LyrArc Article Gist
German Chancellor Merz says welfare entitlements are becoming a strain on the economy. The welfare entitlements growing in size puts huge strain on the budgets of US, Germany, UK, and France. Small changes in the Medicaid program in work requirements became politicized in the US spending bill passed in Congress. The size of the Medicaid program in 2025 is an example. Started in the LBJ administration it was $1 billion in 1965 covering 4 million people increasing to $10 billion covering 20 million people in 1976. 50 years later it covers 3.5 times the number of people at 71 million at a cost that is staggering of $900 billion. US population in the 50 years increased from 218 million to 342 million by 57% when the Medicaid population grew at 355% of 6 times the actual population growth showing that the country in some ways was growing much poorer and unhealthier and that other factors were also at work. As a percentage of the size of the economy  Medicaid growth was $10 billion when GDP was $1700 billion in 1975 or .00059% vs $900 billion when Medicaid is $900 billion  when economy GDP in 2025 is 30,000 billion or .03000 which is 50 times the percentage in 2025 vs 1975. At work in this is the ballooning cost of the way medicine is practiced in the US, and other factors.   ...

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After the disaster of the Japanese Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 following a tsunami and earthquake chancellor Merkel made the decision to close nuclear plants. Germany will close 3 nuclear plants in December 2021. Decommissioning will take 20 years and 1.1 billion euros per plant. In 2022 Germany will have only 3 nuclear plants in Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, and Lower Saxony, equivalent to power of 4 gigawatts from 1000 wind turbines. Gas prices are up 10 fold in 2021 as Germany makes the shift to wind and solar. Economy and Climate Protection Minister Habeck of the Greens party in the new German government sees a continuation of the policy removing nuclear plants and shifting to wind and solar.

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Mr Biden's bold vision for the US in infrastructure, in health and education, in competing in the world is outlined in this video in the NYT of his address to the joint session of the US Congress in April 2021. Biden is determined to move quickly and this comes across in the first 100 days. He says he "has never been more optimistic and confident about America."

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China's loans and projects in Latin America and the unwinding of projects in 2026. China had shifted policy to collecting back $10 billion of loans to Venezuela in meetings of its envoy with Maduro the day the US acted to remove Maduro, says this report in WSJ. China is shifting to reduce losses in the region from loans. Over last 2 decades China has loaned Venezuela $100 billion in exchange for oil shipments. As its oil industry production declined without US assistance Venezuela went deeper in debt. This is another aspect of the problems that this type of model of development brings to finance building of rail and transport, seen across the world from Venezuela down to small countries like Sri Lanka and Zambia. For China this could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in loans that lack transparency and are opaque to Africa and Latin America, when its construction industry debt and local government debt has led to problems. Other solutions and alternatives are needed.   ...

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The Maduro government and its predecessors caused the largest refugee crisis in the history of Latin America. The opposition leader won the last election in 2024 and the results were not respected by the Maduro regime. About 8 million people, a third of the country were turned into refugees, and inflation reached over 300% making life difficult in a nation with abundant oil resources. Millions of Venezuelans crossed the Mexican border into the US during the Biden administration, aggravating the migration crisis, and leading to the defeat of the Democrats and a plan under the Republicans to tackle migration. This included the return of Venezuelans in the US and in other parts of Latin America including Peru, Chile, to their home country. Much of Venezuela's infrastructure and public services has "rotted" and the cost of living makes life extremely difficult for all Venezuelans. Venezuela is an example of what happens under utopian socialist schemes, and how military and inept governance can ruin a country blessed with natural resoures.     ...

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At a videoconference between DJT and European leaders on Aug. 14, 2025, initiated by Germany's Merz , it was decided that no territory exchanges are to be discussed at DJT Putin meeting in Alaska. DJT and the Europeans will simply seek an immediate ceasefire followed by talks between Zelensky and Putin with DJT offering to be there to mediate differences. DJT says there will be strong sanctions on Russia in the event no ceasefire is reached. Legislation in Congress with 80 senators on board a clear majority of both parties is for putting a 500% tariff on countries such as China and India that import Russian oil. These imports exceed $100 billion each for China and India. DJT has placed a 50% duty on India if negotiations do not yield results on this issue. This is seen in Congress as fueling the continuation of the Russian war in Ukraine.

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How Mamdani won NYC - 20-40% increase in turnout on a 100 degree F day. And by increasing the liberal coalition of the 2021 Democrat primary of Kathryn Garcia in lower Manhattan, and of Maya Wiley in other parts of NYC. This is what a Washington Post Analysis of the 43% of the vote won by Zohran Mamdani a 33 year old NYC resident shows, as his opponent Andrew Cuomo got 36%.

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The ruling party LDP's defense committee has decided Japan needs to strike North Korean missiles on the ground. There is a growing consensus on this. Another consensus is developing over the issue of protecting the Senkaku islands adminstered by Japan and claimed by China. 

Earlier in 2020 T12 missiles with 100 kilometres range were deployed on Miyako island between Kyushu and Taiwan. Now these missiles range will be increased to 300 kilometres to reach the Senkaku islands. China has sent patrol planes and ships near the Senkaku islands. Other cruise missile range is planned for 1000 kilometres as Japan Self Defense Forces expand their capabilities to take on more of the responsibility for defending the Japanese islands. In alliance with India and Australia this capability is being expanded to the entire Indian Ocean region to counter an expansionist China.

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From Kansas to Southern Spain, pictures from The Guardian show the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the night skies looking out into The Milky Way in December 2020. At the time of the pandemic understanding how small our world is on this planet as light travels at 300,000 kilometres per second and it takes 2 seconds to reach earth from the moon, thousands of years for light to reach earth from distant stars of which scientists say there are 200 billion. A British scientist and astronomer says there are 200 billion in a new book "The History of the Universe in 21 Stars."

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How quickly things can change - Italy is now growing faster than Germany or France. The construction industry is booming with energy efficient home renovation. The superbonus 110 is a payment by the Italian government for energy efficient housing improvements. The government pays 65% of the cost to homeowners making better energy efficient renovations plus 10%. As introduced by the Five Star movement government it was 100% plus additional 10%. Giorgia Meloni's government lowered it to 65% from 75% in 2023. This has boosted the construction industry in Italy and revived Italy's growth where it is growing faster than France and Germany. Germany is seeing about 0.3% growth compared to 0.7% predicted by OECD for Italy in 2024. Giorgia Meloni the new Italian prime minister, after Mario Draghi a central banking official, has continued Draghi's policies and provided a measure of stability and leadership to the government.  Much of the capital comes from the $216 billion or $200 billion euros that will be given to Italy from the COVID Recovery Fund. Italy is the largest recipient. ...

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Tampa Bay area is one of the ten most high risk areas in the world, according to the World Bank. Estimates of damage from a severe hurricane are as high as $175 billion in a 2015 study. The Washington Post's Anna Phillips looks at this region which has grown by about 200 percent in the last two decades. Pinellas County home to St Petersburg and Clearwater, Tampa Bay area, now has 3.2 million people. Developers are lulled into a sense of complacency, says this report with the lack of severe hurricanes in recent decades. The last time a severe hurricane hit was 1921.  This area has 700 miles of shoreline. The problem is that sea levels are rising from climate change, Tampa Bay area has 5 inches of sea level rising, plus the Bay area water is shallower. Water pushed into the narrow area of Tampa Bay would likely rise further. This causes the most damage from waves and floods. Sea levels are higher in 2023 compared to 2009 by 7 inches in Charleston SC, Wilmington NC, Galveston Texas, and in Tybee Island Georgia.   ...

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The FCAS project for next generation fighter jet and air defense system is intended to reduce dependence on US made F-35 jets at a cost of $100 billion euros. It will be built by Dassault and Airbus. Macron and Merz meet in Toulon, France for the project to move forward in August 2025.

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After 3 decades the US is finally offering the scale and scope of infrastructure investment overseas that is needed. President Biden says $200 billion will be invested in infrastructure overseas over 5 years at meetings of the G-7 in the Alps south of Munich in Germany. Along with its partners and with government and private investments the size of the investment will reach $600 billion over 5 years to 2027. This will include projects such as $2 billion for solar energy in Angola, and a $600 million submarine telecommunications cable connecting France to Singapore.

It is a combination of direct government aid and private investment. President Biden sees Build Back Better World as the overseas version of his Build Back Better America for workers and families in the US for which Congress has authorized $1 trillion in infrastructure and climate change initiatives in the US.

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President Macron announces a curfew from 9.00 pm to 6.00 am in Paris and eight other metropolitan regions of France covering about a third of the population. The cities are in addition to Paris region, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Saint Etienne, Rouen, Toulouse.  Macron said "we have to act now." The president called for bringing the daily cases which have reached a high of 27,000 by October 14 to about 3000 or 5000. About 1600 of the 5000 ICU beds in France are now taken for coronavirus cases and the curfew is an effort to keep the numbers from jumping as they did in March  and April 2020. To do this he said: "we won't be leaving the restaurant after 9.00 pm and we won't be partying with friends because we know that that's where the contamination risk is greatest." Macron made it clear that scientists are all in agreement on the pandemic continuing till the summer of 2021. He urged people to limit gatherings at home to 6 people and wear masks.  Financial support will be given to people affected by the curfew in the hospitality industry.  Anyone found outdoors after 9.00 pm will be fined 135 euros and 10 times that for repeat offences.  ...

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A look back through Lyrarc at how rainforest deforestation was taking place in 2007 and amazing UN pictures of maps of Borneo island for 2000, 2005, 2020 showing how deforestation was taking out most of Borneo's rainforest by 2020. This is a call to action from Lyrarc after the pledge of Brazil, Russia, China, India, US, Indonesia to stop deforestation at the COP26 Glasgow.  This report from Surabaya, Indonesia, by Tom Wright, in the July 3, 2007, Wall Street Journal WSJ shows how this was extensive deforestation of one of the few remaining rainforests on the planet earth was taking place and is a must read for everyone. The links show work by a British ecologist journalist who fought hard to prevent continued deforestation in Sarawak, Malaysia, where she grew up as a child when her father was a colonial period police officer in that region. She could see the disappearing canopy in the rainforest and her protests were carried out from the outside.  ...

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Controversy on abortion views for Ms. Brosius-Gersdorf, nominee to Constitutional Court Germany 2025. Brosius studied at the University of Hamburg in public law before doing her Masters degree in Law at University of Edinburgh in UK. After 4 years 2000-2004 pracicing law in Bonn and Berlin, she returned as research assistant to Harmut Bauer atTechnical University Dresden and University of Potsdam. In 2025 she was put forward by SPD in the Merz coalition govenment as nominee to succeed Doris Konig on the Constitutional Court of Germany. She says some in CDU distorted her views on abortion. Chancellor Merz offered his support for Brosius-Gersdorf on the highest Court.

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Mr. Pascal Soriot of Astra Zeneca says his company has signed agreements for production of 2 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University. He says manufacturing is starting now because "we want it to be as fast as possible." One of the deals is with Serum Institute of India, the other is with Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for $750 million for CEPI and GAVI organizations which he supports. Mr. Soriot says the licensing agreement with Serum Institute is to supply one billion doses for low and middle income countries, with 400 million doses ready by end of 2020. He says Astra Zeneca is building supply chains across the world and so far has secured manufacturing capacity for 2 billion doses of the vaccine. Mr Soriot tells BBC that manufacturing vaccines on this scale is not an easy thing to do. He says that Astra Zeneca will not make a profit in production of these Oxford University developed vaccines. The U.S. has secured 300 million doses of the Oxford vaccine, and the UK 100 million doses.   ...

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Kharg Island near Hormuz and Jask Island on Gulf of Oman two of Iran's main oil export terminals. Oil is pumped by underwater sea pipelines to storage tanks that hold 30 million barrels on Kharg Island then loaded onto oil tankers that make their way through the Hormuz Straits. The oil is shipped to teapot refineries in China- smaller independent oil refineries in China that have not faced sanctions. This oil is shipped at a discount. How does China pay for this oil? China gets 2.1 million barrels a day from this source. It is paid for with a $400 billion Chinese investment in Iran under a 25 year Comprehensive Partnership Agreement signed in 2021 during the Biden Administration in the US. The investment covers energy, infrastructure and technology in Iran. At $60 a barrel before the Iran War China would have an import oil bill of $46 billion for 1 years supply of oil from Iran. This was paid for in yuan based transactions and barter systems which involved Iranian construction projects performed by China and exchange of other products, raw materials. ...

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The place is Spain, see adjacent article on places within Spain. If you know Spanish that is an added advantage to talk to the locals. It has changed over the years. In the 1990's one could go to Madrid and freely walk out of the Puerta de Atocha main train station there with little traffic. Over the years after the financial crisis Madrid and Spain suffered. Under PM Pedro it has recovered. Yet it is not the same with international tourism from China, India, US having made visits crowded and less friendly. There is the garbage can index for tourism that tells you something is wrong when garbage cans are overflowing- it happened as tourism jumped to France in the last 2 decades- with garbage overflowing outside Notre Dame before renovation. (After 1993 Japan removed all garbage cans from streets.) About 100 million tourist visited France in 2024 and 80 million to Spain. It brings $100 billion in tourism receipts to Spain and about $80 billion each for France and UK, so that it is a key source of revenue for countries. How to make trips that avoid the rush - careful planning for season and month, finding the right places depending on one's interests nature, history, science, or other, and avoiding tours as there are plenty of resources to do it on one's own, finding right places to stay and visit, using local transport, tram and speed trains in Europe, giving enough time for each place, talking to locals and taking a lesson on Rocket languages online which uses locals and practices word pronunciation so you sound like a local. ...

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Deep polarization is seen also in South Korea. Policy issues are not being discussed with eligible voters divided evenly among progressives in their 40's and 50's and conservatives over 60 years, and about 20% of the voting public that are independents and younger voters deciding the elections in South Korea. As in the US cost of living is an issue, down to the price of onions of which president Yoon is seen as not paying attention to. Conservative People Power Party of president Yoon is expected to gain only about 100 seats of 300 seats in the National Assembly in the parliamentary election in South Korea. Yoon won in a tight race with Lee a candidate from the Liberal Democratic Party in 2022, which is expected to win about 200 of 300 Assembly seats. Yoon is building a close relationship with the US and Japan and visited the US for talks with Biden. The election is not expected to affect the close relations of US with South Korea. It reflects the polarization in South Korea, Yoon's effort for corporate tax cuts may not go through. The opposition has made allegations of corruption and abuse of power, and the cost of living, as campaign issues. About a third of 44 million eligible voters have cast votes. Younger voters and moderates appear not to trust Yoon. ...

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US-Swiss trade deal November 2025 for 15% US tariff in exchange for $200 billion in investment in US. This includes access to Swiss markets for the US. The agreement also will let in dairy products and chocolate to the US at 15% tariff to reduce cost of living concerns. Swiss dairy producers and chocolate makers are likely to bear most of the 15% tariff burden because of higher margins. The $2000 rebate to all Americans from tariffs is a good idea of the DJT administration to give Americans protection from the smaller share of the tariffs that are passed on to consumers that are not borne by the producers exporting to the US. Overall in that situation the US will benefit in the restructuring of world trade that the DJT administration will have accomplished without hurting American consumers and bringing large scale investment into the US for jobs and higher wages. This is the part of the DJT Deal that could help America rebuild its manufacturing and economy in new ways.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Only 2 migrants were sent to Rwanda under a British government program of the Tories party to send migrants to Africa. The program if it took off was to spend 490 million British pounds to send migrants to Rwanda from Britain. A payment of 120 million pounds was made to Rwanda. WSJ says it is a huge waste of money. Each of the 2 migrants were paid $3000. Meanwhile record numbers of migrants entered Britain through the English Channel. Over 500 migrants crossed over in small boats each day in 2024, a 23% jump.

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Le Monde publishes the speech JD Vance gave at the Munich Security Conference with it says added context and explanation. It is useful because it is easy to make hasty judgements in one direction or another. The focus here is on immigration to EU and to the US, a sore point. Vance does not mention a bigger sore point - the lack of recognition worldwide to the 490,000 American lives lost in the illegal flow of fentanyl into the US without needed action from CMC Canada, Mexico and China. And business as usual carried on by these countries and the European Union, and a failure to act by the US.  JD Vance said- "And of all the pressings—challenges that the nations represented here face, I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration. Today, almost one in five people living in this country moved here from abroad. That is, of course, an all-time high. It’s a similar number, by the way, in the United States—also an all-time high. The number of immigrants who entered the EU from non-EU countries doubled between 2021 and 2022 alone. And, of course, it’s gotten much higher since.And we know the situation, it didn’t materialize in a vacuum. It’s the result of a series of conscious decisions made by politicians all over the continent, and others across the world, over the span of a decade." Fact Check- About 14 million of Germany's 84.5 million people are foreign nationals according to Destatis. This is 16.6% of Germany's population. Vance rounds it off to 20% not 17%. In the US there are 47.8 million people who are foreign born or 14.3% of the population in 2023. It increased by 1.6 million from 2022 to 2023, much of it coming from Venezuela and Central American failed states from left parties mismanaging the economy for hyperinflation and from gang violence. In 2022 EU member states welcomed 1.8 million Ukrainian nationals that was only 100,000 in 2021, which is two thirds of the increase. The reason for Vance's doubling. A similar situation happened in the US with Venezuela as a failed state with hyper inflation into 1000 percent inflation leading to migration to other Latin American countries and into the US during the Biden administration. Some of this happened because sanctions made things worse, mismanagement of the economy. A similar migration happened from Syria into the EU member states as a result of the civil war.     ...

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Prodigous investments in AI data centers is crowding out investment in essential infrastructure that would cut the cost of living in the US. Such as investment in pharmaceuticals in the US, investment in automobiles and rare earth processing, in housing and schools would reduce cost of living by bringing down prices and provide huge human returns for every dollar spent in addition to larger profits over a long period. Shown here is the AI data center for Microsoft in Atlanta. Microsoft has invested $34 billion the first fiscal quarter of 2025 alone, with similar investments by Amazon, Tesla, Google, and others for $400 billion capital allocation in 2026. Investments are also being crowded out in the replacing of the aging infrastructure of the US  of roads, rail, subways systems, transport systems, bridges, airports and ports. Some of these investments such as in ports and logistics are needed to make America a manufacturing and exporting nation. Economists loved to talk about crowding out of investment by the private sector when the government spending was significantly higher as during and after World War II. Today there is little talk about the massive misallocation of capital in the US economy. Where public infrastructure is ravaged by time and mismanagement as in New York political trends are calling for free public transport  and supported grocery stores in NYC, when the root cause the overall picture of the Nation's spending in rebuilding America is ignored or unaddressed, which would get to the root cause of the cost of living and quality of life issues that concern all the people of this Nation. ...

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Britain's Keely Hodgkinson, 800 metres gold medalist at Paris, talks about the pressure building up, her experience after an injury, the slump and her recovery in 2025. After a difficult period and an injury while going to London for her MBE, she says she is chilling, and has gained something from the experience to let go off the pressure and just be herself.