LyrArc Article Gist
World War II with Tom Hanks review- good for new generation of young people who have not seen Saving Private Ryan or documentaries made in ,the 70's. There are too many talking heads and not like in the 70's when survivors could give live accounts of what they saw, as they are dead by now. There is good new video footage.  Yet the war is of epic proportions on so many fronts, 20 episodes barely touch the major events of WWII, not to mention the events in Asia and Japan, the events in North Africa and Italy. Each of these areas has separate books in the work of Rick Atkinson who worked on it for a decade. Atkinson is interviewed by Rubinstein on C-SPAN showing that there is new interest in what happened in World War II. For the Asian side of the story the story does not start in 1939, the Japanese invasion and occupation of China is shown from the days after 1914 through the story of Gen. Joe Stilwell who is the American who for half a century to 1945 was America's main representative in China, and Franklin Roosevelt's and America's commanding general in China in the fight against the Imperial Japanese Army. The empathy of Stilwell for the Chinese people and his willingness to risk his life to help is simply amazing- and is something to take away from this book by Barbara Tuchman. There is a lot that America can be proud of in creating a rising tide in Asia that has lifted all boats. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This report from Italy by Jason Horowitz of the NYT, shows the Five Star Movement as having emerged as Italy's leading political party, and making efforts to tackle its inexperience in politics with charges from other parties that its candidate for prime minister Mr. DiMaio, 31, is a complete novice. Here he is shown to have inflated the qualifications of a candidate with a pro-EU background, Italian Ms. D'Alessandro who lives in Berlin, Germany. She is one of many candidates from the professional class recruited by the Five Star Party to polish its image and show it is capable of governing. Ms. Alessandro was presented in the Southern region of Italy by Di Maio as an "economist" and someone close to Merkel's CDU. In elections on March 4, the governing Democratic party is presenting older candidates in their fifties with family and political connections in contrast to the young people like Ms. D'Alessandro who is only 27 years old with a masters degree in public policy from a German University.  The Five Star Movement hopes to gain from Italy's proportional system and the voter dissatisfaction with existing parties. A similar situation led to the untested and untried En Marche Movement in France winning the national elections. A separate report in the Economist magazine shows the Five Star Movement retaining its popularity even after other parties accused it of inexperience, improper financial dealings of candidates, plagiarism, anti-immigration views of specific candidates.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Italy's Five Star party agrees to form a new government in alliance with the Democratic Party. Mr. Conte will continue as prime minister and heads the new government. Five Star party's coalition government with Mr. Salvini's Northern League was formed after elections in 2018. It collapsed after Mr. Salvini decided to breakup the coalition government in the hope of taking advantage of increasing popularity in the polls. The Five Star Movement was founded in protest against the conventional politics in Italy, but decided to join the establishment Democratic Party after Mr. Salvini's moves to call fresh elections. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Lack of experience and vague policy positions are leading to the collapse of the Five Star party started by comedian Beppe Grillo in Italy. Unlike the movement against establishment politics started by Mr. Macron in France as a minister in the Hollande government with considerable business and government experience but still an outsider, Mr Grillo and his representative Mr. Maio in the government lack experience in governing. This is leading to its complete collapse only two years after its success at elections winning 33% of the vote. It shows that such movements can be short lived without a clear economic agenda that can be implemented, not mere criticism of the existing arrangements.

LyrArc Article Gist
Italy's Five Star Movement is gaining in popularity before national elections in March 2018, because voters are fed up with the old political parties and the old political system. A Five Star Movement member Virginia Raggi is Mayor of Rome. Even though this has not led to improvements in tackling Rome's problems such as urban decay, garbage collection, and weak transportation, this is acceptable with angry voters who want to send a message to the traditional political parties that ran the government for 50 years. About a third of these voters who support the Five Star Movement are from the right, a third from the left and a third young people who never voted before, according to Italian pollster Pregliasco of You Trend. Recent polls show the Five Star support at 28% and the leading party. The anti-politician message really resonates in Italy with its lack of growth, and a sense that things will not change under politicians of the old system, right or left. As in France with the En Marche movement bringing in younger and new faces in parliament and in government, Five Star Movement is bringing younger faces to the forefront. As young as 31 years for the party's candidate for prime minister, Mr. Di Maio. As a result older politicians in their fifties from the established parties are running against younger people in their twenties and thirties, a situation seen in France in recent elections that brought new faces to parliament and new ways of governing.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Cummins raises questions about the Australian team. Lyons failed to get a wicket in 34 overs against South Africa 2025. Is the Lyons, Hazlewood, Cummins, Starc bowling with few new additions not enough for the games ahead? Markram's 136 against Australia showed the need for changes in Australia's lineup.

LyrArc Article Gist
A political novice whose only political experience is being elected to the Bureau of Administrative Justice, is elected to be the 58th prime minister of Italy. Giuseppe Conte is a jurist. With him as deputy prime ministers are the leaders of the Northern League, Mr. Salvini, and the Five Star, Mr. Maio. 

The Northern League has taken anti-immigrant positions and sees the eurozone and euro currency as "a crime against humanity." The Five Star and the Northern League are in many ways polar opposites. Initially the anti-euro currency Paolo Savona was put forward as economy minister and rejected by the president.

LyrArc Article Gist
Mr. Giuseppe Conte, Italy's prime minister in the governing coalition of Five Star and Northern League parties was ignored by party leaders. He now finds himself leader of the Five Star Movement with which his views were aligned without being a member. In a new coalition of the establishment Democratic party and the Five Star party of Beppe Grillo after the earlier coalition collapsed Mr. Conte finds a new role as a leader.  Once an obscure lawyer who was looking for a job teaching job at Rome University even when he was prime minister Mr. Conte became popular with his speech in parliament strongly critical of Mr. Salvini.

This also gives Italy the chance to improve relations with the European Union.

LyrArc Article Gist
The message of the Five Star Party of Beppe Grillo against cronyism, the older politics in Italy, corruption in government, unrestricted immigration, clearly resonated in the south of Italy with the party winning in southern Italy. FIve Star brings younger faces to the Italian parliament just as Macron's movement did in France. The Democratic Left Party under Renzi was a clear loser as it won about 20% of the vote compared to 32% of the vote and over 216 seats in parliament for Five Star. Renzi and the left parties clearly failed to gauge the voter's mood and frustration with economic conditions- 11% unemployment and 18 million Italians at risk of poverty reports BBC News. About 600,000 immigrants entered Italy from North Africa and other regions creating anti-immigration sentiment that shifted support to Five Star and the right wing Northern League under Salvini, which had broadened its appeal from its local base in Milan to all of Northern Italy under Salvini, 44 years old. The Northern League won in most of Northern Italy and with the Forze italia of Berlusconi won 37% of the vote. A coalition of Five Star and the Nrothern League would bring together 2 Euroskeptic parties. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
New five year broadcasting deals for the Indian Premier League that will bring in 5 billion pounds over five years. With 74 matches this comes to 14 million pounds per match, a record for world cricket and bigger than soccer. Disney's Star network gets television rights, TV18 and Paramount venture gets the digital rights. Much of this revenue will be used by India's cricket organization Board of Control for Cricket in India to build infrastructure and improve the experience of fans, spruce up facilities.

LyrArc Article Gist
The elections in Italy in Feb. 2013 show the centre left coalition headed by Pier Luigi Bersani with 29.6% of the votes in the lower house, the centre right coalition headed by Silvio Berlusconi with 29.2% of the votes, the Five Star Movement headed by Beppe Grillo with 25.6% of the votes, and the Civic Choice headed by Mario Monti with 10.6% of the vote. In the Senate the results show the centre left coalition with 31.6% of the vote, the centre right with 30.7%, the Five Star Movement with 23.8%, and Civic Choice with 9.1%. Election rules in Italy give the party with the highest number of votes for the lower house an automatic majority of 340 of 630 seats. The vote shows voter protest over austerity measures. This benefitted both the centre right and the Five Star Movement and hurt the Civic Choice centrist party of Mario Monti which implemented austerity measures in 2012. The centre left was affected by its role in coming to the aid of Monte de Paschi bank in Siena and failing to mount a strong campaign under Bersani. A majority in both houses is needed to provide a stable coalition government which opens the prospect of new elections. The Five Star Movement emerged as the largest single party. Its support comes from young people, internet based campaigning, and a rejection of the right and left parties from the old order in Italian politics, and offers a new dimension to Italy's political future....

LyrArc Article Gist
The  Washington Post review of archived radio transmissions in this report suggests a possible cause of the Palisades Los Angeles wildfires- reignition from a previous fire on a mountain ridge just 6 days prior on New Year's Eve. That fire was knocked out only to reignite. Smoldering fire can stay in wood and underground only to reignite in very windy conditions even for 10 days. In though very windy conditions were expected LA Fire Department lacked the resources to stay on it for a few days - in what the Washington Post citing the LAFD says is in a stretch of Temescal Ridge in the Santa Monica mountains.

LyrArc Article Gist
The New World- Russia's new relations with US as US accepts Russia as a Northern European Power and Russia respects Monroe Doctrine of 1823 of American power in the western hemisphere in return. What the Europeans do not understand is that the new US policy will bring more oil to the market and cut oil prices to lows that will reduce the cost of living in US and Europe, and will also give Russia fewer dollars to fight the war in Ukraine. Denmark only foolishly calls it the end of NATO if Greenland becomes American as this will only make it difficult for the European nations against Russia. As DJT pointed out NATO is not much without the US and the US intends to stay with NATO. Germany had a long conflict with Denmark over Schleswig Holstein. Norway has disputed Denmark's claims to Greenland  till 1921.US Navy explorer Rear Admiral Peary discovered northern Greenland and claimed it for the US  in 1880's, and every US administration since 1867 with Seward till Harry Truman a Democrat in 1946 has wanted Greenland for the security of the US eastern seaboard, and called it in the words of the US Commanders in Chief in 1946 "completely useless for Denmark," vital for US security across the Atlantic from Greenland. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Since taking over Italy's right wing Northern League Party in 2013, Matteo Salvini, 44 years old, has improved the party's appeal by appealing to parts of Italy's north beyond its base in Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto. The Milan native called for greater autonomy for the northern region, and even secession, supporting the northerners view that tax money from the prosperous north was being wasted on the poorer regions in the south. He also entered into an alliance with Silvio Belusconi's Forza Italia party. He took a hard line on immigration. Salvini has called for a train service for Milanese only, to draw attention to immigrants from non-EU countries. The head of the Five Star Movement  Party of Beppe Grillo, is Luigi Di Maio, who has called for ending the "taxi service" that brings to Italy migrants stranded on small boats in the Mediterranean. The shift in sentiment in Italy towards immigration has helped parties on the right as it has done in Italy and to a lesser extent in Germany with AfD's larger presence in the German parliament. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Efforts by City Hall and the French government to support public housing in Paris with new investment in the city for newly built public housing. This will create an attractive environment for low and middle income residents to stay in the city including small business owners, as the buildings are modern and add to the look of the city. This will be visible during the Olympics in 2024 in Paris. It is a clear goal of the city government of Paris to give people of different income levels the opportunities to live in attractive modern housing in the city. It remains a pioneer in this idea and its execution among European cities.

LyrArc Article Gist
This WSJ editorial by Joffe of Die Zeit in Hamburg and the Hoover Institution in the WSJ, says Italy's odd coalition of Five Star Movement with the Northern League cannot last as it is like having a coalition between Bernie Sanders supporters and the Tea Party in the U.S. This coalition is full of conflicts. Five Star leader Maio had earlier dismissed any idea of a coalition with a party having many opposite views, yet the coalition was put together to prevent going to the polls again. This editorial even says the coalition is as stable as nitroglycerin, and looks weirdest even when compared to other events in Italy. It says Italy had 66 governments since 1945, and Giuseppe Conte cannot last long as prime minister. The coalition is euroskeptic but 72% of Italians support staying in the the eurozone, which makes it even more inconsistent with Italian opinion.

LyrArc Article Gist
With Ukraine unwilling to give up the Donbass and Germany/France/UK wanting to prevent Russian favored deal adverse for Europe, US focus on Monroe Doctrine and western hemisphere, Ukraine Russia war is likely to drag on. This is what one sees in Merz, Zelensky, Rubio speeches at the Munich Security conference. In 2026 Germany+ (that includes France and the UK) does not see it in the interests of Europe to allow a Ukraine capitulation to Russian attacks and Germany has already allocated funds to rebuild its military to prevent this from affecting Germany+ interests in Europe. Even though the winter attacks on Ukraine grid and electricity infrastructure leaves Kviv and other cities in a dire situation it appears that without the 20 year security guarantee or something solid Ukraine is not willing to sign an agreement which it fears Russia could turn around and start the war again. Germany+ which is the position of the major parties in Germany 60-70 % of voters for the SDP, CDU, Greens and others except AfD with 20-30% of voters. (AfD may have reached a ceiling as CDU under Merz is tough on migrants). Which means about 70% of Germans will support a policy of joining UK and France in resisting Russian attacks. Russia may have lost so much in manpower may see the war as a vindication only if it can hold onto the Donbass which may make it harder to reach a deal. Zelensky says Ukrainians live there and is unwilling to leave the Donbas region. The net result is that Germany+ and Ukraine are not likely to concede ground, the US reluctant to commit to 20 year security condition for Ukraine as it focuses energy on the western hemisphere and the fentanyl, drug traffickers in Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, and their support structures in Cuba, in addition to Iran and China's plan on Taiwan sees limits to what it can do beyond limiting oil's funding the Russian attacks. It is amisrepresentation to say that the US is the cause, as everything changed the moment China became an industrial power with the help of US business interests and returned to its own story of being subject to British and Japanese incursions in the 19th and 20th centuries, and sensing that it is an industrial power in its own right by 2020 and insisting on framing its own policy in the world. Europe always had its own narrative since 1600 long before the US became an industrial power under Teddy Roosevelt in 1904. In that narrative which now plays out again different European powers band together to prevent any dominant power in Europe (Russia in 2026) from gaining dominance. ...