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U.K. fines Commerzbank $47 million for lax money laundering controls

Britain has fined the London branch of Germany’s Commerzbank 37.8 million pounds ($47.3 million) for failing to have proper controls to prevent money laundering, the U.K.’s financial watchdog said on Wednesday.

Banks have to check the background of clients and by March 1, 2017, Commerzbank’s checks were overdue on 1,772 customers, the Financial Conduct Authority said.

IRS to send catch-up payments for missing stimulus money

As the government rushed out stimulus checks to millions of Americans this spring, some were disappointed to find the payments fell short of what they expected.
Now, the IRS is making catch-up payments. This week, it added 50,000 people who had money withheld because of their spouse’s unpaid child support to the list of people who will get catch-up payments.

There are a lot more losing than winning stocks in the S&P 500, Jim Cramer says

“When you get down into the weeds of this market, what you see is that there are a lot more losers than there are winners,” CNBC’s Jim Cramer said.
“That’s the nature of the Covid economy, and now that there’s no one in Washington willing to play gardener, maybe it’s only a matter of time before the weeds overrun the entire patch,” the “Mad Money” host said.
“We have a bizarre situation where some companies are doing very well,” Cramer said, “but a lot of other companies are getting crushed.”

Beirut death toll rises to at least 135 as explosion is blamed on 2,750-ton ammonium nitrate stash

The explosion, which blew out windows and destroyed property for miles around, has been initially blamed on 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in an unsecured warehouse at Beirut’s cargo port.
But the government subsequently announced an investigation to determine within five days the exact cause of the explosion and “who was responsible.”
The immediate crisis in homelessness, health, overwhelmed medical services and destroyed property and businesses comes on top of an already crippled economy, the coronavirus pandemic and regional tensions.

WHO calls for more ‘systematic, exhaustive investigation’ on clusters in response to Beijing outbreak

Officials in China’s capital city reported a total of 79 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since June 11.
“The answers lie in careful, systematic, exhaustive investigation of disease clusters to really look at what is happening in these situations and what is causing the amplification of the disease in the human context,” said the WHO’s Dr. Mike Ryan.
As many countries around the world grapple with a resurgence of new Covid-19 cases, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said, health officials need to be on alert.