When Biden meets Putin: old foes could cool off but not reset

The United States and Russia are lowering expectations for big breakthroughs at a superpower summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the adversaries in no mood to make concessions on their bitter disagreements. The summit details – location, time and agenda – are still being negotiated by the two sides […]
Top U.S. fuel pipeline recovering from devastating ransomware attack

After a six-day outage, the top U.S. fuel pipeline on Thursday moved some of the first millions of gallons of motor fuels to East Coast states after throwing off a crippling cyberattack. The Colonial Pipeline Co, which can carry 100 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, resumed computer-controlled pumping after adding […]
More than 4,000 Indians die of COVID-19 for second straight day

India recorded more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths for a second straight day on Thursday, while infections stayed below 400,000 for a fourth day, although the virus has become rampant in rural areas where cases can go unreported due to a lack of testing. Experts remain unsure when numbers will peak and concern is growing about […]
Taiwan proposes $7.5 bln in spending as domestic COVID-19 cases rise

Taiwan’s government proposed on Thursday an extraT$210 billion ($7.52 billion) in spending to help the economy deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, as it reported 13 new domestic cases amid a rare spike in infections that has spooked the stock market.
Italy fines Google $123 mln for abuse of dominant position

Italy’s competition watchdog said on Thursday it had fined Google (GOOGL.O) 102 million euros ($123 million) for abuse of its dominant position due to its Android mobile operating system and app store Google Play.
Digital coin ether hits record high as 2021 gains near 500%

Cryptocurrency ether hit a record high on Wednesday, taking gains this year to almost 500% on the back of a growing interest in decentralised finance applications and increasing institutional interest in cryptocurrencies.
U.S. removes Xiaomi from blacklist, reversing late China jab by Trump

The U.S Department of Defense will remove China’s Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) from a government blacklist, a court filing showed, marking a noteworthy reversal by the Biden administration of one of Donald Trump’s last jabs at Beijing before exiting office. The filing stated that the two parties would agree to resolve their ongoing litigation without further contest, bringing […]
Uber, Lyft want more public subsidies to meet California EV mandates

California clean-air regulators want nearly all trips on Uber and Lyft ride-hailing platforms to be in electric vehicles, mandating costly measures that the companies call unrealistic without more public subsidies for EVs.
Companies come up with new ways to deal with coffee waste!

Caffeine consumption in the United Kingdom amounts to about 35 billion cups per year, but this comes at a significant environmental cost. About 2.5 billion coffee cups are discarded each year, with nearly a thousand tonnes of brewed coffee waste ending up in landfills.
Amazon wins court fight against $303 mln EU tax order

Amazon (AMZN.O) on Wednesday won its fight against an EU order to pay about 250 million euros ($303 million) in back taxes to Luxembourg as Europe’s second highest court dealt a blow to the bloc’s efforts to make multinational corporations pay more tax.