AP National Business

By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Newly empowered Republican lawmakers in Virginia who opposed legalizing simple possession of marijuana say they don’t want to scrap the 2021 law, but they do want to make significant changes. Republicans have drafted bills that would move up the start date for retail sales and get

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Hundreds of people have protested in Amsterdam in a #MeToo demonstration sparked by allegations of sexual impropriety linked to a popular Dutch TV talent show. Saturday’s demonstration was organized following reports of sexual harassment ranging from WhatsApp messages to an allegation of rape linked to panelists and a band leader on “The

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s president has fired the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute, which is responsible for posting official inflation statistics, among other data. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision was announced Saturday. Prices in Turkey have skyrocketed amid economic turmoil with an unstable national currency, triggered by massive interest rate cuts.  Inflation on

By MARK PRATT and MIKE CATALINI Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — More than 2 feet of snow has fallen in some areas of the northeastern U.S. amid a fierce winter storm. Wind gusts in Saturday’s nor’easter surpassed 70 mph in a few spots in Massachusetts. The wind scoured the ground bare in some places and

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some shuffling among owners has some Las Vegas Strip properties destined in coming months for rebranding, demolition, reconstruction and the addition of familiar names. Caesars Entertainment plans to rename Bally’s Las Vegas as the Horseshoe and have it host the World Series of Poker. The Tropicana Las Vegas could be demolished

By CLAUDIA TORRENS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The International Monetary Fund says that El Salvador should dissolve the $150 million trust fund it created when it made the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender and return any of those unused funds to its treasury. The recommendation was part of the international lender’s report Friday on

The Associated Press A turbulent week for markets ended with a late burst of buying Friday, breaking a three-week losing streak and giving major indexes their biggest gains of the year. The late surge for stocks followed several days of sudden moves up and down throughout the week. Markets have been jittery as investors try

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Friday: Visa, Atlassian rise; Mondelez, Western Digital fall.

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana wildlife commissioners are shutting down gray wolf hunting and trapping in areas bordering Yellowstone National Park amid criticism over 23 wolves being killed after roaming from the park in recent several months. But state commissioners rejected calls to revive longstanding quotas that in past years

HONOLULU (AP) — Federal officials say a yearling humpback whale off Maui has been freed from a life-threatening entanglement in mooring gear and a plastic trawling buoy. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says a rescue team found the whale’s tail and fins wrapped in small-gauge line with the plastic buoy floating behind. Officials say

The Associated Press Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities, and foreign exchange levels.

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s price tag for landing Intel’s new computer chipmaking factory comes in at roughly $2 billion. The state’s development director said Friday that the combination of tax breaks and incentives are likely the largest ever offered by Ohio. State officials say the deal

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has an opportunity for a reset on climate policy after a federal judge rejected an administration plan to lease millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil drilling. A judge tossed the drilling plan late Thursday, saying the Interior Department did

By KARL RITTER Associated Press STOCKHOLM (AP) — Finland’s government says the mobile devices of Finnish diplomats working abroad have been hacked with sophisticated spyware. The country’s spy chief says a “state actor” was likely to blame. The Foreign Ministry said Friday the victims were targeted through Pegasus software developed by Israeli spyware company NSO

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer A federal appeals court has upheld California’s net neutrality law, rejecting an attempt by telecom groups to prevent it from going into effect. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling, which means the status quo stays and the state can continue to enforce the law. This

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press MILAN (AP) — Government officials and diplomats from the world’s most climate-polluting nations are grappling with the issue of how to govern the vast funds being pledged to fight climate change. Italy’s climate minister, Roberto Cingolani, told The Associated Press Friday that the problem is not so much money as

ROME (AP) — An Italian lawyer for Venezuela’s former oil czar says Italy’s highest court has confirmed he can’t be extradited to face corruption charges at home because of his country’s record in violating human rights. He says the Court of Cassation Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling which recognized that Rafael Ramirez enjoys international protection

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hoping to buy a home that fits your needs and budget in the next few weeks? You might want to settle in for a long search. The inventory of homes for sale nationally dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades last month.

FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) — Some residents think a northern Alabama city’s new logo might be sending the wrong message. When Florence unveiled its new logo this week, it drew immediate backlash and an online petition demanding changes that had nearly 7,500 signatures. The logo stylizes the first three letters of its name: a capital F

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer Concern about new high-speed wireless service interfering with airplanes appears to be easing. Federal safety regulators said Friday they have cleared the way for Verizon and AT&T to turn on more 5G towers. The Federal Aviation Administration says the move is possible because the telecom companies are providing more

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Southern California officials say they’re getting ready to start critical repairs to the Queen Mary historic ship that has been a tourist attraction and hotel for decades in Long Beach harbor. The ship will be closed except for film crews until the work estimated at $5 million is completed. A

By DAVID A. LIEB and CAMILLE FASSETT Associated Press State and local governments reported more than $117 billion of revenue losses in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s according to an Associated Press analysis of newly available data. But those shortfalls proved less severe than originally feared. Many of those same governments are

DETROIT (AP) — Kia is recalling more than 410,000 vehicles in the U.S. to fix a problem that can stop the air bags from inflating in a crash. The recall covers certain Forte small cars from the 2017 and 2018 model years, and Sedona minivans and Soul small SUVs from 2017 through 2019. The electric

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican has signed a contract to sell a luxury London building that is at the heart of a fraud and embezzlement trial under way in the Vatican’s criminal tribunal. The Vatican’s economy ministry also revealed, in releasing the the Holy See’s budget for 2022, that 10%

MILAN (AP) — UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel says the Italian bank has decided not to pursue a possible takeover bid for Russian bank Otkritie due to rising tensions over Ukraine, the bank’s CEO said Friday. UniCredit had started due diligence on an offer, but Orcel said that “given the geopolitical environment, we decided to withdraw.”

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina says it has reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to refinance more than $40 billion in debt. Since 2020, Argentina has been in an arduous negotiation with the IMF to refinance the debt contracted in 2018 during the government of conservative Mauricio Macri in the midst of

VIENNA (AP) — Austria will subsidize household energy costs with a $1.9-billion relief package to offset rising prices. Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced on Friday that the package consists of both direct subsidies and tax suspensions. Almost half will be spent on suspending an “eco-tax” introduced in 2012 that amounted to about roughly 33 euros per

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of prices that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve rose 5.8% last year, the sharpest increase since 1982, as brisk consumer spending collided with snarled supply chains to raise the costs of food, furniture, appliances and other goods. The report Friday from the

LONDON (AP) — Tech giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise has won a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against a British businessmen it accused of fraud after purchasing his software company Autonomy a decade ago. The decision by the U.K.’s High Court also removes a hurdle for the potential extradition to the U.S. of Autonomy’s founder, British entrepreneur Michael Lynch.

By COLLEEN BARRY AP Business Writer MILAN (AP) — Moves by carmaker Stellantis to consolidate its position in fast-growing China seem to be off to a rocky start after one of its joint venture partners said it hadn’t been consulted before an announcement of plans to grab a controlling stake.  Stellantis, formed a year ago

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — High-stakes diplomacy continues to try to avert a war in Eastern Europe. The urgent efforts come as 100,000 Russian troops are massed near Ukraine’s border and the Biden administration worries that Russian President Vladimir Putin will mount some sort of invasion in the next several weeks.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer Caterpillar’s sales surged in the final quarter of the year despite ongoing disruptions in the global supply chain that have hit almost every sector of the economy. Sales climbed 23% to $13.8 billion, the construction machinery company said Friday, topping Wall Street expectations of $13.36 billion. Construction industry sales

BEIJING (AP) — Hong Kong’s economy grew by 6.4% last year after activity weakened as anti-coronavirus controls were tightened. Government data show economic output expanded by 4.8% over a year earlier in the three months ending in December, down from the previous quarter’s 5.5%. Growth in consumption and investment weakened. The government has tightened controls

BERLIN (AP) — Official figures show that the German economy shrank by 0.7% in last year’s fourth quarter amid a resurgence in coronavirus infections and new restrictions. The quarter-on-quarter decline reported on Friday by the Federal Statistical Office followed two quarters of solid gains that came despite persistent supply bottlenecks. Gross domestic product grew 2.8%

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — The International Labor Organization says about 1.6 million jobs were lost in Myanmar in 2021, with women suffering the biggest setbacks as work in factories, tourism and construction dwindled amid the pandemic and a military takeover. In a report issued Friday, the ILO said the country

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish low-cost fashion brand Hennes & Mauritz AB says its net sales in local currencies have increased by 8% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to $6 billion, back at pre-pandemic level, with the full year net sales increasing by 6% to $21 billion. The Stockholm-based group said its Q4 gross profit

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s AirAsia Group has changed the name of its listed holding company to Capital A to reflect the diversity of its business portfolio as it seeks to grow its non-airline revenue. Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes said the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed the group to accelerate plans to grow beyond

BERLIN (AP) — Official figures show that German exports to the U.K. dropped another 2.5% last year, the first full year of Brexit, following a huge decline in 2020 in the first stage of the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary figures Friday from the Federal Statistical Office showed that exports from Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy,

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Marcelo Claure, who joined SoftBank Group after turning around one of its key investments, office-sharing business WeWork, is leaving. Claure was long seen as a close aide to SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son, forging a partnership spanning nine years and overseeing a sprawling investment portfolio. Tokyo-based

NEW DELHI (AP) — Google plans to invest up to $1 billion in partnership with India’s Airtel for providing affordable access to smartphones to over a billion Indians and accelerating the cloud ecosystem for businesses. The two companies said on Friday the investment will especially help India’s small businesses adopt digital tools that can accelerate

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea plans to add hundreds of small neighborhood hospitals and clinics to treat the thousands more people expected to get COVID-19 during a developing omicron surge. South Korea’s daily cases reached a new high for a fourth straight day Friday. The 16,000 new infections

By SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — A Chinese language school in northern Iraq is attracting students who hope to land jobs with a growing number of Chinese companies in the oil, infrastructure, construction, and telecommunications sectors in the region. Anchored in energy, China’s interest in Iraq is expanding. Beijing is building power

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal judge won’t rein in the roundup and capture of wild horses in eastern Nevada — rejecting advocates’ claims the federal government was needlessly and recklessly killing free-roaming mustangs in violation of U.S. law. Facing a deadline for federal land managers to complete what they

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers A turbulent week for markets ended with a late burst of buying, breaking a three-week losing streak and giving major indexes their biggest gains of the year. The S&P 500 added 2.4% Friday, nearly all of it coming in the last hour of trading. That

BEIJING (AP) — The Beijing Winter Olympics is tapping into and encouraging growing interest among Chinese in skiing, skating, hockey and other previously unfamiliar winter sports. It’s also creating new business opportunities. Schools are adding winter sports to their curriculums. Parents are opening their wallets to support hockey teams and pay for skating lessons. Shopping

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Toyota says it’s working with Japan’s space agency on a vehicle to explore the lunar surface, with ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040 and eventually live on Mars. The vehicle being developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is called Lunar Cruiser,

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Alden Global Capital hedge fund is sending its own appeal to shareholders of newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises as part of its campaign to acquire the company. The New York-based hedge fund that is already one of the nation’s largest newspaper owners urged Lee shareholders

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Visa’s fiscal first-quarter profits rose 27%, as improving economies worldwide as well as more people using digital payments helped lift the company’s fortunes. The San Francisco-based company said Thursday that it earned $3.96 billion, or $1.81 a share, up from a profit of $3.13 billion,

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple shook off supply shortages that have curtailed production of iPhones and other popular devices to deliver its most profitable holiday season yet. The results announced Thursday for the final three months of 2021 help illustrate why Apple is looking even stronger at the

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Growth keeps slowing for Robinhood Markets, the upstart company that upended the brokerage industry, and its stock keeps falling. The company whose easy-to-use trading app helped bring a new generation of investors to the market said Thursday that its revenue rose 14% in the fourth

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Thursday: ServiceNow, Levi Strauss rise; Tesla, Intel fall.

By JEFF MARTIN Associated Press KENNESAW, Ga. (AP) — Family members of women in a sober living group home who were killed and injured in a fiery van crash last year are suing a car company and the group home. They say the 2002 Dodge Ram was prone to tipping over and was not properly

The Associated Press Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities, and foreign exchange levels.

By ERICA HUNZINGER AP Sports Writer It is a man’s world six months after the NCAA cleared the way for college athletes to earn money on their celebrity. Men lead the way in total name, image and likeness compensation and have more NIL activities than women. That’s according to third-party data from July 1 through

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer A new study has found that gas stoves are worse for the climate than previously thought. The study by California researchers that was published in Thursday’s journal Environmental Science & Technology found that more than 2.6 million tons of methane leaks into the air from gas stoves in the

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — The name Kim Jones dominated Paris fashion for a second week running as the indefatigable Briton who designs for Dior Men’s was back on the runway to present his latest couture collection for Fendi. Following in the steps of the late Karl Lagerfeld at the Roman

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Federal labor officials say Amazon workers have lined up enough support to vote on whether to unionize a New York City warehouse. It’s a big step forward after a setback this fall for one of the first organizing drives at the nation’s largest online retailer. The

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Pay raises for teachers, firefighters, corrections officers and other employees have been included in a revised fiscal plan that will serve as Puerto Rico’s economic blueprint criticized by some as it emerges from bankruptcy. A federal board that oversees the U.S. territory’s finances approved

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has denied a news media coalition’s request for public access to records of court-ordered community service by one of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol last year. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth says Anna Morgan-Lloyd’s community service records aren’t “judicial records” subject to

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — India and five central Asian countries have decided to set up a joint working group for providing aid to Afghanistan to tackle the humanitarian crisis and the issue of recognition of the Taliban. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hosted a virtual summit with leaders

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Medicines Agency has recommended that Pfizer’s coronavirus antiviral drug be authorized for use in the 27-nation European Union, the first time the agency has recommended a pill for treating COVID-19. In a statement on Thursday, the EU drug regulator said giving the green light to Paxlovoid, could help people infected

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Altria said Thursday that its heat-not-burn cigarette, iQOS, probably won’t be back in U.S. stores for at least a year. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes updated investors on the heated tobacco device, which is a key pillar of its plan to switch its business away from

ROME (AP) — Lawmakers and regional representatives have failed again to find consensus on a new Italian president. That’s even after the threshold for victory passed to a simple majority for the first time. The center-right abstained outright in Thursday’s fourth round of voting. It was a tactic to maintain the bloc’s unity but it

LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators have approved Facebook parent Meta’s purchase of customer service startup Kustomer, after the social network made concessions to ease concerns the deal wouldn’t squeeze out rivals. The EU Commission’s decision Thursday following an in-depth investigation clears an obstacle for the deal, which has been facing scrutiny over fears it

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press CHERAN, Mexico (AP) — Regular citizens have taken the fight against illegal logging into their own hands in the pine-covered mountains of western Mexico. Over the last decade they have seen illegal logging clear the hillsides for plantations of water hungry avocado trees; where there are avocados, the water dries

By TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press BENSON, Minn. (AP) — The headline in the little newspaper said COVID-19 numbers were spiking in the farm towns of western Minnesota. Doctors urged people to get vaccinations, the Monitor-News reported. But to some in the town of Benson, the Monitor-News was lying. It’s vaccinations that are killing people, they

By TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press BENSON, Minn. (AP) — The headline in the little newspaper said COVID-19 numbers were spiking in the farm towns of western Minnesota. Doctors urged people to get vaccinations, the Monitor-News reported. But to some in the town of Benson, the Monitor-News was lying. It’s vaccinations that are killing people, they

By MATT OTT AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week following three straight increases economists blamed on the surge in cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims fell by 30,000 to 260,000 last week, slightly less than the 265,000 analysts

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020′s brief but devastating coronavirus recession. The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of Ethiopia’s blockaded Tigray region over a four-month period last year, including more than 350 young children, a new report by the region’s health bureau says. It cites more than 5,000 blockade-related deaths in all from hunger

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says 14.5 million Americans got private health insurance for this year under the Obama-era health law, thanks to help from his administration. Biden said Thursday health care should be a right, not a privilege, and a record number of people now have coverage under

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The United States and NATO have made no concessions to the main Russian demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine. Those include giving Moscow a guarantee that its neighbor can never join the Western alliance. The focus is now on how Russia will respond. It’s a

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer DALLAS (AP) — Thanks to strong passenger traffic over the winter holidays, Southwest Airlines is reporting a $68 million profit for the fourth quarter. Southwest said Thursday it was the airline’s first profit without federal pandemic aid since late 2019. The airline is facing higher costs, however, from boosting

By BEV O’SHEA of NerdWallet Getting and maintaining good credit can feel like a long, hard journey. It’s not always easy to understand why your score changes. Start by checking your credit reports — you’re entitled to get them for free — and disputing errors if you find them. Then, avoid common mistakes like paying

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS Associated Press NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus’ energy minister says the European Union has earmarked 657 million euros ($736 million) for the construction of a 2,000-megawatt undersea electricity cable linking the power grids of Israel, Cyprus and Greece. Energy Minister Natasa Pilides told reporters on Thursday the funding is Cyprus’ largest-ever investment

By HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is pledging to tackle a rising U.S. epidemic of car fatalities. Buttigieg is pushing a broad-based government strategy released Thursday aimed at limiting the speed of cars, redesigning roads to better protect bicyclists and pedestrians and boosting car safety features such as automatic

By DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Deutsche Bank says it reaped its best annual profit in 10 years last year. Germany’s largest bank said it had put most of its wrenching, years-long restructuring behind it. The bank underlined its progress by announcing a dividend for 2021 and a 300 million-euro share

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — The finance model for the Winter Olympics calls for the host country to spend several billion dollars, the IOC to earn a couple billion, and sports bodies to share around hundreds of millions. But turning a profit from the 2022 Beijing Games was never China’s priority

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Australia’s Woodside Petroleum says it is withdrawing from projects in strife-torn Myanmar, following a similar decision by Total and Chevron. Woodside put all its Myanmar activities under review after the military took over power a year ago, deposing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

By AYA BATRAWY Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A regulatory body in Dubai is seeking to fine the Pakistani-born founder of Abraaj Group a staggering penalty of $135.5 million. The now defunct Mideast private-equity firm’s founder and CEO, currently in Britain, is accused of fraud and misleading investors, including in the U.S.

By RAF CASERT and LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union says it’s launched action against China at world trade’s governing body for discriminatory practices against Lithuania. The bloc says Beijing’s spat with the Baltic country is hitting other EU exports. Lithuania broke with diplomatic custom by agreeing that the Taiwanese office

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets are mixed as traders look ahead to data on U.S. employment costs that might influence Federal Reserve decisions on planned interest rate hikes. Tokyo and Seoul advanced while Shanghai and Hong Kong declined. Wall Street fell for a third day after the U.S.

TOKYO (AP) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have signed an agreement to participate in a next-generation nuclear energy project with TerraPower, a company started by Bill Gates. The memorandum of understanding is on cooperating in developing advanced nuclear technologies. Based in Kemmerer, Wyoming, the demonstration project will use a nontraditional,

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. says its operating profit for the last quarter rose by more than 53% from the same period last year as it continued to thrive during the pandemic while relying on its dual strength in parts and finished products.  Samsung’s operating profit of $11.6 billion for the October-December

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. Navy commander admitted in federal court in San Diego to sending a Malaysian defense contractor classified ship schedules for the Navy’s 7th Fleet in exchange for extravagant meals, luxury travel, cash and the services of prostitutes. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Commander Stephen Shedd is the third member of

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Most coronavirus restrictions, including mandatory face masks, have been lifted in England after Britain’s government said its vaccine booster rollout successfully reduced serious illness and COVID-19 hospitalizations. From Thursday, face coverings are no longer required by law anywhere in England, and a legal requirement for COVID passes