The corporate giants will release their quarterly financial reports next week, showing the impact of the pandemic, vaccinations and the coronavirus delta on their numbers. The 180 members of the S&P 500 will report starting Monday. Among them are heavyweights in several areas at once: Apple, Visa, McDonald's, Starbucks, Ford, Chevron and others. As noted by The Wall Street Journal, in general, expectations from the reports are rather positive.

Hello! This week our top story is Russia’s biggest interest rate hike in 7 years amid growing fears of an inflationary spiral. We also detail a bombshell media investigation suggesting officials hid four out of every five COVID-19 cases , and why details of the gaudy mansion of an allegedly corrupt traffic cop were likely leaked online.

The French application Zenly, which shows the location of the user's friends on a city map, became the third most downloaded in Russia in April-June 2021, Forbes writes , citing a report by the analytical company App Annie. At the same time, according to the results of the first quarter, the Zenly service took only 54th place in Russia. But now only Telegram (first place in downloads) and TikTok (second place) are ahead of it in popularity, according to a report that Forbes drew attention to.

On July 20, the richest man in the world Jeff Bezos flew to the cosmos border on his own ship. Now his space company Blue Origin is going to "build a road into space so that our children can build the future." In the book "Invent and Wander.

The US is heading in the "wrong direction" in fighting a new wave of the pandemic as vaccination rates slow, said Joe Biden's chief health adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Half of the population is still unvaccinated, which is a problem in the US, especially in light of the spread of the "delta" variant of COVID-19. According to forecasts, if the vaccination rate is not increased, then in winter the country will face a new peak in the incidence with 4,000 deaths per day.

The spread of the “delta” version of the coronavirus has forced governments and private companies in those countries that have enough vaccine stocks to develop a strategy for vaccinating citizens. Prize drawings and lotteries have become part of this strategy, notes . Bloomberg At the start of vaccination, the biggest material prize was an Instagram sticker. Now in Hong Kong, after vaccination, you can get a Tesla or even an apartment as a reward.

The topic of release is how the Israeli business of the Israeli NSO Group works Perhaps the largest IT scandal of the year happened this week. Journalists of sixteen publications in a joint investigation found that more than 50 thousand people around the world could become objects for the attack of the Spyean company NSO Group. Among them are the largest politicians, activists and journalists. Some of them were killed after the alleged hacks.

Fintech company Robinhood is trying to attract small traders to invest in listed companies, including itself, writes Bloomberg. The day before, the company held a live road show, choosing a rather unconventional format for this. Typically, this kind of presentation is held in a closed format only for large institutional investors, but Robinhood made it available for everyone to view. This is the latest challenge to convention as the company makes its way to its first Nasdaq listing.

Pharmaceutical holding Binnopharm Group (owned by VTB and AFK Sistema of Vladimir Yevtushenkov) may buy Kagocel, writes Pharmaceutical Bulletin, citing two sources. According to one of them, no deal is planned between the legal entities of the Nearmedic group that produces Kagocel and Binnopharm. The acquisition of the brand will go through other legal entities of the "daughter" of AFK "Sistema".