LyrArc Article Gist
Verizon Communications takes a $4.5 billion charge in the 4th quarter of 2018 for its acquisition of AOL. Tim Armstrong, former head of AOL departs Verizon with incentive package of $60 million. The business headed by Armstrong at AOL was combined with Yahoo properties and called Verizon Media Group which failed to meet revenue projections. Verizon spent $9 billion from 2015-2017 to buy AOL and Yahoo, in an investment that has half its value written off.

LyrArc Article Gist
Aerial pictures of the damage done by cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Over 2.6 million people are affected in the three countries and the port city of Beira with 500,000 people is an island in the ocean completely cut off from the rest of Mozambique. Dams in the area of Beira are also under threat of bursting.

LyrArc Article Gist
As the German government seeks to rescue Deutsche Bank through a possible merger with Commerzbank, this report in the NYT describes the bank's U.S. operations and risky ventures. Deutsche Bank faces huge losses from settlements, high management turnover and an uncertain future.

LyrArc Article Gist
France's prime minister Edouard Philippe announces hard line measures after rioting in Paris in yellow vest protests.

Yellow vest protests will be banned in worst hit neighborhoods in Paris. The Paris police chief was replaced after violence, looting and arson in the Champs Elysees area of Paris. 10,000 gilets jaunes yellow vest protestors marched in Paris. Police have come under criticism for excessive use  of force. Hand held rubber bullet launchers and explosive sting grenades are some of the devi ces used  by police. The government says not enough force was used. Philippe said "inappropriate orders were given to reduce use of rubber bullet launchers. He says there should be a hardening of France's doctrine of law and order.

Suggests an impasse has been reached between the government and protestors.

LyrArc Article Gist
In building a new Germany soccer team about half of Joachim Low's team were not in Russia. He has axed 3 top players in Russia and is counting on new faces and younger players new to the team to build the new Germany.

LyrArc Article Gist
Yellow vest protesters in Paris have a point about the rising cost of living in Paris. Paris now ranks as one of the top 3 most expensive cities inthe world after Hong Kong and Singapore.  This is using 150 items in 133 cities worldwide in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2019 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. Other cities that are in top ten include Zurich and Geneva ranked fourth and fifth followed by Seoul, Tokyo. Israel's Tel Aviv entered top ten for first time. New York and Los Angeles rank eight and tenth.

London property prices fell for second year in a row in 2018. No German cities in top ten, Munich overtook Hamburg and Frankfurt moved up three places. In Canada Vancouver is dropping and Toronto is still holding up.

LyrArc Article Gist
A supercomputer called Aurora to be delivered in 2021 to the Argonne National Laboratory would do quintillion calculations per second. Supercomputers offer more accurate simulations of climate changes, solar panels, inner workings of engines.

LyrArc Article Gist
Paul Krugman points out the problems in rural America that need attention. Integrating rural America faced with problems of joblessness and a sense of being ignored are part of the effort to pull the nation together. Krugman points to economic forces that have pushed the other way. Yet it is the role of government to support farming communities and farmers in what was till the 1950's and 1960's a nation that was both rural and urban. With the rise of tech companies in the last 2 decades problems of rural communities were pushed into the background. 

The founders of the U.S. and the Continental Congress that drafted the U.S. Constitution did this had rural communities in mind in what was then in 1790's a largely rural country. Rural states have the same representation as larger more populous urban states under the U.S. Constitution making it impossible to ignore the rural areas and farmers without damaging the public interest.

LyrArc Article Gist
New Zealand considers passing new laws banning semiautomatic guns and requiring all guns to be registered after shootings by a Australian member of a rifle club. The shootings led to 50 deaths in 2 mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

LyrArc Article Gist
Efforts of prime minister Theresa May to somehow force members of parliament to back her Brexit deal through repeated votes in parliament have collapsed. Speaker Bercrow says the same deal cannot be voted on twice. Last week the British parliament rejected May's Brexit deal by the largest margin of any bill in parliamentary history. The vote rejecting her deal was with a margin of 149 votes. Speaker Bercrow cited a parliamentary convention dating back to 1604.  

Conservative Party leaders opposing May's deal Jacob Rees Mogg welcomed the Speaker's ruling. The Conservative Party is so divided on this issue of exiting the European Union that it has severely undermined Mrs. May's authority in parliament. Mr. Mogg favors leaving the European Union with no deal regardless of the consequences. On the other side is the Labour Party and some Conservative party members who are adamantly opposed to this.

LyrArc Article Gist
Benny Gantz, a former Israeli army chief of staff, failed to take advantage of the situation Mr. Netanyahu finds himself in with corruption charges from the Attorney General and a sense that it was time for Israel to move on beyond the Netanyahu years. In a close election contest Mr. Gantz needs to put forward his own message which he is only now beginning to do. He says Mr. Netanyahu's office leaked news of a hack of his mobile phone by Iran which went on the Israeli television network. Mr. Gantz's view of the election is that a clean campaign would resonate with voters after the rough and tumble politics of the Netanyahu years.

LyrArc Article Gist
India's broadband prices have dropped to the point where they are the lowest in the world. A UK comparison site shows 1 gigabyte of mobile data  costs $0.26 in India compare to $12.37 in the U.S. and $6.66 in the UK, and globally about $8.53.  Reliance Jio the company which dropped prices starting in 2016, says it is using voice and data on a spectrum known only for data use. Reliance Jio is using only one fifth of its capacity. and says is it is making more revenue per user than competitors. Competitors including Airtel and Vodafone have lowered prices reducing margins of as high as 30 percent to being barely profitable. Reliance Jio gives away its 4G feature phone JioPhone against refundable security deposit of $21, with plans of $1 a month. The handset supports Wifi and WhatsApp. India ha 1.17 mobile subscriptions, 55% in urban areas. Most broadband use now comes from Jio. Mobile data consumption has jumped in India in 2 years to more than 10GB per user per month, which is close to that in the U.S.    ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The British parliament votes 321 to 278 on a motion that rules out leaving the UK specifically on March 29 without a deal negotiated with the European Union on future relations. The margin of votes was 43. Thirteen government ministers abstained from the vote. The repeated votes in parliament are a tactic used by the prime minister Theresa May to get her party members to back the deal she has negotiated with the European Union. The ruling Conservative party is split on whether to leave the European union and if so what the relations should be between Ireland and Northern Ireland, whether Britain should remain in the customs union of the EU.   The repeated votes have only exacerbated and made worse than before the divisions in the Conservative Party, leading to a view that only a second referendum can break the deadlock. The indifference shown in France and Germany by business and the public to Britain's membership, and the manner of handling of the immigration crisis by Chancellor Merkel with large numbers of African and Arab immigrants entering Germany, have contributed to the dissension in Europe over Britain's right to control the flow of immigrants across its borders. The deeper Merkel positioned the ruling CDU party to welcome migrants in 2016-2017, the more skeptical the British public became on the free flow of people in the EU leading to the large bill boards on open immigration in Europe during the referendum on EU membership and the small margin in favor of leaving the EU. Austerity policies of Cameron and Osborne over two terms only increased the divisions of British society. The lack of good leaders in the Conservative Party has worsened the crisis. Theresa May comes from a London constituency which voted against leaving the EU, yet has taken up the leadership of the different Leave factions in the Conservative Party as she sought the position of prime minister after Mr. Cameron. Prime Minister Cameron promised the referendum on EU membership in a ploy to win votes in a closely contested general election and called the referendum not anticipating the result, and resigned as  prime minister. By being against Britain leaving the European Union, yet willing to use the issue for opportunistic vote getting in a close election Cameron and other politicians in the Conservative Party split the country in what some have called an act of recklessness. The votes in parliament and possible fesh elections, a second referendum, are a way to find a solution to this mess.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Large parts of Germany are lacking in fast connectivity, particularly in rural areas. Germany lags behind the U.S. and South Korea in 5G network infrastructure development.  Germany does badly in international broadband rankings.The agency in charge of Germany's telecom grid is holding an auction March 19 for 5G licenses for 41 frequency blocks with Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonia among the bidders.  In Germany 5G networks offer a substitute for landlines in rural areas. A big problem in Germany is that access to LTE with large data volumes is costly in Germany. Many customers go without faster connections considering the cost. According to industry association Bitkom about 40% of respondents say they are not willing to pay more for 5G. This is not counting the cost of the 5G smartphone that could run upto $2000. German automakers interested in 5G's potential for autonomous driving are able to set up their own campus type networks leaving out middlemen. Large companies such as Siemens and Airbus are planning their own networks. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Protests intensify in Algeria as aging 82 year old president Bouteflika withdraws his candidacy for a fifth term. 

LyrArc Article Gist
A new foreign investment law passed by the Chinese People's Congress is designed to address concerns of western companies facing problems operating in China. This includes unequal market access, forced technology transfers, unfair treatment in public procurement. It was passed in only 3 months after the first draft was debated showing the importance Beijing places on the bill. Its a step designed to help in the trade talks with the U.S. about leveling the playing field. China amends its intellectual property law and introduces a punitive damages "mechanism" so that infringements are fairly dealt with. The new Chinese law replaces three foreign capital laws passed between 1979 and 1990, and is a unified legal standard for foreign investment in China. It eliminates the requirement for foreign companies to transfer proprietary technology to Chinese joint venture partners and protects against "illegal government interference." The European Union Chamber of Commerce says Article 40 still allows for"political issues to influence investor-state relations." Experts say this is a small step in the overall effort to level the playing field. ...