LyrArc Article Gist
BBC shows the elections in which large majority of seats went to the Liberals, Conservatives, Labour. In 1945 Clement Attlee won a majority of 145 seats on a program to rebuild Britain after the Second World War, to create the NHS and social security for the older population. Conservatives under Winston Churchill lost 189 seats, but came back 6 years later as the Cold War with the Soviet Union was happening. Twice this changed in 1979 with Margaret Thatcher unwinding some of the aspects of the unions and public enterprises, followed by Labour under Tony Blair accepting the culture of Conservatives that has gone on to the present day in which government is not proactive. Blair won majorities in 1997 and 2001 of 179 and 167 seats yet as seen from today laid the seeds of the problems of Conservative policies getting such wide acceptance that even when the River Thames was polluted and water was privatized for profit motives including loading $19 billion in debt, it did not cause serious questions to be raised. The public shift to Labour in 2024 happens when a complete reversal of the culture of the government not being proactive in the public interest and not supporting  manufacturing to compete worldwide is being reversed. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
High levels of covid and RSV in the US are leading to health authorites saying wearing masks is needed to prevent it from spreading. Los Angles is likely to introduce a mask requirement for indoors by the end of December 2022. Carrying hand sanitizer and keeping wipes with you is a good idea because RSV spreads through touching infected surfaces. Vaccination for flu and covid is also a key prevention action. As most people are no longer wearing masks in the US the practice of wearing masks is becoming a good idea once again.

LyrArc Article Gist
Henrik Bohme says not just Putin is responsible for the situation Germany faces of a cutoff of supplies of gas from Russia if the Nordstream pipeline never comes back on after maintenance. Bohme says that in September 2018 at the UN  General Assembly Donald Trump told Germany to look in the mirror, saying that Germany would become completely dependent on Russian energy if it did not change course immediately. In return Trump only got laughter and head shaking from the German delegation says Bohme. Over that period the response was the same from Merkel and the CDU - a smugness and condescending attitude to the US. When the US imposed sanctions on Nordstream 2 Germans suspected a backhanded trick to get Germany to buy dirty fracked gas. Today it is buying the same fracked gas from the US and asking for more. It is similar to the situation for coal as coal is being brought from Colombia.

LyrArc Article Gist
Cordoba and Gurman cover the Justice Department case against Raul Castro, 94 years, of Cuba who runs the country. Jim Ratcliffe of the US government visited Cuba recently to let the Cuban government know that it had to make changes and there was a limited window. Raul Castro was defense minister, and is brother of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary who fought to overthrow the government of dictator Batista, made some short term improvements, but failed badly for the Cuban people with a policy that confronted the US and brought foreign powers to the western hemisphere. China could remain communist, keep Mao's memory, and adopt the market system, to develop the modern economy it has because of adopting western ideas, science and technology. And build what is otherwise a free market economy, and became a key trade partner, briefly an ally of the US as the Soviet Union collapsed- nothing like this happened in Cuba. Tourism was used simply as a way to protect the rest of the completely centralized economy and a state within a state built through an elite that ran a separate section of the armed forces under Raul Castro, kept a regimented society. Even that has failed. Nowhere in Latin America is there so many signs of failure, and it has also brought down societies that copied the rhetoric and nationalist slogans such as Venezuela and Colombia. In some parts of Mexico the Cuban rhetoric still sounds good but the reality is starkly different, Mexico itself is run on a model closer to that in the US, and Mexico has serious problems in civil society relating to immigration and drugs in its relationship with the US. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Ukraine is running out of parts for its old Russian T-72 tanks and Ukraine is in need of new western tanks to defend itself, says this report in DW.com. German reporters give this report from a tank unit in the Bakhmut and Soledar area in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine withdrew from Soledar.

LyrArc Article Gist
Here is what Governor Gavin Newsom tells Ezra Klein of the NYT about some in California that both support renewable energy and then oppose it from being built quickly: "I licked enveloped for these non profits as a kid. My father was on the board of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund for a decade. This was my life. But this rigidity and ideological purity is really going to hurt progress. I did the climate bills last year and these groups were celebrating that. But that means nothing unless we can deliver. That was the what. This is the how."

LyrArc Article Gist
Jobs exist in manufacturing, white collar jobs are scarce, tech sector has layoffs. About 28 million graduates are entering the job market over three pandemic years into this uncertain job market. Most graduates are looking for white collar jobs not the hard work in factories. Government jobs in civil service are lower paid and also selective. Is the youth unemployment rate 20% or much higher at 48%? Experts ask after looking at poor job prospects and most graduates depending on parents. Some are shown here turning down jobs that do not exercize their skills and studies at school, such as in engineering.

LyrArc Article Gist
The National Assessment of Education Progress, NAEP, which is a report card of educational levels in the U.S. secondary school system shows 36% of fourth graders in the U.S. are proficient in reading for 2017. For eighth graders this drops to 34% in 2017. This shows that a little over a third of fourth and eight graders are achieving proficiency in reading, a glaring sign of failure leaving about two thirds of young people behind. With declining level of reading proficiency and proliferation of social media, the bottom 25% are faring much worse than even this dismal result.

Between 2015 and 2017 there was no improvement in NAEP scores.

LyrArc Article Gist
Gisele Freund's photographic account of how a world changes, the world of her childhood at the turn of the century Berlin (she was born in 1908) and then after her return to Berlin in 1957 before the wall went up. This was an unfamiliar world to her. Her pictures are at the Willy Brandt Haus exhibition in Berlin, and at the Ephraim Palais for the pictures from 1957 and 1962. In the subsequent 50 years the Berlin Wall was to go up and come down, bringing more change and a new Berlin different from that in the late fifties, and a even more different Germany. A story of change told in photographs of Berlin.

LyrArc Article Gist
WSJ looks at what documents were leaked from classified documents of the Department of Defense, and what is the possible impact on the war in Ukraine.Some of the documents show Ukraine rapidly losing aircover defenses as it runs out of antiaircraft missiles. A map dated Feb 28 shows that most of Ukraine's critical infrastructure outside the Kiev region and two areas in the southwestern region would have no aircover by mid April or first week of May because of this depletion of stock of antiaircraft missiles. The FBI and Justice department launched the investigation into the leak of April 7 at the US Defense Department. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Yamamoto, Smith, Muncy, Rojas, Freeman, go into the history books as the LA Dodgers win one of the best games in baseball history well past midnight in extra innings against Toronto. Manager Dave Roberts made the intuitive decisions that put LA Dodgers into games that ran into 18 innings and went into Game 7.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ editorial points to the median income levels for 2014 being 6.5% below the level in 2007, median income level declining in 2011 and 2012, stagnant in 2014, according to the Census Bureau, as a reason why there is so much economic anxiety for average Americans. The appeal of Sanders and Trump reflects this anxiety and anti-establishment feeling. The official poverty rate at 14.8%, means 46.7 million Americans are below the poverty line. About 34.5% of the people experienced 2 or more months below the poverty line in 2009-2012, showing how it is hitting the middle class.

LyrArc Article Gist
Camp counselor saving 16 little girls in Texas floods at the Mystic campgrounds, by climbing to higher ground again and again in the dark. Washington Post gives this story from a Christian camp next to the Guadalupe River in Central Texas.

LyrArc Article Gist
Dvid Attenborough, the naturalist and broadcaster, says he has campaign for years against plastic pollution and no one paid attention. Now he says people are fed up with politics of Brexit and are showing great interest in fighting single use plastic. He says the people in the U.S. are acting even though the president Mr. Trump has taken action for withdrawing from the Paris climate change agreement. He sees things can change quickly if there is a new president and policy changes. 

He is heartened by the way people have received the movie Blue Planet 2 and the action politicians and ordinary people are taking. He thanks primary school teachers for all the work they are doing and the enthusiasm shown.

LyrArc Article Gist
As Biden launches his bid for reelection in 2024 a look at Pew Research analysis of the 2020 election shows that he significantly narrowed the margins Mr. Trump had in his favor in 2016 among married men and among veterans. As NYT's assessment of the Pew Research shows it was the support gained among moderate to conservative voting groups that won the election for Biden, not the traditional Democratic constituencies among minorities where Mr. Trump had in fact gained some ground in 2020. With married men and with veteran households Trump could manage only a ten percentage lead in each, 54% Trump to 44% for Biden in 2020, a huge difference from the big gaps in 2016 of 30 points. This probably decided the 2020 election for Biden. Some of this goes back to 1913 election of a professor at Princeton, New Jersey, Woodrow Wilson. Theodore Roosevelt had split the Republican party in the previous election by supporting his nominee Taft and fighting the election against Taft in 1913 after differences emerged with Taft. Wilson was the Democratic candidate with a strong agenda for workers rights during a period of income inequality as there is today. A similar situation is also seen in the 1948 election with Democrat Harry Truman defeating Republican Dewey after putting forward a Fair Deal in a program to protect workers and families following war and economic depression. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Efforts by the Physiology Society and Centre for Ageing Better (CAB), Make Movement Your Mission, and other groups in Britain to launch a national public health campaign. This effort is designed to get older people to exercize and form the contact with others that helps physical and mental health during the coronavirus restrictions and lockdown. It is a campaign for public health resilience.

Medical experts warn that lack of activity even for a few days can build up into negative effects on muscle mass. Three "snack sized" breaks of exercize for 20 minutes each day are suggested as well as super bubbles of 4 people, and guidance on nutrition, mental well being.

LyrArc Article Gist
Krugman comments on the Swiss National Bank's decision to give up the peg of 1.20 to the euro made in 2011, and reduce interest rates to a negative 0.75% on Jan. 14, 2015. He points to the dangers of complacency about the deflationary trend in Europe, Japan and the U.S., and deflationary pressures in China in the first quarter of 2015.

LyrArc Article Gist
PFC Energy has estimated the price of oil that would be required by OPEC countries to support higher public spending after the political unrest in these countries. The estimate is based on the minimum Brent crude price an OPEC country needs to balance its current account. This price supports the higher social spending needed. For Saudi Arabia that price was about $28 in 2005, $64 in 2010, and could reach $75 in 2012. PFC Energy says OPEC will cut output if prices fall below $90, because of higher social spending needs after the democracy movements in Arab countries.

LyrArc Article Gist
As large companies such as BP and Shell sell off oil and coal projects, smaller competitors in the energy field are buying these projects with the idea that the transition from coal and oil will take longer. The smaller energy companies bet that coal and oil will be the main source for energy for developing countries in Asia and Africa and that the underinvestment by the large companies will boost commodity prices. Numbers support their thinking as coal, oil and natural gas are expected to be source of 76% of global energy consumption in 2030. In 2019 this was 81%, according to the International Energy Agency. Because of the rising demand it means using even more carbon intensive energy.  India is making big strides in renewable solar yet the energy demand in the future will also jump further as India modernizes its economy. The trend is all in the direction of renewables yet the time it takes will depend on demand and the cost reduction of renewables with new technologies. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Just 2 weeks before president Xi's arrival in New Delhi for a G-20 Summit, Xi meets prime minister Modi at the Johannesburg BRICS summit. Modi and Xi agree on an expeditious disengagement of forces at the Line of Actual Control after Modi tells Xi that maintaining peace and tranquility in the border areas and respecting the LAC is essential for a normal India China relationship.  

LyrArc Article Gist
Krugman cites Apple as the largest company in the U.S. in terms of its valuation but having only 43,000 employees in the U.S. He asks the question- why does Apple get most of its manufacturing done in China? Apple indirectly employs about 700,000 people at its suppliers, with most of them in China. Companies contribute to a country's economy by creating successful clusters of research, innovation and manufacturing. In Apple's case, to the great detriment of the U.S. economy, the manufacturing part is being done entirely overseas. If cost is the only factor for this, then the question remains how German manufacturing has managed to surivive and grow with wages that are higher than in the U.S.

LyrArc Article Gist
The immense frustration of Republicans supporting Kevin McCarthy as the voting goes to the 15th ballot and the refusal of Matt Goetz of Florida, Ms. Lauren Boebert of Colorado to relent down to the 14th ballot, is shown here in this NYT report. Mr. McCarthy's at one point even stepped up to confront Mr. Gaetz personally by the 14th ballot.  Many indignities and humiliations were suffered in public says the NYT as the votes dragged on into the night. The WSJ Editorial Board and this NYT report show that the concessions made may only lead to more fractious incidents. This includes says the NYT, the possibility of snap votes for Speaker again by disaffected members, that are a remarkable concession made by Mr. McCarthy in the process.

LyrArc Article Gist
A detailed story on Fethullah Gulen, once an ally of president Erdogan in his effort to reduce the influence of the nation's military but now seen by him as a rival. Gulen lives in Pennsylvania. The recent coup in Turkey, and the efforts by Erdogan to reduce the influence of Gulen supporters in Turkey, has increased tensions between Turkey and the U.S. This is happening just as Turkey's relations with Germany are worsening after the failed coup, the  Erdogan response, and what is seen as a drift to authoritarian rule. Earlier corruption inquiries in 2014 critical of the Erdogan government by judges in the Gulen faction of the AK Party led to the split between the two factions, followed by Erdogan controlling judicial appointments and controlling the media.