July 2021

(Reuters) — Jerome Powell, this story’s for you. The Federal Reserve chair, always on the lookout for signs of inflation, might want to drop by Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where a $200 plate of french fries stretches the definition of haute cuisine. The restaurant Serendipity 3 already claims world records for the most expensive burger ($295) and ice cream sundae ($1,000), so if the question is, “You want fries with that?” its answer is a resounding yes. Guinness World Records certified the feat. As of July 13, the fries are officially the most expensive on Earth. “Serendipity is really a…

(CNN) — The 2021 summer travel season started out full of hope and promise, but by the day, two words are threatening to dismantle it all. Delta variant. This more transmissible variation of the coronavirus was first detected in India in February, just when the United States and some other places around the world were starting to really gear up their vaccination efforts. It turned out to be a race against time: vaccines vs. Delta. And just like all other waves of the pandemic, travel feels the Covid impact quick and hard. From new travel advisories issued this week to…

“Earlier this month Cubans took to the street in a show of the will of the people of Cuba. The regime responded with violence and repression, mass detentions, sham trials and people disappearing who have spoken out,” Biden said during the meeting, also detailing US efforts related to remittances, staffing at the US embassy in Cuba and internet access on the island. “Cuban-Americans are hurting … because their loved ones are suffering. And it’s, quite frankly, intolerable.” The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions earlier Friday, designated by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The…

Sun was arrested in March this year. His company, Hebei Dawu Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Group, owns farming operations in China and employs about 9,000 people in poultry processing, pet food production and other industries. He is also famous for being an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party. Sun was found guilty of “gathering a crowd to storm state institutions, obstructing public service, picking quarrels and provoking troubles, disrupting production and operation, conducting coercive trade, illegal mining, illegal occupation of agricultural land, illegal absorption of public deposits,” the People’s Court of Gaobeidian said in a statement posted on its…

The Swiss bank published a report by law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which uncovered persistent failures by senior managers to address risks connected with trades made by Archegos, a New York-based family office that managed the fortune of investor Bill Hwang. Archegos used borrowed money to build massive positions in stocks including media companies ViacomCBS (VIACA) and Discovery (DISCA), and was unable to pay back its lenders when share prices dropped. Its implosion cost global banks, including Morgan Stanley (MS) and Japan’s Nomura (NMR), more than $10 billion and led to calls for tighter regulation of firms…

New York CNN Business —   Wall Street didn’t exactly roll out the red carpet to welcome Robinhood after its highly anticipated debut. The fast-growing trading company finished Thursday at $34.82, down 8% from its initial public offering price. Robinhood failed to score the first-day pop that new companies covet. And that’s despite Robinhood pricing its IPO at $38, the low end of the expected range. All of this suggests demand is somewhat lukewarm for Robinhood, a company that has revolutionized the way Americans trade but has also been dogged by controversy. Only about a quarter of US IPOs have…

The fine was imposed on July 16 and disclosed Friday in a financial filing. It is the largest in the law’s three-year history, followed by Google’s 2019 fine of €50 million. Regulators said Amazon’s processing of personal data didn’t comply with GDPR requirements, and the company acknowledged it has been ordered to change its business practices. Amazon said the regulatory decision was “without merit” and added that it plans to “defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.” “The decision relating to how we show customers relevant advertising relies on subjective and untested interpretations of European privacy law, and the proposed fine…

A Briton and a Romanian were killed amid what the company described as a “suspected piracy incident” onboard the Mercer Street tanker on Thursday. A US defense official familiar with the details of the incident said the tanker was attacked by an armed drone believed to be operated by Iran, and that the US navy was escorting the ship to port. The defense official would not say which US warships were conducting the escort, but ships from the USS Ronald Reagan strike group are in the region. The tanker’s crew reported that the drone exploded into its super structure on…

The 37-year-old had been out walking alone near the border between Spain and France and was last seen on November 22. Since Dingley went missing, French and Spanish police carried out extensive searches in a bid to locate her. Her partner, Daniel Colegate, is said to have walked hundreds of miles in the months since her disappearance, searching the mountains for any trace of her. LBT Global, the charity representing her family, said in a statement on its website that it was “saddened to announce that human remains found in the search for Esther Dingley have today been confirmed via…

Nauka — a long-delayed laboratory module that Russian space agency Roscosmos’ launched to the International Space Station last week — inadvertently fired its thrusters after docking with the International Space Station Thursday morning. NASA officials declared it a “spacecraft emergency” as the space station experienced a loss of attitude (the angle at which the ISS is supposed to remain oriented) control for nearly one hour, and ground controllers lost communications with the seven astronauts currently aboard the ISS for 11 minutes during the ordeal. A joint investigation between NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos is now ongoing. Joel Montalbano,…