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LyrArc brings in selected articles from many of the world's top publications.

Articles are selected by experts and you can see the gist of the important articles.

Biden signs bill to avert nationwide rail strike

  
BBC News - 12.02.2022 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
US president Biden signs legislation that gives rail workers in the US paid sick leave and 24% higher pay, $5000 bonuses in series of annual payments, and 7 days paid sick leave. The death of a rail worker because of paid sick leave and the stagnant wages of rail workers led Congress to act. Workers now feel they are being heard in the Biden presidency with Democrats control of the Senate and close contest for the House of Representatives. A rail strike would have hurt other working families said president Biden, and Congress acted in a timely manner to prevent losses to the economy of an estimated $2 billion a day from a rail strike.

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SEC Faces Calls to Boost Crypto-Exchange Enforcement After FTX Collapse

  
WSJ - 12.08.2022 Original article ›
Dave Michaels
LyrArc Article Gist
The failure of the SEC under Gary Gensler to protect ordinary Americans who are mistakenly trusting their savings to cryptocurrency firms is seen as a major flaw in his running of the agency by former SEC officials and other SEC experts. The gaps in SEC enforcement and this weakness is the subject of this report in the WSJ. The cryptocurrency firms are not registered with the SEC and do not follow SEC rules hurting ordinary Americans putting money there. Mr. Gensler was made head of the SEC in 2021, and the SEC has been looking at crypto firms since 2017 but failed to come up with a regulatory model in 5 years.

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France’s Macron Seeks Bigger Military, Leaner Pension System

1 Groups   
WSJ - 01.20.2023 Original article ›
Stacy Meichtry, Noemie Bisserbe
LyrArc Article Gist
France plans to increase military spending from 295 billion euros to 400 billion euros for 2024 to 2030. Some of this will come from reform of the pension system that takes up 13.1% of economic output by raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. A million people protest in Paris on Jan 20. One of the problems in implementing this is that in France there is significant age discrimination for jobs compared to Germany and other countries. This means workers would have to wait longer for pensions even workers with good qualifications looking for work. Efforts to tackle this cultural issue with companies biased against older workers are lacking.

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Sen. Joe Manchin Balks at Global Minimum Tax Championed by Biden

  
WSJ - 07.16.2022 Original article ›
Richard Rubin
LyrArc Article Gist
Senator Manchin wants other countries or regions such as the European Union to go first with the global minimum tax of 15%. Holdouts Poland and Hungary have not agreed to the 15% tax in the EU. After that the US could follow. Mr. Manchin is a Democrat whose vote is needed for Congress to pass the legislation. Currently the tax is set at 10.5% after legislation passed by president Trump.

Much of the funding for HEIRS - for Health, Education, Infrastructure, Retirees and Society- has to come from better collection of taxes, so that everyone pays their fair portion of taxes which tech companies are not doing in the last decade. 

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Opinion | Russia Will Miss the World Order Putin Upended

  
WSJ - 07.25.2022 Original article ›
Alexander Baunov
LyrArc Article Gist
Was Russia better off in 2021 than after the invasion of Ukraine. Was it better for upward mobility, health, openness of the economy and growth, and standards of living. Was the US perceived as a hegemon when it also lacked control of its own companies that preferred to invest elsewhere and ignored US workers for a long time. This report in the WSJ asks whether it is not true that not just Russia, but the US, the EU, China, India, other large nations faced a world order that was in many ways difficult, not to their liking, and in some ways posed risks for their countries. 

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Original article 3 minutes, gist 1 minute

Biden casts US and Ireland as allies in quest for shared values

  
The Guardian - 04.13.2023 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
On his visit to Ireland president Biden says the most Irish of words used in his family was dignity. He tells the Irish parliament- "Ta me so abhaile. I am at home. I just wish I could stay longer." He lauded the two nations "revolutionary spirit" and cast the US and Ireland as allies in a battle for shared values. "The US was shaped by Ireland. We have known hardship and division, but we have also found solace in each other."Biden loves to cite Irish poets. He cited an Irish proverb- "Your feet will bring you to where your heart is."

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Biden pledges surplus vaccines will be shared with the rest of the world – video

  
The Guardian - 03.11.2021 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
US president Biden makes a pledge that the US will send vaccine doses overseas to other countries after it has met American needs. This is hugely important because the US has contracted with pharmaceutical companies for a major part of the world's vaccine supplies. It is part of the humanitarian assistance the US will soon be in a position to provide to African, Asian and Latin American countries. It is also in the American interest to reduce the potential for new variants and new sources of the virus entering the US through airline travel by helping vaccinate a large part of the world's population in 2021-2022.

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Pitfalls the UK needs to avoid when contact tracing for coronavirus

  
The Guardian - 05.20.2020 Original article ›
Henry Mc Donald
LyrArc Article Gist
Prof. John Ashton, regional director of public health for the northwest of England offers this advice on pitfalls to avoid in the testing and contact tracing systems of the UK and other countries. He says there is a problem in sending testing kits through the mail or postal service. He points out that the swabs needed for testing correctly are quite invasive, the risk of an inadequate sample taken in high, resulting in a false negative report. 

On contact tracing he says the current recruiting system has pitfalls of contact tracing people not having local knowledge. Needed are people who know the local population and are able to fully engage with these people.

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Original article 5 minutes, gist 1 minute

U.K.’s Covid-19 Vaccine Program to Test Its National Health Service

  
WSJ - 12.03.2020 Original article ›
Jason Douglas, Stephen Fidler
LyrArc Article Gist
Everyone over 50 years is to be given the vaccine in just a few months of 2021 by the NHS. A massive logistics and training effort is underway. The government changed the law to let student doctors, physiotherapists, and dental workers to give the vaccine. Retired doctors and nurses are called in. Britain has a war effort to counter antivaccine propaganda unlike other countries such as France and Germany. Compare that 79% of Britons are seeking the vaccine, 54% in France and 64% in the U.S. showing that the UK is doing a much better job. Vaccination starts next week for over 80 year old people. The world is watching.

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Original article 6 minutes, gist 1 minute

‘Go hard and go early’ to avoid winter Covid surge, Boris Johnson told

  
- 09.15.2021 Original article ›
Steven Swinford, Political Editor | Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor
LyrArc Article Gist
The chief scientific adviser to the government of Britain says "go hard, and go early" to prevent a surge of coronavirus in Britain in the autumn and winter with more activity indoors. Things are flattish at the moment, but if hospitalizations pick up the government needs to quickly shift from Plan A without vaccine mandate and without mandatory mask use to requiring vaccinations and mask use, calling for working from home, as part of Plan B. Unlike France and other countries in Europe Britain has not taken the strong action that is necessary. Prime minister Boris Johnson is pushing for new efforts in getting the remaining people vaccinated.

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Original article 1 minute, gist 1 minute

Opinion | The Realtors Stage a $418 Million Tactical Retreat

  
WSJ - 03.19.2024 Original article ›
The Editorial Board
LyrArc Article Gist
Realtor commissions average 5.5 to 6.5% for decades split evenly between buyer and seller broker agents. Overall commissions in UK are 1.3%, Netherlands 1.8% by comparison. Another cost of living action is being taken by the US Justice Department. This Editorial Board editorial in WSJ says realtors are using rigged game in which home buyers and sellers end up paying high broker fees that are not paid in other countries. The US Justice Department of the Biden administration says- the Missouri verdict in a class action lawsuit against NAR for $1.8 billion settlement only offers cosmetic changes and will still perpetuate "stubbornly high broker fees." WSJ says legal scrutiny should continue. 

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France announces €45bn effort to shield country from energy cost increases

  
The Guardian - 09.26.2022 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
France's finance minister Bruno Le Maire announces a $45 billion effort to cap energy price increases for electricity and gas to 15% increase. Earlier efforts had capped the increase to 4% till the end of 2022 in a tariff shield (bouclier tarifaire). France's public accounts minister says the budget being presented is "a budget to protect." Windfall taxes on energy companies will reduce the cost of the $45 billion to $12 billion. Other protection is offered in the form of increasing income tax brackets by 5% to lower the tax burden. In the absence of this effort the energy prices could have increased by more than 60%, says the Finance Ministry.

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Opinion | Biden Riffs on Armageddon

  
WSJ - 10.07.2022 Original article ›
The Editorial Board
LyrArc Article Gist
This editorial in the WSJ shows the conduct of president Biden to keep all sides of the picture in consideration to bring a peaceful end to the Ukraine war with so far horrendous casualties on all sides, without escalation to new levels. These threats of escalation include nuclear threats. In this sense president Biden has serious responsibilities on behalf of the world separate from opinion on either side of the war, so does Mr. Jinping and Mr. Modi, and the leaders of other parts of the world who have not created the events for this conflict and represent a large part of the world and its peoples who are directly affected and want no further escalation period.

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Pakistan: Food prices soar amid floods | DW | 30.08.2022

1 Links   
DW.COM - 08.30.2022 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
Pakistan faces soaring food prices with the severe monsoon floods damaging crops and hurting the agricultural sector. Onions are up five times in price. About 80% of the tomato crop is damaged. Imports from India could ease the situation. Under normal trade for neighboring countries India Pakistan trade would be $50 billion in 2012, according to Mr. Boskin, who helped setup the NAFTA trade agreement. Instead it was $2.7 billion in 2012 and it was about $300 million in 2020, in OEC data.  Finance Minister Ismail talked about importing tomatoes and onions and other products from India during the floods with one third of Pakistan under water and half a million homeless.

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Original article 4 minutes, gist 1 minute

With U.S. aid in doubt, Europe struggles to rearm Ukraine

  
Washington Post - 02.24.2024 Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
With the lack of action from House Speaker Mike Johnson on a bill for $61 billion in Ukraine aid bill which passed in the Senate  France, Germany and Britain are speeding up their defense supplies manufacturing and making larger investments with a coordinated effort with other EU nations. The problem say former NATO officials is the lack of investment in spare facilities. Rheinmetall is working on the German side and French defense firms are contributing to increased defense manufacturing.The European Defense Agency's deputy chief executive says production will require sustained investment ant finalized contracts. The European Defense Agency says EU nations have invested $52 billion in 2022 on defense gear.

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Original article 11 minutes, gist 1 minute

How Climate Change Turned Lush Hawaii Into a Tinderbox

  
NYTimes.com - 08.12.2023 Original article ›
Christopher Flavelle, Manuela Andreoni
LyrArc Article Gist
The effects of declining rainfall, higher temperatures in causing the wildfires of 2023 in Hawaii. Researchers show that rainfall has declined by one third since 1990 in the wet season. The fires are striking because of the lush vegetation that one generally associates with Hawaii. Yet Hawaii is like other places on the planet, also susceptible to climate change and its effects. With rising temperatures about 36% of Maui County is in severe or moderate drought. Dry and invasive grasses make it worse, as one expert puts it the island is covered with flammable stuff. Blowing winds provide an additional condition. Flavelle and Andreoni provide this NYT report on Hawaii and climate change.

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Sidney Poitier Was the Star We Desperately Needed Him to Be

  
NYTimes.com - 01.08.2022 Original article ›
Wesley Morris
LyrArc Article Gist
Wesley Morris provides a look at Sidney Poitier, who changed attitudes towards race in America and Europe, from a New Yorker's perspective. He says Poitier did so much to create the more open cultural attitudes in the US and Europe, and South Africa that we find today, and did this with humility and grace. He puts Poitier's contribution in changing racial attitudes in the longer perspective in America with Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King. In a larger sense these attitudes also led to changes in attitude towards people from Asia and other countries, that started with Mohandas Gandhi and his efforts against segregation in South Africa in 1900.

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Meet the Delta Fliers Who Don’t Hate the New SkyMiles Rules

  
WSJ - 09.27.2023 Original article ›
Dawn Gilbertson
LyrArc Article Gist
Delta Airlines is switching its frequent flyer program entirely to spending on its American Express Card. No miles for flights. Delta gets an astounding $7 billion from American Express from sales of miles, ancillary fees and brand fees. Its goal is $10 billion which would be what it made from tickets for flights in 2022. Delta's CEO says it may have gone too far with these changes which are unpopular with its flyer base except for the high end flyers who disliked crowded lounges. Were there other ways to tackle that problem? Delta appears to have shifted attention to a small fraction of its customers.

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Albemarle’s $4.16 Billion Lithium Bet Scuttled by Australia’s Richest Person

  
WSJ - 10.15.2023 Original article ›
Rhiannon Hoyle
LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ report looks at Hancock Prospecting's efforts to control the Kathleen Valley lithium project in western Australia. Lithium was discovered in 1817 and today is an essential component for electric batteries that power phones, EV cars. The world needs 50 lithium mines for action to meet climate change goals. The market for lithium was $1.5 billion in 2014, it is now $48 billion. It is found in the Atacama desert in Chile, in Western Australia and other countries. Mobil has invested in Arkansas. Hancock Prospecting in Australia, Albemarle in Charlotte, NC, SQM in Chile, and China's Ganfeng are competing for stakes in lithium mines. 

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Argentina Elects Javier Milei in Victory for Far Right

  
NYTimes.com - 11.20.2023 Original article ›
Jack Nicas
LyrArc Article Gist
Most of the provinces vote in favor of Milei including Cordoba and Mendoza, Salta and SantaFe. Only Buenos Aires province and two other provinces vote in favor of Sergio Massa, the Peronist candidate. Milei wins by 56% to Massa's 46%. The election is affected by the Peronist party president Fernandez's failure to control inflation that has reached 140%. La Nacion points out that most voters are angry at the political and economic reality, and are not voting for an ideology. In April 2020 one US dollar was worth 80 pesos, in 2023 it is 1000 pesos. Argentine has a chronic problem- repeated bouts of high inflation over 4 decades.

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Trump Is Indicted in Federal Probe of His Efforts to Reverse 2020 Election

  
WSJ - 08.01.2023 Original article ›
Sadie Gurman, Aruna Viswanatha
LyrArc Article Gist
Former president Trump is indicted by a federal grand jury for his efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election. Charges in this criminal case include attempt to defraud the US, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiring against the rights of voters. The 45 page indictment by special counsel Jack Smith says Trump leaned on election officials in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan to support his efforts to overturn election results, and later on vice president Mike Pence. WSJ shows a graph of the series of indictments Mr. Trump now faces including payments to a porn star, Georgia election interference, handling of classified documents, Jan. 6 violence, and in other cases.

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What happens next for Brexit: A Brexiteer at No 10 will stiffen EU resolve

  
The Times - 05.24.2019 Original article ›
Bruno Waterfield, Brussels
LyrArc Article Gist
A teary Theresa May resigns as prime minister of Britain. Headlines in The Times say she had commitment but lacked flexibility. Other headlines say her attempts to pass her Brexit deals were doomed to fail from the beginning as she lacked a consensus in her own party. The Conservative party is badly divided.

This also stiffens European resolve not to negotiate further with a no-deal Brexit supporter, Mr. Boris Johnson, likely to be the new prime minister. Mr. Johnson has said the only problem with Britain going ahead and leaving the European Union without any deal negotiated is that there could be a shortage of Mars chocolate bars.

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Original article 1 minute, gist 1 minute

Coronavirus: Wearing a mask ‘reduces deadly power of virus’

  
The Times - 07.21.2020 Original article ›
Kat Lay Health, Correspondent | Kaya Burgess, Religious Affairs Correspondent
LyrArc Article Gist
Mask use is one of the best ways along with social distancing as it reduces the load factor of the virus, reduces the deadly power of the virus. So that the illness even if it happens would not end up being severe, giving patients a chance to recover quickly. Study after study in Germany, in the U.S., in Britain is confirming this. It is also common sense considering that there is a load factor in the virus infection. The bigger the load of virus intake through the nose while breathing in other people's droplets that are then entering our body through receptors in the nose, the bigger the intake, the more severe the infection.

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Original article 1 minute, gist 1 minute

CNN to Cut About 100 Jobs, Launch Its First CNN.com Subscription Product

  
WSJ - 07.10.2024 Original article ›
Isabella Simonetti, Joe Flint
LyrArc Article Gist
During total day CNN had 473,000 viewers in quarter 2 of 2024. In the 25-54 years CNN had 85,000 viewers. Median age ov viewers on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC is 67-70 years showing that most of the American people get their information about the US and the world from digital, internet and in other ways.This shows the declining audience for televisions news and a shift over to digital news such as Apple News and Lyrarc.com type smaller sites that are providing alternatives on how the news is covered including a knowledge base approach to provide education type content and build understanding of content that Lyrarc has taken with an open model.

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How Jeff Bezos Is Trying to Fix The Washington Post

  
NYTimes.com - 06.14.2024 Original article ›
Benjamin Mullin, Katie Robertson
LyrArc Article Gist
Following a $77 million loss at The Washington Post Jeff Bezos is working on restructuring its operations. The Post has 2.5 million paying subscribers. Bezos sees the paper with potential of 100 million paying subscribers. He sees the need to get more people from the middle of the country and cover topics people are concerned about. One suggestion was to do a third newsroom for social media and service journalism. This has run into problems with some of the staff resigning. Bezos has suggested one way to attract more people is to rewrite articles from other sources. Staff at the paper see by contrast the role of The Post in original journalism.

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