Britain’s economic recovery continues as lockdowns end.

Two passengers on a Mediterranean cruise operated by MSC Cruises also tested positive. Both passengers on the MSC Seaside were asymptomatic when they tested positive during routine testing two days ago, the communications manager Paige Rosenthal said. Immediately after testing positive, the two passengers, who were not traveling together, were isolated along with their parties. They all disembarked in Syracuse, Sicily.

All passengers on the vessel were required to take two coronavirus tests before boarding; vaccines were not required.

The major cruise lines are preparing to restart operations from U.S. ports this summer. Celebrity Edge is poised to be the first, sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on June 26, with all crew and at least 95 percent of passengers fully vaccinated, in accordance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, cruise ships were sites of some of the largest concentrations of coronavirus cases. The return of cruises and large gatherings such as conferences is a sign that the pandemic is ending in the United States, as the steady pace of vaccinations — 43 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, and 52 percent have received at least one dose, according to a New York Times database — gives some event organizers the confidence to resume business.

This month, Bitcoin 2021, a business conference dedicated to the digital currency, sold 12,000 tickets and attracted thousands more to Miami for a week of panels, parties, networking and deal making. It was the first major business conference since the pandemic and the largest Bitcoin conference ever.

In the days after the event, several attendees announced on Twitter that they had tested positive for the coronavirus. Others shared stories of their peers testing positive.

The event attracted Bitcoin enthusiasts from around the world, including some countries that do not yet have easy access to vaccines. Most events took place inside a large, crowded warehouse, and facial coverings were rare. Vaccines were not required to attend.

John Riggins, head of operations at BTC Media, which ran the conference, said that the company had not heard directly from any attendee who tested positive. The company is monitoring the situation and will follow recommendations from the C.D.C., he said.

“Vaccines have been freely available for months in the U.S., to the extent that anyone who wanted to be vaccinated could have been so by the time of the event,” Mr. Riggins wrote in an email.

“We provided all attendees with the current recommendations of the C.D.C. and state of Florida and expressed to our audience that those who were high risk or hadn’t been vaccinated should consider waiting until next year,” he added.

This week, the first major trade show in the United States since the pandemic started, The World of Concrete, is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The event typically draws more than 60,000 industry professionals from around the world.

Didi said that an I.P.O. would fund an expansion.

“We aspire to become a truly global technology company,” Didi’s founders, Cheng Wei and Jean Liu, wrote in a letter included with the filing. “What we have learned and built is relevant across the globe — in Latin America, Russia, South Africa or anywhere where affordable, safe and convenient mobility is valuable.”

Other ride-hailing services have reported that business has been recovering. Last month, Uber said revenue for the first three months of the year — excluding the costs of a settlement — was up 8 percent from a year ago, to $3.5 billion. The company lost $108 million.

The Small Business Administration is supposed to review and approve applications in tiers, with those who suffered the deepest financial losses helped first, but its deadline for addressing the first tier of applications was Wednesday — and thousands of those applicants are still waiting. Carol Wilkerson, an agency spokeswoman, said those applicants “remain at the front of the line.”

The changes followed repeated pleas for help from lawmakers and industry advocates. “The agency’s rollout and execution of the grant program has been a disaster,” Representative Greg Stanton, an Arizona Democrat, wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Isabella Casillas Guzman, the S.B.A. administrator.

Seven trade groups also sent a letter on Wednesday asking the S.B.A. to “immediately fully fund” eligible applications. Entertainment venues are “experiencing a talent drain, cannot reopen and are hanging on by a thread because this funding is not arriving quickly enough,” they wrote.

The problem is becoming especially dire for businesses trying to salvage their summer season. Without money from the grant program, many are unable to hire staff, book performers, stock up on supplies and pay overdue bills.

Tracey Tee, the chief executive of Band of Mothers Media, which puts on a women’s comedy tour, got an email from the S.B.A. last week with the same news that has bedeviled thousands of venue owners and producers around the country. “Your name,” the email said, “appears on the Do Not Pay list with the Match Source DMF.”

Translated from bureaucratic jargon, it told Ms. Tee that she was considered dead.

“We are in debt up the wazoo,” Ms. Tee said. “We can’t afford to put shows back on the road because there’s no cash.”

Like virtually all producers, Band of Mothers — which puts on a “moms’ night out” music and comedy event called “The Pump and Dump Show” — was grounded by the pandemic last year, and has had little opportunity for revenue since. At the beginning of 2020, the company employed 13 people — most of them mothers of young children — but has since reduced its staff to two.

After receiving the email, Ms. Tee began a Kafkaesque effort to prove that the government’s information was incorrect. She called the Social Security Administration, which she said was unhelpful. An operator at her local office was friendly but said: “I think you’re being spammed or scammed,” Ms. Tee recalled.

The Small Business Administration has said little about the problem publicly. But in correspondence among applicants, the agency has acknowledged that the problem seemed to be a result of conflicts between employee identification numbers, which apply to businesses and nonprofit groups, and Social Security numbers, which apply to individuals. If a company has the same employee identification number as a dead person, the agency flagged that application as flawed.

Ms. Wilkerson, the S.B.A. spokeswoman, said the agency was working to clear up the problem and move applications forward. Mr. Kelley said on Thursday’s call that applicants should finally see the results of those efforts — and a wave of approvals — next week, according to participants on the call.

Unlike the Walt Disney Company, which is estimated to generate tens of billions of dollars in sales each year in merchandise, Netflix has no plans for brick-and-mortar stores in malls or Times Square.

Mark A. Cohen, the director of retail studies and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Business School, said he was skeptical about the longevity of the Netflix store after the excitement around its opening fades, in part because of the come-and-go cycle of Netflix hits.

“Most of them have a short shelf-life, unlike a Disney property, which is a generational long ride,” he said.

New laws prohibit posting campaign advertisements online, worrying opposition leaders.

“So this is a big question if Google will actually cave,” Mr. Volkov said.

Mr. Volkov said it was “extremely important” that the opposition continues to have access to YouTube and has asked American government to “reinforce our message” to Google and other Silicon Valley firms.

A spokeswoman for Google did not immediately return a request for comment, nor did the Russian embassy in Washington. A State Department spokesman said only that officials there were aware Mr. Volkov was in the United States, and added that they routinely meet with civil society members.

Google has demonstrated a willingness to stand up to government demands, and not just in authoritarian countries. The company successfully fought a Justice Department subpoena seeking access to the email records of The New York Times reporters.

Other communication and tech companies either chose not to fight the Trump administrations’ request for records or failed to block the move. Phone companies handed over records of Times and Washington Post reporters. Apple gave the Trump administration records of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee as well as aides and family members in response to a subpoena.

The Russia opposition group is hoping that Mr. Biden not only raises the issue of Mr. Navalny’s imprisonment during his meeting with Mr. Putin, but also directs his administration to take practical steps to increase pressure on Moscow. Mr. Volkov said the opposition movement is skeptical of broad sanctions targeting swathes of the Russian economy. Instead its members want the U.S., Britain and Europe to target Russian oligarchs who hold Mr. Putin’s money for him.

Mr. Volkov works in exile in Lithuania, along with other leaders of the opposition group. But they stay in indirect contact with Mr. Navalny. Mr. Navalny was moved on June 4, his birthday, from a prison medical facility to a penal colony.

“Since that, his condition was stable,” Mr. Volkov said. “We didn’t hear any bad news, which is good news.”