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A major problem for getting grain out of Ukraine by truck and rail is the EU bureaucratic paperwork, says this BBC report. For truck routes long waits at the border are common and queues can stretch as long as  25 kilometres or 16 miles. By rail the Ukraine rail system is wider than the EU's so that the grain has to be transferred for rail on the border.This can take as much as 30 days or 16 days. This is limiting the shipments say Ukraine farmers and most of it is at this time corn shipments.

For years Ukraine farmers were used to sending grain out through the port of Odessa on the Black Sea. This is now closed till negotiations lead to its opening or EU and the US finds some other way to do it.

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In the year ending July 31, 2021 nine cities in the US with a population over 1 million had a decrease in population of 1.7%. New York City seeing the largest decline of 3.5%. Only San Antonio and Phoenix increased in population.

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The Sanjhi panel is art from Uttar Pradesh showing Krishna on the banks of the Yamuna in Gokul. This panel was a gift from prime minister Modi to president Biden at the Quad meetings in Tokyo. Art from Gond in Madhya Pradesh and Kutch art were part of the gifts to Mr. Albanese the prime minister of Australia, and Mr. Kishida the prime minister of Japan.

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Daisy Rockwell translator of Reti Samadhi which won the first International Booker Prize for translation from Hindi says in this interview about reading translations- "Expand your mind! The language is alive! Translation brings you the world!"

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"Egregiously unsanitary conditions" at Abbott's Sturgis Michigan plant, with leaking roofs and cracks in production equipment that let in bacteria, are described before a House panel, by the head of the Food and Drug Administration in the US. The closing of the plant led to baby food shortages.

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Real Madrid player Rodrygo is a product of training at Brazil's club Santos. His father is a manager of soccer teams in Brazil, and retired to focus on Rodrygo's career. He was just 11 when he signed with Nike ,a younger age than Neymar at age 13 who is also a product of Santos club training. The support of his dad has played a large part in his development as a player.

He is expected to play a big role in the Champions League final with Liverpool.

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This podcast in WSJ shows how frenzy of buying specific stocks can make them jump in price with financial advice of influencers on Reddit and YouTube. These so called influencers have little professional experience or educational knowledge of the market but are skilled at making YouTube videos. There are people out there who simply want to get rich, and these influencers make money by telling people to buy specific stocks says WSJ. It also shows how these influencers have shifted from TV channels to younger people on Reddit and YouTube on the internet. There is no link to reality and the frenzy continues till it suddenly stops and there is a huge reversal.

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Apple follows Microsoft in increasing workers pay. Apple increased the hourly pay for workers to $22, increase of 45% over 2018. It follows Microsoft which has doubled its worldwide budget for meit based pay increases. Annual increases are moved up by 3 months and new pay increases take effect in July at Apple. Apple shares have fallen 21% this year to May, making stock based awards ineffective.  Apple has paused plans to call workers to office for at least 3 days a week as coronavirus cases rise again in California. Apple was one of the first companies to move to remote work in 2020. The pandemic has increased Apple sales tremendously of laptops and iphones so that the increase in workers pay was long overdue. In this sense the Biden administration has brought with it president Biden's genuine and deeply felt concerns for workers and families to the forefront of company and workers attention. Overall for private and government employers the first quarter of 2022 brought with it a 4.5% increase in workers pay, says the Labor Department. Inflation was higher and outpaced worker wage increases so that worker pay has more room to grow under president Biden's leadership. ...

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This part of Wisconsin at Mount Pleasant has a 3000 acre site that has water and sewer improvements, highway building, but no factory 5 years after Taiwan's Foxconn announced it was building a large factory here with 13000 new jobs. If built the plant would have received $3 billion in stat3e tax credits. Now the project developed by Racine County Development Corporation is looking for other companies that want to build factories. Under agreements Foxconn is expected to pay $36 million a year for 24 years if the project was not completed. It shows the difficulties American states face as they compete with other states for good factory projects.

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The Council of the Baltic Sea States meets in Kristiansand, Norway, with the German delegation led by Annalena Baerbock. Her Norwegian counterpart Anniken Huitfeldt said she wanted to personally thank Annalena Baerbock for taking leadership in Europe, and especially Northern Europe after this war. CBSS is revived as a regional grouping with this meeting, as the Baltic region is changed profoundly with German leadership and the participation of Sweden and Finland.

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This report in the WSJ gives the background and positions taken by Patriarch Krill of the Russian Orthodox Church, and his support for the war in Ukraine as part of Russian lands nationalism. Russian lands nationalism is an idea that comes from the beginnings of the Russian version of Christianity that had its origins in Kviv Ukraine in the 10th century. Patriarch Krill has had a varied role questioning some some state policies and then backing off and supporting the state says WSJ. In 2011 patriarch Krill stood up for protesters critical of manipulation in parliamentary elections that year. Patriarch Krill grew up in the years of Soviet rule and was 24 in 1970 when he began his work in the church. He was rector of a seminary in Leningrad by 1984 and after being critical of the Soviets and war in Afghanistan was sent to Smolensk says this report in WSJ. After he returned he worked with the Soviet state, and after voicing concerns in 2011 about parliamentary elections described as manipulated he has supported the Russian state as it becomes assertive about Russian lands nationalism. To understand the Orthodox Church in Russia one has to know its presence in the post Soviet period. About 63% of Russians belong to the Orthodox Church. It also includes Ukrainians. After Crimean invasion by Russia the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that makes up one third of the Russian Orthodox parishes was recognized as a separate church by Patriarch Bartholomev of Constantinople. Patriarch Bartholomev and Pope Francis the two leaders of the eastern and western churches in Constantinople and Rome have been critical of Patriarch Krill and his support for the war and the idea of Russian lands nationalism. Since the war some parishes in Russia have signed a letter opposing the killing of brothers in Christ and one parish leader was fined $500 for his statements. There is now intense debate among Russians about what this war means in bringing conflict on brotherly peoples about their preferences in 2022 for aligning with Europeans in the western part of Europe. For most of Europe in the 21st century there is a big change, in the countries near the Baltic sea in Northern Europe, in countries in the middle of Europe, in Eastern Europe, the 21st century is seen as a time when states and peoples are making their own choices about freedom and what their preferences are particularly the young people. They no longer understand or conform to ideas of the earlier period or centuries. And this is what has made Ukrainian young people oblivious about what Russian lands nationalism means and its relevance today. Buddhism is today not prevalent in South Korea a democratic state and in China a Communist state in the way it existed for centuries. For it to be relevant people need to begin to believe in it as in Japan or Sri Lanka or Thailand. In the 21st century young people are making different choices and this may well be where the Ukraine war shows that people's choices count particularly in the 21st century, and it has little to do with the west or the US or NATO or even Russia. ...

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In a remarkable statement of how he sees India in 2022 US president Biden goes all out- "There's so much that our countries can and will do together, and I am committed to making the US-India parnership among the closest we have on Earth." "The closest we have on Earth" is a statement of how the US and India partnership should be given the work of Mohandas Gandhi and its leaders in the nineteenth and twentieth century including Vivekananda, and India's history as the home of Buddhism and the Vedanta. No one has ever put it in such words till Biden in his outspoken way and style.