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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have agreed on a plan they hope will help expedite Ukrainian grain exports, officials said Tuesday, with needy countries beyond Europe potentially benefitting from speedier procedures. The move seeks to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian exports through Polish territory, the statement said, without providing further details. While the stated goal is to hasten Ukrainian grain exports, the agreement may also help defuse tensions over grain prices between Ukraine and Poland a time when some international support for Kyiv's efforts to throw back Russia's invasion may be fraying. That has left more expensive overland routes through Europe as the main path for Ukraine’s exports. Sealed freight has helped combat that problem, and sending Ukrainian grain straight to the Lithuanian port may also be an answer.

Persons: ___ Monika Scislowska, Yuras Organizations: —, Farmers, European Union, World Trade Organization, EU Locations: KYIV, Ukraine, — Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Europe, Lithuanian, Baltic, Klaipeda, Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Warsaw, Tallinn, Estonia, russia, ukraine

The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday to two scientists whose work led to the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. As countries prepared to roll out those shots, The Associated Press took a look at how the vaccines were developed so quickly. ___How could scientists race out COVID-19 vaccines so fast without cutting corners? A head start helped -- over a decade of behind-the-scenes research that had new vaccine technology poised for a challenge just as the coronavirus erupted. Both shots — one made by Pfizer and BioNTech, the other by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health — are so-called messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines, a brand-new technology.

Persons: Dr, Anthony Fauci, Buddy Creech, ” Creech, Tal Zaks, ”, Drew Weissman, Weissman, Katalin, Philip Dormitzer, Barney Graham’s, ” Fauci, Graham, Jason McLellan, hadn't, “, ” Graham, Germany’s, Pfizer’s Dormitzer, Ugur Sahin Organizations: Medicine, COVID, Associated Press, Vanderbilt University, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, National Institutes of Health, NIH, University of Pennsylvania, Penn, NIH’s Vaccine Research Center, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education, AP Locations: U.S, Massachusetts, BioNTech, New York, China

☆ Fast-food drive-thru lanes speed up as fewer drivers wait in line
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-02 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Fast-food drive-thru lanes are speeding up as fewer customers choose to order their meals and milkshakes sitting in their car, according to an annual study by Intouch Insight released Monday. The average total time spent in a drive-thru lane shrank by 29 seconds this year. In other words, Carl's Jr and Yum Brands' Taco Bell and KFC were only speedier because their drive-thru lanes weren't as popular. But across the board, drive-thru lanes have waned in demand since the pandemic began. Despite those efforts, this year's total drive-thru times still lag 2019 times by 15 seconds.

Persons: Carl's Jr, Dunkin, Taco, Wendy's, Carl's Organizations: Intouch, KFC, Taco Bell, Yum Brands, Bell, Taco Locations: Arby's, Burger, Fort Worth, Taco Bell, Brooklyn Park , Minnesota

REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Orsted A/S FollowSept 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's plan to deploy 30,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind by 2030 is still possible, although not easy, the CEO of Orsted (ORSTED.CO), the world's largest offshore wind developer, said on Monday at the Climate Week NYC event in New York. The Biden administration has passed lucrative subsidies aimed at helping companies build new offshore wind power capacity to help decarbonize the power sector and revitalize domestic manufacturing. But offshore wind developers have said that certain tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden's landmark climate change law, are insufficient and are lobbying for less stringent rules around qualifying for the credits. Last week, the governors of six Northeastern states urged Biden to direct his administration to take actions to support struggling offshore wind projects. Offshore wind is crucial to the targets of Northeast states who want to move away from fossil fuel-fired electricity.

Persons: Brian Snyder, Joe Biden's, Mads Nipper, Nipper, Biden, Scott DiSavino, Nichola Groom, Shariq Khan, Mark Porter, Marguerita Choy Organizations: U.S . Coast Guard, REUTERS, Biden, Rhode, Thomson Locations: Rhode, New York, Danish, Maryland , Connecticut , Massachusetts , New Jersey , New York, U.S, Los Angeles

☆ Target is rolling out Starbucks curbside pickup across the country as it looks for sales jolt
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Target is looking to jolt sales by adding Starbucks drinks and food to its curbside pickup service at stores across the country. The retailer began testing the Starbucks curbside pickup service at some stores in the fall. Target's curbside pickup service, Drive Up, helped fuel the company's e-commerce and sales growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, according to Target, curbside pickup has led to more business. That explains why Target has added other features and more items to curbside pickup, including beer and wine.

Persons: curbside, Target, Howard Schultz, — CNBC's Amelia Lucas Organizations: Target, Starbucks

☆ Amazon cloud revenue rise 12%, topping analysts' estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon said Thursday that revenue from its cloud unit increased 12% year over year in the second quarter, a speedier pace than analysts had predicted. Revenue for the quarter came to $22.1 billion, beating the $21.79 billon consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. AWS operating income has now declined for three consecutive quarters. Google and Microsoft are also moving quickly to make money as companies look to take advantage of generative AI following the rise of startup OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot. AWS CEO Adam Selipsky told CNBC in June that the generative AI "race" has just started.

Persons: Gartner, Adam Selipsky Organizations: Amazon, Revenue, StreetAccount, StreetAccount . Revenue, Amazon Web Services, AWS, Microsoft, Center, Google, OpenAI Service, CNBC Locations: StreetAccount .

☆ Amazon says it’s delivering more packages in one day or less after overhauling delivery network
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Annie Palmer | In Annierpalmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

An Amazon driver loads packages into a delivery van at an Amazon delivery station on November 28, 2022 in Alpharetta, Georgia. Amazon has for years been marching toward making same-day and next-day delivery the standard for members of its Prime loyalty club. For the past four years, Amazon has poured money and resources into revamping its warehouse and delivery network to shorten shipping times from two days to one day or less. But Amazon's change cut costs and boosted delivery speeds, Madan said. Amazon plans to double the number of same-day sites in its network over the next two years, Madan said.

Persons: Amazon, Udit Madan, Madan, We've Organizations: U.S, Street, MWPVL International Locations: Alpharetta , Georgia

☆ The 15 Best Board Games for Grownups, According to Experts and Enthusiasts
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Tim Barribeau | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +14 min

Luckily, board games have come a long, long way from social-deduction games like Werewolf, the Settlers of Catan fad and the cringey-in-retrospect obsession with Cards Against Humanity. With the help of a half-dozen experts in the field of tabletop gaming, we’ve pulled together a list of some of the best board games currently available, many of which you probably haven’t run into. I love the whimsical theme and design.” The experts told us it’s best played with a full suite of four players. Escape room at homePlayers: 1 to 6Time to play: VariableThe Exit games are escape rooms you can play at home. Dwayne Shearill of BlackBoardGaming cites Forbidden Island as one of the first board games he got his wife to play; the pair now host the YouTube channel about board games together.

Persons: Tim Barribeau, —, we’ve, Eric Yerko, Eric, Mandi Hutchinson, Suzanne Sheldon, Sass, Yerko, ” Decolonize, It’s, “, Ada Weyland, Weyland, Richard Garfield, ” Yerko, “ It’s, Dwayne Shearill, ”, Mike Mignola, you’ve, woman’s, you’ll, Steve Gianaca, Haiclue, Beneeta Kaur, hasn’t, Ada, MonsDRAWsity, it’s Organizations: Sass Games, Salt, Catan, Love Games, YouTube, Games, Amazon Players, Monopoly Locations: Northwest, Pacific, It’s, Yerko

July 10 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' (META.O) Twitter rival Threads crossed 100 million sign-ups within five days of launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, dethroning ChatGPT as the fastest-growing online platform to hit the milestone. The app's sprint to 100 million users was much speedier than that of OpenAI-owned ChatGPT, which became the fastest-growing consumer application in history in January about two months after its launch, according to a UBS study. Mastodon has about 7.7 million total users, although fewer than 2 million of them actively use the service, according to daily user counts it provides. [1/2]Meta Threads app logo is seen in this illustration taken, July 6, 2023. Currently, there are no ads on the Threads app and Zuckerberg said the company would only think about monetization once there was a clear path to 1 billion users.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, dethroning ChatGPT, Zuckerberg, Matthew Prince, Dado Ruvic, Jack Dorsey, Musk, Adam Mosseri, Meta, Katie Paul, Akash Sriram, Zaheer Kachwala, Sriraj Kalluvila, Rashmi Aich, Nick Zieminski Organizations: Elon Musk, UBS, Twitter, REUTERS, Meta, Thomson Locations: New York, Bengaluru

[1/2] Meta Threads app logo is seen in this illustration taken, July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationJuly 10 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' (META.O) Twitter rival Threads crossed 100 million sign-ups within five days of launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, dethroning ChatGPT as the fastest-growing online platform to hit the milestone. "That's mostly organic demand, and we haven't even turned on many promotions yet," Zuckerberg said in a Threads post announcing the milestone. The app's sprint to 100 million users was much speedier than that of OpenAI-owned ChatGPT, which became the fastest-growing consumer application in history in January about two months after its launch, according to a UBS study. Currently, there are no ads on the Threads app and Zuckerberg said the company would only think about monetization once there was a clear path to 1 billion users.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Mark Zuckerberg, dethroning ChatGPT, Zuckerberg, Matthew Prince, Musk, Adam Mosseri, Meta, Katie Paul, Akash Sriram, Zaheer Kachwala, Sriraj Kalluvila, Rashmi Aich, Nick Zieminski Organizations: REUTERS, Elon Musk, UBS, Twitter, Meta, Thomson Locations: New York, Bengaluru

☆ Nearly a sixth of Ecuador's prisoners held without sentence - census
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

QUITO, July 10 (Reuters) - Nearly a sixth of the inmates in Ecuador's prisons have not been sentenced, a national census showed on Monday, as President Guillermo Lasso urged the judicial system to be speedier to help ease the burden on overcrowded jails. That figure is above the 30,134 prisoner capacity that prisons agency SNAI said the 36-prison system had in December 2022. Ecuador's prison system has faced structural problems for decades, amid overcrowding and precarious living conditions for inmates, but riots have become increasingly common, killing more than 400 prisoners since late 2020. The government has attributed prison violence to fighting between criminal groups for control of prisons and drug trafficking routes. Prisoners have complained about the quality of the basic services and supply of food, the census also showed.

Persons: Guillermo Lasso, Lasso, SNAI, Alexandra Valencia, Carolina Pulice, Jamie Freed Organizations: Inter, American, Human Rights, Thomson Locations: QUITO

☆ How to spice up your pantry the Mediterranean way
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Susan Puckett | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But it was the tart, earthy, tingly, subtly sweet notes provided by the sumac and Aleppo pepper that made such a lasting impression. Extra-virgin olive oil, yogurt and feta cheese are dietary mainstays, along with seasonal produce, legumes, whole grains and lean proteins. Made from deep-red Halaby chile peppers, Aleppo pepper is named for the Syrian city where it once grew in abundance. Dukkah, a blend of nuts, seeds and warm spices, makes a savory, crunchy topping on everything from soups to salads. Baharat is just one of a combination of warm spices that can punch up a chicken dish the Mediterranean way.

Persons: CNN —, Suzy Karadsheh, Ionut Groza, ”, ” Michelle Lee, Karadsheh, el hanout, ” Karadsheh, “, It’s, ” Susan Puckett Organizations: CNN, Karadsheh, The Atlanta Locations: Aleppo, Atlanta, Eastern, Europe, North Africa, Syria, Turkey

☆ Greece’s reform labours are only half complete
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Greece’s large current account deficit and domestic corruption undermine its attraction as an investment destination. The issue, rather, is whether Greece will be able to attract investment in the quantities needed for it to fulfil its potential. What’s more, investment is still only 14% of national income, even though this measure expanded during Mitsotakis’ first term as prime minister. Well-designed tax and benefit reforms could even reduce the country’s unemployment rate, which is currently 12%, thereby increasing its productive potential. All this would provide a buffer if Greece or the world economy is hit by further shocks in coming years.

Persons: Hercules, Mitsotakis, Bruegel, Peter Thal Larsen, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, Union, International Monetary Fund, Bank of, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Twitter, Thomson Locations: ATHENS, Greece, Mitsotakis ’, Bank of Greece, Mitsotakis

☆ Amazon optimizes delivery network for speedier delivery, lower costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 13 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said it has optimized its delivery network coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing it to increase delivery speeds and lower costs, while also reducing the ecommerce giant's carbon emissions. At a time of slack consumer demand, Amazon and other online retailers have also been making efforts to slash costs for home delivery and returns. Amazon this week said it was offering U.S. customers $10 to pick up a purchase rather than have it shipped to a home address. As the company tightens its belt after a period of explosive growth, it has made numerous moves to reduce delivery-related costs across the company. The ecommerce company's move was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.

Amazon said the promotion is not a cost-cutting measure and that it applies to customers who have never used Amazon Pickup or have not used that service in the last 12 months. "We offer customers a variety of ways to get their packages, inclusive of delivery and pickup options. The $10 Amazon Pickup promotion isn't new," the company said in a statement. [1/2] One of Amazon's delivery trucks is pictured working on delivery from the Amazon facility in Poway, California, U.S., November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Sandy Huffaker/File Photo 1 2Increasing use of Amazon pickup locations would help the company bypass costly residential package dropoffs and is "a huge opportunity for Amazon to reduce the cost of delivery," Maciuba said.

[1/2] One of Amazon's delivery trucks is pictured working on delivery from the Amazon facility in Poway, California, U.S., November 16, 2022. Increasing use of Amazon pickup points would help the company bypass costly residential package dropoffs and is "a huge opportunity for Amazon to reduce the cost of delivery," Maciuba said. Amazon worked for years to train consumers to expect fast, no-fee deliveries and returns. As the company tightens its belt after a period of explosive growth, it has made numerous moves to reduce delivery-related costs across the company. Amazon late last year hiked the price of its annual Prime subscription that includes free shipping benefits by $20 to $139.

☆ Why is OPEC cutting oil output?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Redburn research said the size of the latest cut was probably overdone unless OPEC feared a major global recession. Surprise production cutsPUNISHING SPECULATORSThe cut will also punish oil short sellers or those who bet on oil price declines. "The latest cut would hurt those who bet against oil really badly," said a source familiar with OPEC+ thinking. However, excessively high oil prices represent a risk for OPEC+ as they speed up inflation, including for goods the group needs to purchase. Oil prices rebound after OPEC+ announces production cutsTENSIONS WITH WASHINGTONWashington has called the latest move by OPEC+ inadvisable.

☆ MLB Took a Slow Route to Developing a Speedier Game
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Lindsey Adler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In August 2021, a group of Major League Baseball executives sat down at a minor league game in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. As the Quakes, the Low-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, took the field, they saw for the first time the version of the pitch clock that will make its way to MLB this year. “Within an inning, we all kind of looked at each other and said we’d seen enough,” recalled Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations. They told each other: “We need this in the big leagues.”

Silicon Valley Bank had $209 billion in assets at the end of last year, while Signature Bank had some $110 billion. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank is a direct result of an absurd 2018 bank deregulation bill signed by (Republican former President) Donald Trump that I strongly opposed," Senator Bernie Sanders said in a statement. he added, saying awareness of the bank's recent growth and business model should have led Fed officials to anticipate trouble. In an op-ed for the New York Times, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren placed some of the blame at the feet of bank regulators, whom she accused of "letting financial institutions load up on risk." "There won't be legislation getting through Congress, and so regulators will be making the big decisions," he said.

☆ EU's von der Leyen says she will tackle US green subsidies, overcome e-fuels impasse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen walk following a closed German cabinet meeting at the government's guest house in Schloss Meseberg, near Gransee, Germany, March 5, 2023. REUTERS/Fabrizio BenschFRANKFURT, Germany, March 5 (Reuters) - EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday she is determined to counter challenges from U.S. subsidies for green technologies and to speed a currently blocked law on phasing out combustion engines from 2035. A Commission report on competitiveness, due at the same time, would help lower barriers inside the internal EU market and address shortages of specialised labour, which von der Leyen called a "brake on growth." Scholz and von der Leyen said that trade agreements were also being eyed with Indonesia and India. Von der Leyen also said the EU was keeping a close watch on whether China sticks to commitments not to help arm Russia in the Ukraine war.

☆ Business Technology Chiefs Question ChatGPT’s Readiness for the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Angus Loten | Chris Bedi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Yet some business-technology professionals are uneasy about integrating it into the enterprise stack, citing concerns over its use of online data and security risks. But at the moment, ChatGPT “should be used with caution in an enterprise business setting,” she said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. For now, Mr. Schmidt said, generative AI capabilities should be reserved for writing corporate boilerplate—product or service announcements, or other promotional materials. For enterprise information-technology, “ChatGPT use cases might be a smaller universe than people are imagining,” he said.

☆ A tiny-home village that can house over 30 homeless people is the latest project from a California prefab company that quickly builds homes in factories and trucks them to their destinations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Long Beach, California, made a $2.5 million deal to build tiny homes for people in need. The bathroom in a Connect Homes shelter. From luxury homes to sheltersFor its private customers, Connect Homes builds 15 single-family-home models, ranging from a 460-square-foot home for $220,000 to a 1,960-square-foot four-bedroom home that costs about $700,000. Connect Homes' Shelter 3, a type of tiny home that's set to be built in Long Beach, California. It's now getting inquiries in other states about its tiny homes, Leung said.

☆ From a road-trip disaster to a face-melting rip in the world's quickest supercar, these are my biggest lessons from driving 20 electric cars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I've tested 20 electric cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks from Tesla, Ford, Porsche, Polestar, and more. But electric cars are quick, convenient, fun to drive, and quiet. Hours behind the wheel taught me some important lessons about range, charging, and our electric future. Charging can be more convenient than getting gasRecharging an electric car takes a whole lot longer than filling up on gas. The best ones offer spacious interiors and clever storageToday's electric cars typically use what's known as a skateboard platform, which is basically what it sounds like.

☆ OpenAI is launching a ChatGPT subscription service for $20 a month. It will offer speedier response times and priority access to new features.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

ChatGPT has announced ChatGPT Plus, a subscription service that costs $20 a month. The service will offer users faster response times and priority access to new features. The new subscription plan will allow paid users to have general access to the bot, even during peak times when users are normally made to wait. OpenAI said last month it was testing a paid version of ChatGPT, opening a waitlist for the "experimental" update. However, the $20 price tag is much lower than the rumored $42 per month previously reported by some users.

☆ OpenAI is finally asking some users to pay for ChatGPT. Here's what we know so far about the differences between the free and paid versions.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

After two months of unlimited free use, OpenAI has announced a subscription model for ChatGPT. Users will still be able to access the chatbot for free but those who pay will get extra perks. Here's what we know about the difference between ChatGPT Plus and the free version. US users on OpenAI's waitlist will be invited to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus in the next few weeks. It's likely important improvements will also be rolled out to the free version but paying subscribers may get first dibs on coveted new features.

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