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How Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal was able to reduce his heart rate to 100 bpm as he prepared to take the first shot in a penalty shootout in Euro Cup soccer against Slovenia.  It was 170 bpm at the end of extra time. This was after he missed a penalty shot during the game. Ronaldo uses breathing in and breathing out as a way to control his heart rate. Visualization is another technique he uses to be in the best state of mind. Along with hydration, healthy diet and good sleep patterns breathing exercise is a way to reduce the heart rate in moments of stress. Why is it effective? Ronaldo says "It's because it makes you calm." The tracking was recorded by a fitness device called WHOOPS. This breathing in and breathing out is part of the Buddhist practice and an ancient way of maintaining the four forms of mindfulness involving contemplation of the body, of feeling, of mind, and of mind object.

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Us efforts led by Piedmont Lithium in North Carolina to build supplies for the lithium needed in electric vehicle batteries. The effort to get the first US big new lithium mine into operation is part of a broader effort to  build a US supply chain for the ultra light lithium metal that is highly conductive. In fact the modern lithium mining industry started in the rolling hills of the Piedmont region in North Carolina. At that time in the 1950's it was needed for nuclear bombs. Today China mines 10% of world's supplies. Abermarle Corp of the US based in Charlotte extracts lithium from mines in Australia and Chile which have large deposits of lithium. President Biden has signed an executive order calling for a review of supply chains for critical materials, including lithium as the US looks to build its own supply chains and become independent of supplies of metals from China. The lack of such supplies has become a strategic vulnerability for the US.  The growth of the electric vehicle industry and the efforts to reduce climate change emissions means higher demand for lithium. ...

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Under new coach Montse Tome the Spanish women's soccer team plays France for a spot in the Olympics in Seville. France as host nation has already qualified. European teams get two spots at the Olympics. The other spot is to be filled by the winner of the Netherlands vs Germany womens teams in Heerenveen. Germany lost 2-1 to France in Lyon. 

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Benjamin Lawsky, a former federal prosecutor, is the new head of the New York State Department of Financial Regulation. He worked as an advisor to then Attorney General Cuomo in the New York Attorney General's office. He played a key role in the ongoing lawsuit against Bank of America Corp CEO Kenneth Lewis, and helped obtain $60 billion in repayments to investors for their cash frozen in auction-rate securities.

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DJT Commerce Department restricts access to US technology to Chinese defense companies. Inspur a server maker and Sugon supercomputer maker are added to the list limiting access. The goal is to restrict access to technology for defense applications including hypersonic weapons. This goes further than the Biden administration.

Export controls don't always work when Chinese companies control ownership in American companies as shown in this example in WSJ for Inspur Corp.

"American technology should never be used against the American people,” -Jeffrey Kessler,  head of the US Commerce department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

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In talking about the systemic risks of the failure of GM, about 3 million jobs depend on the auto industry with 1,187,000 employed by dealerships of which 325,000 are employed in GM dealerships. Another concern is that GM's pension obligations are underfunded by $18 billion at the end of 2008 according to Deutsche Bank. This would be added to the $11 billion deficit at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. were GM to fail.

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This merger is part of a process that happened after 1970 when Penguin Books a national institution in Britain in the war years 1939-1945 was acquired by Pearson Plc, and later sold in 2013  to German publisher Bertelsmann. Penguin became a part of British culture because it sold a million cheap paperbacks at 6 pence in 1939 and continued to provide low cost access to books to all parts of the English speaking world from UK to Asia till the 1960's. The astonishing period of creativity and design of founder Allen Lane ended in 1970 after Pearson Plc focused on profitability and acquisitions. Under this new deal in 2021 a large part of the world publishing industry would come under the control of German publishing house Bertelsmann. Penguin Random House is owned by Bertelsmann and the deal would bring its rival Simon and Schuster under its control. The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block it. Attorney General Merrick Garland says- "American authors and consumers will pay the price of this anticompetitive merger- lower advances for authors, and ultimately fewer books and less variety for consumers." Penguin Random House already controls 22% of titles published in the US. The US publishing industry has already seen mergers leading to reduced competition. News Corp. acquired Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in May and merged it into Harper Collins. Largadere Hachette acquired Workman in September. ...

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Punjab National Bank has seen fradulaent transactions for $2 billion in 2018 by 2 jewelers, a power and steel company defrauding it of $550 million in 2019, and now bad loans defrauding it of $491 to a housing lender Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Dewan Finance is in insolvency resolution under the RBI, the central bank of India.  To clean up this banking sector mess, a result of bad loans by banks after the 2008 financial crisis, the RBI has taken some serious steps. One of the steps in 2017 was to order major banks to resolve bad debts or refer the debts to bankruptcy courts. RBI took over Yes Bank , and the largest state bank the State Bank of India organized a consortium of banks to invest $1.35 billion to support Yes Bank. In other action the government has merged smaller lenders and banks with larger banks. Much of the bad lending is a result of bad lending practices without due diligence taken, poor management, and bad administration from an earlier period. The lack of strong banking sector is holding back India's growth and GDP growth as there is less to lend for infrastructure or industrial projects. The result is growth that has fallen below 6% in recent years, and the Modi government sees this as an obstacle to rapid growth of the economy under its Atmanirbhar Bharat plan for a self-reliant economy. ...

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India's pharmaceutical industry gets a major boost with the development of a mRNA vaccine by Gennova Pharmaceuticals called HGC019. Gennova is funded partly by the government and is being developed in conjunction with Seattle based HDT Bio Corp.  The new vaccine can be stored between 35 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit making it easier to distribute in middle and low income countries with less storage and logistics facilities. It also uses a process of freeze drying called lyophilization to produce the vacine in powder form. It can then be more stable and easy to ship, easy to store at moderate temperatures. The powder can then be diluted with a diluent before vaccination. Another part of the new technology of this vaccine is its use of self-amplifying mRNA instead of non-replicating mRNA. This helps to administer smaller doses with less side effects. India's drug regulator has already approved Gennova vaccine in August for second and third phase trials after the shot was found to be safe in early stage study. Gennova Pharmaceuticals aims to get HGC019 approved for emergency use by Indian authorites this year and manufacture 60 million doses by December end. ...

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Javad Zarif, Foreign Minister of Iran, on the situation in the Persian Gulf region following the Iranian support of Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the airstrikes by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He says Iran's goal and top priority is good relations with its neighbors in the Gulf region, and calls for the setting up of a new forum for dialogue in the Persian Gulf region. This coud be done under the UN umbrella, says Zarif.

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Muhammadu Buhari wins the March 2015 presidential election in Nigeria winning 54% of the vote compared to 45% for incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan. The peaceful transition is another first for Africa for the size of a country like Nigeria. Buhari was a military ruler for 20 months following a 1983 coup. This is his fourth try running for president. This time he campaigned on an anti-corruption platform, and anti-terrorism campaign as Boko Haram insurgency is affecting the northeast of the country. He also campaigned for economic development and jobs, as Nigeria is sorely lacking infrastructure development such as road, water, electricity, especially in the Muslim north of the country where Buhari is from. Incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan failed to tackle the problems, and the situation deteriorated in 2014-2015 with the lack of security in the country, as the Boko Haram insurgency affected the northeast. In 2015 oil prices collapsed leading to a sharp depreciation in the value of the Naira, Nigeria's currency, and lower oil revenues, a significant setback....

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Imposing losses on senior bond holders is acceptable under EU law during a liquidation process, say experts. Having them take losses in a restructuring would require changes to European and national laws. The uncertainty this creates coud hurt Spain's larger banks such as Santander and BBVA, which have so far not been affected by the crisis. A new European banking supervisory authority could insist on losses for senior bond holders to reduce the amount needed from the EFSF or ESM rescue funds.

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Leah Williamson is the author of the new book You Have the Power with Guardian football writer Suzanne Wrack. It is a motivational story of England's European cup soccer winning team from 2022 for girls ages 10 to 14 years. Its subtitle is Find Your Strength and Believe You Can. Leah says this is the age group that struggles the most in terms of who we want to be as young women. It is also the age when young girls decide to drop out of sport. What has made a difference for Leah is that her mother was a footballer playing for Milton Keynes and her grandmother played badminton competitively. She remembers going to Arsenal for games with her mom and grandmother at an early age. By age 7 she was playing competitively and she was scouted for Arsenal girls. She has played for Arsenal since then. She started on boys team when there were no teams for girls. A confident attitude came naturally to her and once she decided to play soccer competitively it did not matter that professional soccer for women did not exist when she joined Arsenal girls. ...