Software And Training Reviews

Here’s a food holiday not canceled by the coronavirus pandemic: National French Fry Day.

While 7-Eleven canceled its annual Free Slurpee Day, Chick-fil-A postponed its Cow Appreciation Day and Tax Day freebies and deals are nearly nonexistent, restaurants across the nation are still offering free fries and fry deals Monday.

The holiday, also known as National Fry Day, is held annually on July 13. Most of Monday’s specials require a purchase or a mobile app.

There are contests Monday, too. The Idaho Potato Commission is giving away $100 Visa gift card, an air fryer and other prizes. The Great American Takeout and Heinz are holding a ketchup art sweepstakes.

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Tax Day 2020 freebies?: After Tax Day was moved to July, deals and free food offers are almost non-existent

With the ketchup contest, one grand prize winner will get $1,869 for 57 future takeout orders and 50 other artists will win $57 for takeout meal. (See contest details below.)

Fry Day 2020 deals and freebies

The following discounts and offers available at participating locations Monday, July 13 unless otherwise noted. Offers can vary and most times are offered while supplies last. To be on the safe side, always check with your closest location before heading out.

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s: Get a free basket of fries with a $10 purchase Monday.

BurgerFi: Get half-price double cheeseburgers with an in-store purchase of a regular-sized French fries Monday. Then Tuesday through July 17, get free regular-sized fries with any purchase ordered on the BurgerFi app.

Burger King: Find several offers including $1 large fries on the BK app. App specials are listed at www.bk.com/offers.

Carl’s Jr.: Newsletter subscribers received an email with a coupon for free large fries with purchase of a Thickburger Monday. Sign up for future emails at www.carlsjr.com.

Checkers: Get a small, medium or large order of fries for $1 Monday. You can also get free fries for joining the chain’s text messaging program. Text SNACK to 88001 to sign up or sign up online at www.checkers.com/flavorhood. 

Farmer Boys: Get fries for $1 with any purchase made after 2 p.m. Monday.

Fatburger: Get a free order of Skinny or Fat Fries with any purchase of $20 or more made on Postmates Monday through July 19.

Hardee’s: Newsletter subscribers received an email with a coupon for free large fries with purchase of a Thickburger Monday. Sign up for future emails at www.hardees.com.

KFC: To celebrate National French Fry Day and the permanent addition of its new Secret Recipe Fries to the menu at all U.S. restaurants, the fast food chain is offering individual orders of fries for 30 cents with any purchase Monday, according to a news release.

McDonald’s: Get a free medium fries Monday with the McDonald’s app. No purchase is necessary but there’s a limit of one offer per customer. Access the deal using the app’s “Mobile Order & Pay” feature or scan the deal code from the app at the restaurant, drive thru or kiosk.

Rally’s: Get a small, medium or large order of fries for $1 Monday. Get free fries with any purchase when you join the Flavorhood program at www.rallys.com/flavorhood.

Smashburger: Get a free side of signature Smash Fries with the purchase of any double burger Monday.

Steak ‘n Shake: For a limited time, participating restaurants are giving away free small orders of fries. There’s a limit of one order of free fries per person, the Indianapolis-based restaurant’s website notes.

Taco John’s: The chain is giving away free small orders of Potato Olés Monday. Redeem the offer in Taco John’s mobile app. 

Wendy’s: The fast food chain has various deals on its app and website. Download the app at www.wendys.com. 

White Castle: Get a free small French fries in-restaurant, online or via the White Castle app Monday or with this coupon. No purchase is necessary, according to the coupon.

More deals: Locally owned businesses and regional chains also may have specials for National French Fry Day. One of the easiest ways to find out is to check restaurants’ social media channels.

National French Fry Day contests

Heinz and Great American Takeout: Post a photo of your ketchup art creation and post on either Twitter or Instagram and use the hashtags #TheGreatAmericanTakeout and #Sweepstakes. On Instagram, tag @thegreatamericantakeout and on Twitter tag @TheGATakeout. One winner will get $1,869 and 50 runners-up will get $57 to use on takeout meals. Learn more at www.thegreatamericantakeout.com.

Idaho Potato Commission: The commission is giving away $100 Visa gift card, an air fryer and other prizes. Enter at www.idahopotato.com/national-french-fry-sweepstakes.

Get free fries at McDonald’s Fridays 

McDonald’s is celebrating Fry Day every Friday through Sept. 27.

Each Friday, get a free medium fries each Friday on mobile orders with a minimum $1 purchase when using an app offer. 

App download and registration required. The offer is only available through Mobile Order & Pay at participating restaurants, according to the promotion’s fine print. Download the app for iOS and Android at www.mcdonalds.com or through app stores.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko

SEOUL (Reuters) – One in three South Korean patients seriously ill with COVID-19 showed an improvement in their condition after being given Gilead Sciences Inc’s (GILD.O) antiviral remdesivir, health authorities said.

More research was needed to determine if the improvement was attributable to the drug or other factors such as patients’ immunity and other therapies, they said.

Remdesivir has been at the forefront of the global battle against COVID-19 after the intravenously administered medicine helped shorten hospital recovery times in a U.S. clinical trial.

Several countries including South Korea have added the drug to the list of treatment for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. There is no approved vaccine for it.

In its latest update on the drug, Gilead said on Friday an analysis showed remdesivir helped reduce the risk of death in severely ill COVID-19 patients but cautioned that rigorous clinical trials were needed to confirm the benefit.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Saturday results from a first group of 27 patients given remdesivir in different hospitals.

Nine of the patients showed an improvement in their condition, 15 showed no change, and three worsened, KCDC deputy director Kwon Jun-wook told a briefing.

The result had yet to be compared with a control group and more analysis was needed to conclude remdesivir’s benefit, Kwon said.

In June, South Korea asked Gilead to supply enough of its drug to treat more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients in preparation for a possible second wave of infections.

South Korea has been battling small but persistent outbreaks of the new coronavirus, with 62 new cases reported as of Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 13,479 cases with 289 deaths.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd co-founder Jack Ma has cut his stake in the company over the past year to 4.8% from 6.2%, cashing out around $8.2 billion at its current share price, the firm’s annual filing released on Friday showed.

The divestment comes as Ma retired as the Chinese e-commerce company’s executive chairman in September and pulled back from formal business roles to focus on philanthropy.

Alibaba did not disclose the average selling price of his divestment. Its share price has risen around 40% since Ma reported his 6.2% holding in the company a year ago.

The stock’s stellar performance has been helped by forecast-beating earnings growth, even as China’s economy sharply slows, as more people shop online for essentials due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai also reduced his stake in the company over the same period, to 1.6% from 2.2%. The offloaded shares were worth $3.3 billion as of Friday.

Both Ma and Tsai have been steadily less involved in Alibaba’s regular operations since Daniel Zhang was announced as Ma’s successor as company chairman. He assumed that role formally in September 2019.

Throughout this year, the two have donated millions of units of personal protective equipment (PPE) via their individual charity arms to hospitals worldwide to help fight the spread of COVID-19.

An April 2019 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stated that Ma would plan to sell up to 21 million shares within one year to support his philanthropic efforts.

(This story corrects Jack Ma’s share sale to $8.2 bln, his original stake to 6.2%, Tsai’s sale to $3.3 bln and his original stake to 2.2%.)

European stocks rose on Monday, as optimism surrounding second-quarter earnings offset a disturbing rise in coronavirus cases, including in the key U.S. state of Florida.

After edging up 0.4% last week, the Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
+0.45%
gained 1%.

The German DAX
DAX,
+0.91%
, French CAC 40
PX1,
+0.54%
and U.K. FTSE 100
UKX,
+0.82%
also advanced.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil slipped nearly 1% on Monday as traders eyed an OPEC technical meeting this week which is expected to recommend an easing in supply cuts that have been propping up crude prices.

Brent crude LCOc1 fell 32 cents, or 0.7%, to $42.92 a barrel by 0646 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was at $40.22 a barrel, down 33 cents, or 0.8%.

Oil was little changed last week as a resurgence of coronavirus cases prompted several U.S. states to impose tighter travel restrictions that could dampen oil demand recovery at the world’s largest consumer. [nL2N2EJ04T]

However, prices climbed more than 2% on Friday after the International Energy Agency raised its 2020 oil demand forecast by 400,000 barrels per day. [nL8N2EH1F2]

Oil prices have recovered sharply from multi-decade lows in April as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, cut output by a record 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) over May to July.

OPEC’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to recommend the next level of cuts after compliance in the group hit 107% in June, up from 77% in May. [nL8N2E72XE]

OPEC and Russia are expected to ease their supply cuts to 7.7 million bpd as global oil demand has recovered and prices have bounced back, OPEC+ sources have told Reuters.[nL8N2E75MP]

“They’ve done a good job of bringing prices as high as expected in the mid-term so they should be very careful about ruining sentiment,” Tony Nunan, a Tokyo-based senior risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp said.

Higher prices have prompted some U.S. producers to start drilling again even as the number of operating oil and natural gas rigs hit a record low for a 10th straight week.[nL1N2EH1K7]

“If you want to keep drilling down, then you’re going to have to keep prices around this level,” Nunan said.

Libya exported its first crude cargo in six months on Friday after a blockade by eastern forces, but then re-imposed force majeure on all oil exports on Sunday.

Its National Oil Corp accused the United Arab Emirates of instructing the eastern forces in Libya’s civil war to reimpose the blockade. [nL5N2EJ0H3][nL8N2EH1Y6]