc Article Gist
A recent survey by Der Spiegel shows three quarters of Germans want to continue operating the 3 remaining nuclear plants. 78% support keeping them running to 2023, and 67% support keeping them for 5 more years. The idea is that they can be used in this emergency. Even a majority of Green party support keeping them running to 2023. This is a profound change in German opinion.

LyrArc Article Gist
Iraq created from the Ottoman Empire by the British and French now has Shia militant groups next to Sunni groups in the army and Kurdish militia in a artificial state. This is key to grasping the situation in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Arab regions with Shia population that were parts of the Ottoman Empire for 5 centuries since 1500. When Sunnis dominated in the 1980's Shia were suppressed and responded by joining Iran supported Shia militia across the region. When the Shia militant groups took over with US forces running Iraq, Islamic State was formed from anti-Shia Sunni groups. After Islamic State was suppressed by US a fragile truce remains between Iranian militant groups, Iraqi Sunnis in the army, and Kurdish groups. This time the US cannot be naive about the different interests in nations created artificially to suit their colonial empires by the British and French out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after World War I by 1921- it is important for the US to not get involved in the region except to prevent nuclear weapons development and ballistic missile development that would endanger world peace, and get worldwide backing and support, and limit its involvement specific to its carefully made goals that are matched by US strengths. This is a serious matter as US has important goals in its own western hemisphere which require America's full attention including with the Monroe Doctrine in its modern form- the Bush/Obama policies were a disaster for America and bad policy that created the conditions for lack of attention as drug states began to form in the western hemisphere and for illegal immigrants and drugs to enter through its southern land border with Mexico fraying America's social and economic fabric. ...