In his decade of ruling China, Xi Jinping has tried to imbue its people with confidence, telling them that the country is doing very well compared with the chaotic West.

He has told the younger generation that China can finally look at the world as an equal. “It’s no longer as backward,” he said last year.

“The East is rising, and the West is declining,” he declared, at a time when the United States and other Western countries seemed mired in high Covid infection rates, racial tensions and other problems.

Stocks have roared back from their low in June, as investors bet that inflation has peaked, even as the Federal Reserve signals that its campaign to cool the economy by raising interest rates isn’t over.

Higher interest rates are typically seen as bad for share prices, as they increase costs for companies. A chorus of Fed officials have insisted recently that the central bank will need to push interest rates even higher to slow stubbornly high inflation. Yet the S&P 500 has been on an upward march, registering gains for the past three weeks and rising more than 12 percent from its low on June 16.

Rather than worry that a hot economy could embolden the Fed to raise rates more aggressively, investors appear to be choosing to focus on receding recession worries, particularly because many expect the pace of inflation to start to slow.

Walmart has held discussions with major media companies about including streaming entertainment in its membership service, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations, part of an effort to extend its relationship with customers beyond its brick-and-mortar stores.

In recent weeks, executives from Paramount, Disney and Comcast have spoken with Walmart, the people said, as the retailer ponders which movies and TV shows would add the most value to its membership bundle, called Walmart+. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.

It is unclear whether any of the streaming companies are inclined to reach a deal with Walmart. Disney operates the Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu streaming services; Comcast owns the Peacock streaming service; and Paramount runs the Paramount+ and Showtime services.

In another sign of the fragility of Europe’s supply, flows of oil from Russia to Central Europe have halted over a pipeline payments dispute, raising fears that an “energy war” between Moscow and its European oil customers could escalate.

Authorities in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic confirmed on Tuesday that Russian oil deliveries from a critical pipeline stopped on Thursday. The three countries, which rely heavily on Russian oil to fuel their economies, are exempted from a European Union decision to start banning imports of Russian oil later this year.

The dispute centers on the southern leg of a Cold War-era pipeline — called Druzhba, the Russian word for friendship — that carries crude oil some 2,500 miles from the Urals to Central Europe.

Stocks have roared back from their low in June, as investors bet that inflation has peaked, even as the Federal Reserve signals that its campaign to cool the economy by raising interest rates isn’t over.

Higher interest rates are typically seen as bad for share prices, as they increase costs for companies. A chorus of Fed officials have insisted recently that the central bank will need to push interest rates even higher to slow stubbornly high inflation. Yet the S&P 500 has been on an upward march, registering gains for the past three weeks and rising more than 12 percent from its low on June 16.

Rather than worry that a hot economy could embolden the Fed to raise rates more aggressively, investors appear to be choosing to focus on receding recession worries, particularly because many expect the pace of inflation to start to slow.

In another sign of the fragility of Europe’s supply, flows of oil from Russia to Central Europe have halted over a pipeline payments dispute, raising fears that an “energy war” between Moscow and its European oil customers could escalate.

Authorities in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic confirmed on Tuesday that Russian oil deliveries from a critical pipeline stopped on Thursday. The three countries, which rely heavily on Russian oil to fuel their economies, are exempted from a European Union decision to start banning imports of Russian oil later this year.

The dispute centers on the southern leg of a Cold War-era pipeline — called Druzhba, the Russian word for friendship — that carries crude oil some 2,500 miles from the Urals to Central Europe.

New York City said Tuesday that it had reached a settlement potentially worth more than $20 million with the fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill over violations of worker protection laws, the largest settlement of its kind in the city’s history.

The action, affecting about 13,000 workers, sends a message “that we won’t stand by when workers’ rights are violated,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.

The city said the settlement covered violations of scheduling and sick leave laws from late November 2017 to late April of this year. Under the settlement, hourly employees of Chipotle in New York City will receive $50 for each week that they worked during that period. Employees who left the company before April 30 will have to file a claim to receive their compensation.

In his decade of ruling China, Xi Jinping has tried to imbue its people with confidence, telling them that the country is doing very well compared with the chaotic West.

He has told the younger generation that China can finally look at the world as an equal. “It’s no longer as backward,” he said last year.

“The East is rising, and the West is declining,” he declared, at a time when the United States and other Western countries seemed mired in high Covid infection rates, racial tensions and other problems.

Walmart has held discussions with major media companies about including streaming entertainment in its membership service, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations, part of an effort to extend its relationship with customers beyond its brick-and-mortar stores.

In recent weeks, executives from Paramount, Disney and Comcast have spoken with Walmart, the people said, as the retailer ponders which movies and TV shows would add the most value to its membership bundle, called Walmart+. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.

It is unclear whether any of the streaming companies are inclined to reach a deal with Walmart. Disney operates the Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu streaming services; Comcast owns the Peacock streaming service; and Paramount runs the Paramount+ and Showtime services.

Social media companies have taken steps to restrict Russian state media accounts. But posts from those accounts still spread in Spanish, Arabic and other languages and in places outside the West.

In early 2020, Christine Dibble had recently retired from the federal government and was eager to travel more, but the coronavirus outbreak put those plans on hold.

Grounded at home in Washington Grove, Md., Dibble started to play around with a flight-tracking app, and it opened the skies for her.

Flightradar24 is one of several sites that compile public information about aircraft locations, flight paths, ownership records, altitude and more for display in an interactive map. People can see details about planes and where they’re heading almost anywhere in the world, including Antarctica.

In his decade of ruling China, Xi Jinping has tried to imbue its people with confidence, telling them that the country is doing very well compared with the chaotic West.

He has told the younger generation that China can finally look at the world as an equal. “It’s no longer as backward,” he said last year.

“The East is rising, and the West is declining,” he declared, at a time when the United States and other Western countries seemed mired in high Covid infection rates, racial tensions and other problems.

The Treasury Department on Monday prohibited Americans from using the cryptocurrency platform Tornado Cash, saying the service has helped criminals launder more than $7 billion of virtual currencies.

The crackdown was the U.S. government’s latest effort to rein in the crypto industry, as lawmakers and regulators grow increasingly concerned over the volatility of virtual currencies and their role in facilitating hacking and other crimes. Calling the platform a “threat to U.S. national security,” the Treasury Department placed Tornado Cash on a blacklist of entities, making it illegal for Americans to send or receive money using the service.

“Despite public assurances otherwise, Tornado Cash has repeatedly failed to impose effective controls designed to stop it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors,” Brian Nelson, the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

Ford Motor on Tuesday became the latest automaker to raise the price of electric vehicles when it significantly increased prices of its popular F-150 Lightning because of rising materials costs.

The company began making the Lightning in April and had sold more than 4,400 through the end of July. Ford has taken reservations for more than 200,000, and the higher prices will go into effect for the 2023 model year.

Ford said it was increasing the starting prices of the truck by $6,000 to $8,500 for newly ordered vehicles. After the increase, the truck will cost from $46,974 for a base model to $96,874 for a Platinum version with an extended-range battery pack.

In another sign of the fragility of Europe’s dependence on Russian energy, the state-owned pipeline operator said Tuesday that oil had stopped flowing through the southern branch of the main link to Eastern Europe.

Transneft, which controls Russia’s stretch of the pipeline, said its July payment to the Ukrainian operator of the artery, Ukrtransnafta, had been returned. Transneft blamed issues related to European sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

In response, Ukraine halted oil deliveries to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic through the pipeline, according to Transneft. The three countries have been exempted from a European Union decision to ban imports of Russian oil starting later this year.

Daniel B. Maffei is at once a crucial player in the campaign to subdue inflation, and a figure virtually unknown outside the confines of his wonky Washington domain.

He’s the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission, a small, traditionally obscure institution that has been thrust into a central role in the Biden administration’s designs on taming soaring prices — a menace that could determine which party next controls Congress.

The commission regulates the international shipping industry at American ports, an element of modern life that is typically ignored but has emerged as a reason major retailers are short of popular goods, and why people renovating homes are waiting months for doorknobs.

SAN FRANCISCO — Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging app, introduced its first parental controls on Tuesday, as social media platforms face increasing scrutiny for exposing young users to potentially harmful content.

Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, said in a blog post that its new tools would let parents see whom their teenagers were friends with on the app and whom they had communicated with in the previous seven days. Parents will also be able to report accounts that their children are friends with if they violate Snapchat’s policies. Parents will not be able to see their children’s conversations on the app.

To gain access to the controls, people have to create Snapchat accounts and be friends with their children, who have to agree to the controls. The company said it would introduce additional features later, including one that lets parents see whom their children recently became friends with. Teenagers will also be able to notify their parents if they report...

Social media companies have taken steps to restrict Russian state media accounts. But posts from those accounts still spread in Spanish, Arabic and other languages and in places outside the West.

In his decade of ruling China, Xi Jinping has tried to imbue its people with confidence, telling them that the country is doing very well compared with the chaotic West.

He has told the younger generation that China can finally look at the world as an equal. “It’s no longer as backward,” he said last year.

“The East is rising and the West is declining,” he declared, at a time when the United States and other Western countries seemed mired in high Covid infection rates, racial tensions and other problems.