LyrArc Article Gist
Strack of DW.com reports on the 2016 CDU convention where Merkel received 89.5% of the vote. Merkel receives applause for the burqa ban, and her denunciation of populist hate sentiment, of Islamism and parallel societies, parallel cultures. The best passages of Merkel's speech says Strack, were about reunification, about how she started in politics from the natural sciences, her start at SPD, then shifting  quickly to the "Democratic Beginning" leading to the CDU. "Head into the open," "that is where freedom is," and says Strack she had the hall listening to a chancellor speaking with emotion when in the past she has been cool and reserved. Parallels to the 1994 campaign of Kohl for a fourth term when enthusiasm came only from "generation" Kohl are being made.

LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ reports that Russian forces face insurgency style tactics and attacks on supply lines and weak points that limit their advance in the north. In the south and southeast Russia is better able to supply its army than in the north.

LyrArc Article Gist
Weak and poorly equipped public health systems, densely crowded conditions, make coronavirus spread extremely serious in South Asian and African countries. India imposed a complete lockdown of the entire country. South Africa imposed a 21 day lockdown enforced by the military. Decisive and strong action is needed early. Pakistan acted early to quarantine pilgrims entering the country from Iran. Pakistan's government has announced a $20 monthly wage subsidy for poorer households. The average in Africa is 20, according to the UN, and South Asian populations are also very young. Generally hotter climates may offer some offsetting factors to makeup for the lack of strong public health systems. India made major strides in direct deposit to bank accounts of 1.3 billion citizens by the government for many social safety net schemes in the last 5 years. It has also computer records of all citizens under a plan underway for a decade. The nationwide rollout of 4G mobile technologies has connected every citizen including remote areas. This should assist in the identification and isolation of affected areas and people. Other factors that mitigate the spread will be access to medicine when medicine and vaccine is developed for the virus. India has a large pharmaceutical industry, scientific labs and other medical resources similar to South Korea, which should help limit the affected areas and people. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
A big surge in travel to mainland China from Asian countries and business travel from the US and Europe. Chinese travel outside of China to Hong Kong and Europe is also surging. Travel from China to Japan will face quarantines as Japan says there is no clarity on covid situation in China. A surge in cases and overcrowded hospitals is also causing much anxiety along with relief from the fatigue of lockdowns.

LyrArc Article Gist
April 2025 WSJ forecast of recession in next 12 months is 45%. In 2022 and 2023 forecasts for recession in US were at 60% higher than the 2025 forecast of 45%, yet no recession happened.  It all depends on the USTR's Jamieson, and DJT's advisers Bessent, Luttnick, and Navarro, and Lighthizer, DJT using all their experience and carefully using Tariffs to achieve US goals. This means working out the details of the US economy, of inflation, GDP growth, cost of living, to maintain confidence of people in America, the confidence of the working people in America. Action on pharmaceuticals bringing production back home is a win as here it is a clear way to get companies to reduce prices. Permitting imports removing backward looking laws restricting pharmaceutical imports would create the competition that was missing. US automobile companies knowing the government has their back can actually cut prices in the first 12 months of 2025, with Toyota and Hyundai-Kia following suit. This would remove another source of inflation. On iphones and computers getting companies to create a new US+1 with India by 2027 would enable 60% of iphones and computers to be made in India and the US by 2027, The new strategy would be to combine the industrial base of India with the US to create plenty of good US jobs as the priority. Piece by piece the puzzle can be put together with attention to details and keeping overall goals in mind to restore US manufacturing and US industrial base, jobs, that will create its own tailwinds for decades of future growth.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Trade and economic relations between Germany and China are deteriorating. See the video on Economy minister Habeck "The Naivety towards China is over," in this DW.com report. Habeck said this at a G7 economy ministers meeting in September- "the naivety towards China is over." Habeck has denied the VW group guarantees for investments in China in May. German companies business in China was supported by government guarantees for exports and investments in China. Germany has about 90 billion euros of investments in China. The relationship began in 1972 when China was a poor developing country, and surged particularly in the Merkel years when China was no longer a developing country. Today Germany and the US face technological competition from China and the reappraisal of global supply chains overly dependent on one country.

LyrArc Article Gist
This comes as both president Biden and Republicans under Trump are increasingly wary about the lack of oversight and inability to limit the monopolistic behaviour of tech firms. The investigation of Joshua Wright who defended Facebook, Google and Amazon. After learning about the investigations Amazon acted immediately. Google and Facebook waited before finally acting says this report in WSJ. Joshua Wright, a George Mason University law professor was appointed to the FTC where he had other commissioners dilute the powers of the FTC so that it would benefit Google, Facebook and Amazon from weaker oversight by the FTC. During this period the three companies acquired immense power with monopoly behavior and lack of the necessary oversight from Congress or the FTC. Related to this is the story in this WSJ report of the relations of a GMU law professor with his female students that led to GMU and the tech companies distancing themselves from Joshua Wright as each new story emerged.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Saudi Arabia and Iran are moving in the direction of taking away repressive rules and giving women more freedom in daily lives. Under Prince Salman Saudi Arabia is changing. Women can now drive in Saudi Arabia. As the role of religion is being reduced in Saudi public life women are now free to live more normal lives. Under new rules women will be able to drive motorcycles and trucks. The Tehran police chief has issued instructions that women be no longer detained if they do not wear proper hijab head covering in public. The two countries are competing with each other to show it is more modern to the international community, say some commentators. Others see the changes in Iran for hijab head covering not strictly enforced as part of the difficulty of enforcing these rules in court, as more younger women do not follow the rules strictly as in the past. Iran now substitutes educational classes in its enforcement, showing the gradual changes in Islamic societies. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Most of the issues important to Republicans such as immigration, crime, cultural issues, and national security are well articulated by Mr. Ron de Santis of Florida, without the distraction presented of a sordid affair at a time of cost of living crisis for average Americans, says this report in NYT.

LyrArc Article Gist
This podcast in the SWI swissinfo.ch explains what the UN agency International Telecommunications Union is and why it is important. The ITU is responsible for governance of the world internet and broadcasting. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. It is the oldest UN agency as it was founded in 1865 as the International Telegraph Union. The US Biden administration has nominated Doreen Bogdan-Martin to the key position of head of this important UN agency to maintain a free and open internet. Doreen Bogdan-Martin is from New Jersey, US, and graduated with a Masters degree in International Communications Policy from American University. She joined the ITU as a Policy Analyst in 1994, and is head of the Telecommunications Development Bureau of the ITU.

LyrArc Article Gist
DW.com gives this detailed account of the developments in the Luis Rubiales case in Spanish football, including comments made by Spain's leading footballer Andres Iniesta on the need to restore the integrity of Spanish football and the women's game. Iniesta's statement begins with the words, "as a father of three daughters and a husband..," that he was saddened by the events that have affected the wonderful history created by Spanish footballers during the World Cup and the image of Spain and Spanish football in the world. Spain and Portugal, Morocco are a contender for the World Cup hosting in 2030 which could depend on how this case is resolved, says DW.com.

LyrArc Article Gist
Prices of gas for cooking and electricity are up 30% in Brazil in 2021 adding to the pain after the pandemic. Countries in Europe and Canada to Indonesia face much higher prices in 2021. Energy prices have jumped and supply bottlenecks have increased inflation. As more people are vaccinated the return to normal activity is also putting pressure on prices. About 72% of Brazilians have at least one dose of vaccine, higher than in the US. There is less vaccine hesitancy in Latin America and Asia.

LyrArc Article Gist
Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent takes us on a fell running and yoga weekend in Wales in this article in The Guardian. Just the kind of thing to break out of the grip of the pandemic on mental health. These kinds of weekends can be structured in many places around the world that have the scenery and quiet for yoga and walking or running outdoors. Some of this can even be structured into a daily routine if you live somewhere with lots of green spaces and include cycling.

LyrArc Article Gist
Biden delivers a rousing speech at the State of the Union to the US Congress yesterday. He touches on every aspect on every issue that is important for ease of living, for improving the lives of workers and families, for ordinary Americans, in every state of the Union. NYT says he made his case vigorously and unrelenting throughout the address, leaving no point in doubt on every issue of the action needed and the path to be taken for the American people and for America's leadership in the world.

LyrArc Article Gist
Krugman points to the mounting toll of joblessness in America in 2011. He calls the joblessness- six million Americans out of work for more than 6 months and four million jobless for more than one year- America's overriding problem. More than the deficits which he sees as a problem beyond the immediate next couple of years, and the dollar which he says has seen drops larger than the current one during the Bush and Reagan administrations and which presents an opportunity to increase exports. He says the scare stories may distract from the major problem unemployment presents for Americans.

LyrArc Article Gist
Nirmala Sitharaman brings together France, Japan, and India to bring attention to resolution of debt issues of Sri Lanka, Ghana and other countries during the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington D.C.

LyrArc Article Gist
Ford Motor Company makes a huge decision to exit the sedan business by discontinuing the Ford Focus and Fusion sedan car lines. The decision was made under CEO Hackett, and CFO Shanks, and means that Ford will have no fuel efficient car lines to offer to customers. During the recovery after 2008 and the bankruptcy of Chrysler and GM fuel efficient cars were one way the auto industry in Detroit was able to come back. Ford still depended heavily on the F series truck for profits as the market improved. With the current  popularity of SUV's the U.S. automakers are once again shifting to SUV's which does not protect the American automakers in competition with Japanese automakers if the demand partly shifts back again to sedans. Toyota has retained the Corolla and Camry and continues to upgrade its sedan models offering a broader product line better able to handle shifts in consumer demand that have in the past created problems for Ford and Chrysler. Chrysler has shifted away from sedans since 2016. Mr. Hackett is a former CEO of Michigan based office furniture maker Steelcase, and it is not clear if the lessons learned over the last decade at Ford Motor in competition with the Japanese resonate under a CEO with a different background such as that of its current CEO. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
 Brazilian media and public opinion viewed the story of Olympic athlete Lochte being held up in Rio with amazement and anger that Brazil's image in the Rio Olympics was being sullied by a fabricated story.  For Brazilians this was unfair and revealed the attitude of many in the U.S. about Brazil.

LyrArc Article Gist
The French British collaboration effort will bring a new vaccine to the global effort against coronavirus. This vaccine was expected in February 21. It will be ready by the third quarter of 2021 just as vaccine supplies are being ramped up. The Sanofi Pasteur unit and GSK Glaxo SmithKline are the two companies in this vaccine venture. This vaccine will address the problem of new mutations of the virus in the British and South African versions and can be stored at normal temperatures. 
 

The new vaccines will boost supplies just when the situation is bleak for vaccine supplies in Latin America and Africa, South East Asia, places left out in the vaccine race in advanced countries and in India. Britain has ordered 60 million doses. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Going up - Arsenal, Inter and Bayern Munich. Going down Leverkusen, Benefica and Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of Champions League soccer 2025. Inter beat a Dutch team and Bayern beat Leverkusen. Barcelona beat Benefica. Paris lost to Liverpool.

LyrArc Article Gist
Johnson and Johnson vaccine is 66% effective in a single shot, a 44,000 trial study has shown. Remarkably it is 85% effective in serious illness and prevents all deaths 28 days after it is given. It is also shown to be as effective in serious illness and deaths in South Africa and 57% effective overall. The South African variant was a cause for concern in the second wave in 2021.

LyrArc Article Gist
Benny Gantz puts forward a realistic plan for Gaza's future that is completely different from Netanyahu's, with provision for international responsibility with Palestinians to run Gaza and demilitarization of Gaza strip. He sets June 8 as the deadline. Gallant and Benny Gantz say Netanyahu's plan only has two outcomes that lead to endless conflict- Israeli control or Hamas control both having led to this disastrous situation for the people of Gaza and Israel and of Palestine.  This comes as US Defense Secretary Blinken plans visit to Israel.

LyrArc Article Gist
Can Britain take it, more Tory austerity cuts? Mark Landler in the NYT calls it one of the most austere budgets ever imposed on Britain, a country already in recession. Prime minister Sunak and finance minister Jeremy Hunt introduce a budget that will cut government programs saving 30 billion pounds and higher taxes of 25 billion pounds or $29.7 billion. This will mean a drop of 7% in disposable incomes of people in Britain over 2 years. After a series of missteps first under Boris Johnson and then briefly under Liz Truss, the Tory government of Rishi Sunak concentrates on budgetary constraints ignoring the promises made for growth and improving infrastructure, leveling up of regions, that were made by a series of Conservative governments. It lacks broad support as this government was not elected with this mandate. Boris Johnson won the election with traditional Labour support for leveling up, growth and infrastructure. None of this is happening. Also cut are budgets for the defense ministry, foreign aid and aid to cultural institutions in London. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
In the third and final debate of the 2016 U.S. presidential election Hillary Clinton shows she has mastered the techniques used by Trump to use short jabs and comments to unsettle her opponent, yet doing it in a meaningful way to make a point about how she is better qualified and her program helps the middle and working class.

On taxes she added to her plan about not increasing taxes for people making more than $250,000, with the comment that it would increase her and Trump's taxes provided she said Trump hasn't "figured out how to get out of it." It also was meant to draw Trump's response about not revealing his tax returns and plans to give hugely disproportionate tax cuts to higher income people. Trump called her "a nasty women," in response, which was a point cited by media reports as a negative for women voters.