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Life in the Ukrainian city of Odessa on the Black Sea as Russia exits the grain shipment agreement and sends missiles into grain infrastructure facilities. People still come to Odessa to get some change and feel the air on the Black Sea. The pictures here show pop music competition groups practicing outside the Opera center in Odessa's downtown. People come to bars and shops in Odessa known as a Black Sea resort city.

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With record snow after years of drought the eastern Sierra region in California is experiencing effects of climate change. The ski season will extend into August 6 in the mountains because of the effects of the climate crisis, even as nearby Arizona sees record temperatures of 111 degrees Fahrenheit.  The southern US is experiencing a heat wave with temperatures at levels unprecedented in history.

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The Selby byelection win by Labour in Britain overturning a Tories 20,000 majority shows that Labour can expand its targets to achieve a landslide win in 2024, says this report in The Guardian. Keir Mather just 25 years old will be the new British MP in parliament from Selby.

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See some of the sculptures from a striking display of Buddhist art from the first century BC shown till Nov 13, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

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Stanford's president, a neuroscientist resigns, and is replaced by the head of European studies.

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The NYT shows women's World Cup Soccer countries and games in coming weeks. Brazil and France in Group F, Spain in Group C, Argentina and Italy in Group G, Portugal and the US in Group E. Vietnam, Jamaica, Morocco, Zambia and the Philippines have also made it to the soccer championship games in addition to China. NYT looks at each country team.

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President Biden has praise for William Burns for good intelligence delivered with honesty and integrity on China, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and emerging technologies. For three decades Burns has served in the US Foreign Service and performed work that is similar to that of another veteran diplomat Mr. Jaishankar of India. America turned to Burns to end the war in Afghanistan under president Biden, and now faces the Ukraine conflict with "clear straightforward analysis" given to the president, in the words Biden used for Bill Burns.

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NYT provides an extraordinary display of working age population demographic data in graphics for the world and individual countries to 2050. India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt and African countries are given the opportunity to make progress similar to South Korea, Japan and China over the next 25 years. India with 1.4 billion people and a determined federal government can set the stage for the type of progress that can modernize the country and build a level of infrastructure that compares with the best in Europe, the US and Japan.

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After seeing the ups and downs of American attitudes over 50 years from overconfidence to despair Krugman reminds Americans that nobody is best at everything and it is always a good idea to learn from what other countries do.

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Food insecurity issues India faces with climate change are covered in this report in NYT. The government is releasing stocks of subsidized tomatoes after extreme heat followed by floods destroyed part of the tomato crop. Floods are affecting all parts of India during July 2023. 

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With temperatures reaching 118 degrees on the Acropolis in Athens on its rocky location union organizers say work will stop at 12 noon and the Acropolis will reopen in the evening for tourists.

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The unsettled situation fro grain exports from Black Sea ports in July as Russia fails to renew a grain export deal. The Ukraine offensive leads to an unsettled situation.

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Most of the US wind energy comes from Texas, Iowa, Kansas in the central region of the country. Wind makes up about 10% of energy in the US and 7% in the world. Solar adds another 5%. There is a long way to go. Nordic countries such as Denmark have made significant advances.

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Pipelines to Corpus Christi have reached capacity as US energy production reaches record levels says this report in WSJ. In the first half of 2023 2 million barrels a day passed through this pipeline. About half of the 4.1 million barrels a day the US shipped abroad were loaded onto tankers on this part of the Texas coastline. This oil helped Europe during the shortages after the closing of access to Russian oil supplies. Because Corpus Christi has terminals that make it cheaper to ship oil out it has become a dominant hub in the US for shipments overseas. It is the closest deepwater port to the Permian basin in West Texas and New Mexico. Corpus Christ is also transitioning to a future where hydrogen is produced for energy by applying for $8 billion from president Biden's renewable energy infrastructure package.

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Xi has chosen upward mobility for the Chinese people in all parts of the country including rural areas, reducing disparities in income, tackling climate change over the very hyper growth that has caused climate change and wreaks havoc in floods and fires across the planet. By the Chinese dream is meant that China would have a fair chance to match the western world with its own culture, language, creativity of its people, and he has chosen to do this in away that respects China's history and struggles with imperialist Britain, and the imperial powers in the modern period since 1500. It only poses a threat to the US if the US does not also invest in its own people, follows misguided military adventures overseas, and does not invest in its own manufacturing and technological potential at home. Historically the imperial powers were Britain, France, Germany, Russia. The US under Woodrow Wilson and under FDR pursued policies that were at odds with the imperial powers and favored a China that could build the potential of its own people far beyond what the imperial powers intended- for India, Turkey, China, Vietnam, and the rest of Asia. At each step of the way to 1948 the US policy remained true to this. Even the Cold War was a struggle against an imperial power- Russia which under the Bolsheviks and even today follows imperial minded policies for Eastern Europe. The Biden administration and the Xi administration in China are really not that far apart in pursuing policies that support people from all parts of their countries, and are resolute in the fight against climate change making growth conform with respecting the earth. ...

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Lost decade term has generally referred to a lost decade from austerity policies in UK or the EU, or after the 2009 financial crisis from bad banking practices. Here the term is being used in error as investments in China have not benefitted all classes equally in China leaving the hinterland and rural areas behind, and worse has decimated America's and Europe's industrial manufacturing base destroying in its course the financial livelihoods of communities everywhere in the western world. Biden in US and Xi in China are well aware of this and their policies are intended to change the direction of the US and China towards reducing disparities in income and ensuring fairness, new goals after the pandemic. The American people and the US economy has little to gain from increased investment in China when the homeland can easily absorb investment of trillions of dollars after decades of missteps, mistaken wars and adventures overseas, neglect of infrastructure needing to be rebuilt. The damage of the environment in China and in North America and the world alone shows that the hyper growth in China was a bad idea for the American and Chinese people and the people of Europe and of the world. ...

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As much as $4.5 billion has been spent already in Operation Lone Star by Texas, without the results needed to reduce migration and to control the southern border.