AP National Business

By MEHMET GUZEL and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ISTANBUL (AP) — Rescue crews in Istanbul and Athens have dug through snow and ice to clear roads that came to a standstill after snowstorms hit much of Turkey and Greece. The weather had left countless people and vehicles in both cities stranded overnight in freezing conditions.

By DASHA LITVINOVA and DAVID McHUGH Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — The leader of Kazakhstan has trumpeted ambitious economic reforms following the worst outburst of public unrest the country of 19 million has seen in three decades. The measures are aimed at reducing the state’s deep involvement in the economy and bridging the gap between

BERLIN (AP) — A closely watched survey shows that business confidence in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has picked up unexpectedly after a six-month slide. The Ifo institute said its monthly confidence increased to 95.7 points in January from 94.8 in December. Economists had forecast another slight dip to 94.5. The index was led higher by

MOSCOW (AP) — Widespread power outages have been reported on Tuesday in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Interfax news agency said that a significant number of the 2 million residents of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, found themselves without electricity on Tuesday. Kazakh news site Orda.kz reported that outages also occurred

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A conservation group is turning over a historic redwood grove on the Northern California coast to descendants of the original Native American inhabitants. Save the Redwoods League said it would transfer to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council a 523-acre property it recently acquired on the Lost

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mixed in muted trading, as many stayed on the sidelines ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting that will indicate how aggressive it will be in fighting inflation. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell in morning trading, while shares gained in South Korea and

SUBANG, Malaysia (AP) — New Malaysian carrier, SKS Airways, took to the skies Tuesday with short-haul flights to holiday island resorts as domestic travel rebounds after months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year. SKS launched its maiden flight from the smaller Subang airport near Kuala Lumpur to Pangkor, a northern tax-free island,

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong has expanded a partial lockdown and tightened pandemic restrictions after more than 200 cases of COVID-19 were discovered at a public housing estate. Hong Kong has maintained a similar “zero-tolerance” approach to the virus as mainland China. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said a second residential block at the

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The financial options being bruited about to punish President Vladimir Putin if Russia invades Ukraine range from the sweeping to the acutely personal. They include cutting Russia off from U.S. dollars and international banking and even slapping sanctions on Putin’s reported girlfriend. Publicly, the United States and

By THOMAS PEIPERT Associated Press DENVER (AP) — With decreasing snowpack due to drought and climate change, the ski industry has invested millions of dollars in more efficient snowmaking systems. According to the Colorado-based National Ski Areas Association, about 87% of the 337 U.S. alpine resorts the trade group represents have snowmaking capabilities. Some question

By ALAN SUDERMAN Associated Press RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A key part of President Joe Biden’s plans to fight major ransomware attacks and digital espionage campaigns has been languishing for more than eight months. Biden signed an executive order in May that would create a Cyber Safety Review Board, molded after the National Transportation Safety

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A closely watched study by an anti-corruption organization finds that most countries have made little to no progress in bringing down corruption levels over the past decade. It also says authorities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in many places has weighed on accountability. Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Nearly two dozen sailors on an Australian ship going to deliver aid to Tonga are infected with the coronavirus, raising fears they could bring COVID-19 to a nation that has managed to avoid any outbreaks. Australian officials say they’re working with Tongans to keep the ship at sea and make

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has recorded more than 8,000 new coronavirus infections for the first time as health authorities reshape the country’s pandemic response to address a surge driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. The 8,571 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota appeals court has issued a mixed opinion in a complicated case contesting one of the key permits that a St. Paul-based company needs to build what would be the state’s first copper-nickel mine. The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a decision by regulators to issue the PolyMet Mining

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials say COVID-19 antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly should no longer be used because they don’t work against the omicron variant. The Food and Drug Administration said Monday it is revoking emergency authorization for both drugs. If they prove effective against future

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Contract talks between the biggest freight railroads and unions that represent 105,000 employees are headed to mediation this week. The development comes after the unions declared an impasse following more than two years of negotiations. The unions said Monday that the contract talks had deadlocked

GENEVA (AP) — Seven environmental activists have been cleared or given suspended fines on charges of trespassing and resisting arrest for their roles in a protest against expansion of a limestone quarry in rolling Swiss countryside. The defendants dealt with Monday in the court in Nyon, north of Geneva, were the first among some 40

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer A Belarusian hacktivist group says it has launched a limited cyberattack on the national railway company, aimed at impeding the movement of Russian troops and freight inside the Moscow-allied country. The Belarusian Cyber Partisans say they disrupted online ticket sales in Monday’s attack and were working to fix that

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Monday: Opko, Freeport-McMoRan fall; Kohl’s, Unilever rise.

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

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook’s parent company Meta says it has created what it believes is among the fastest artificial intelligence supercomputers running today. It hopes it will help lay the groundwork for its building of the metaverse, a virtual reality construct intended to supplant the internet as we know it today. The company

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has issued its first clean energy loan guarantee, reviving an Obama-era program that disbursed billions of dollars in guarantees to help launch the country’s first utility-scale wind and solar farms a decade ago but has largely gone dormant in recent years. The Energy Department

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and Treasury Department launched a revamped Child Tax Credit website meant to help people who were eligible for the expanded tax credit under last year’s pandemic relief bill claim the second half of the payment they were due. The website includes a new tool

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON The Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Bahamian authorities say a cruise ship that was set to dock in Miami has remained in the Bahamas, avoiding a U.S. judge’s order to seize the vessel. Crystal Cruises last week announced  it was suspending operations through late April, canceling or cutting short itineraries for

By LEAH WILLINGHAM Associated Press ELKVIEW, W.Va. (AP) — Workers at a franchise of Tudor’s Biscuit World are hoping they will soon be members of West Virginia’s first unionized fast-food restaurant. The union drive has been led by employees in a state that has a storied history of labor activism. Prep Cook Cynthia Nicholson’s late

By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia and three states are suing Google. They allege the internet search giant deceives consumers and invades their privacy by making it nearly impossible for them to stop their location from being tracked. In the lawsuit filed in a District of Columbia court,

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Richard Davis was a bankrupt pizzeria owner when he got the idea for a bulletproof vest in 1969 Michigan. Body armor was nothing new, of course, but Davis had an inkling that he could make something lighter that could be worn, undetected, under clothes. Kevlar, he’d discover, was the

By FRANCES D’EMILIO and COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press ROME (AP) — A first round of voting to elect Italy’s next president has failed as expected amid a political impasse. Monday’s voting yielded an avalanche of blank ballots of some 1,000 special electors in Parliament as party leaders huddled to come up with a name that

By ELENA BECATOROS and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A severe snowstorm has disrupted air and road traffic in the Greek capital of Athens and in neighboring Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul. It also has blanketed most of Greece and Turkey, including several Aegean islands. The Greek government declared a holiday for

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered an investigation into a Conservative lawmaker’s claim that she was fired from a government job in part because of her Muslim faith. Former Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani says that a government whip said her “Muslimness” was “making colleagues uncomfortable” when

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — The atelier — the workshop of hands — took the Dior center stage on Monday to produce a refined show on the first day of Paris couture shows, which aim to elevate the house’s savoir-faire expertise of its seamstresses. The stars came out in droves to

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Anyone who’s bought food, paid rent or looked for a used car recently has come up against the billowing inflation that has engulfed the U.S. economy. And, with surging oil prices keeping gasoline high, so has anyone who’s filled up a car. Energy costs have

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo has tightened COVID-19 measures for people coming into the country amid a surge in coronavirus infections. The Health Ministry said Monday that if people coming into Kosovo want to avoid quarantining for a week they should have three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, or two doses plus a negative PCR

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises is asking its shareholders to help it fight off a hostile takeover offer from “vulture hedge fund” Alden Global Capital. The publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Buffalo News and dozens of other newspapers, including nearly every daily newspaper in

MADRID (AP) — The body representing Catholic bishops in Spain has acknowledged that nearly 1,000 real estate properties across the country were registered as possessions of the church despite having no proof of ownership or clearly belonging to others. The Catholic Church will now begin a process to “regularize” those properties. Dioceses and individual parishes

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A prosecutor has told a jury in an opening statement that California lawyer Michael Avenatti stole nearly $300,000 in book proceeds from porn star Stormy Daniels while a defense lawyer says it’s not true. The opposing views were offered Monday at the start of Avenatti’s third

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — With inflation punishing consumers and threatening the economy, the Federal Reserve will likely signal its intent this week to begin raising interest rates in March for the first time in three years. The Fed’s challenges will get only harder from there. Among Fed officials, there is

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization has warned that conditions remain ideal for more coronavirus variants to emerge and says it’s dangerous to assume omicron is the last one or that “we are in the endgame.” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said Monday that the acute phase

BRUSSELS (AP) — A European Union watchdog has warned that the EU faces much bigger economic and security threats unless member countries step up cooperation. The European Court of Auditors has a two-pronged clarion call. It said Monday that Europe is falling behind North America and Asia in the rollout of 5G networks and the

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says his government will remove coronavirus testing requirements for vaccinated people arriving in England. Johnson said travelers will no longer have to take tests if they have been double vaccinated. Currently, travelers who have had at least two vaccine doses must take

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Kohl’s is confirming that it has been approached about a possible sale of the department store chain, sending shares up more than 30% in early trading. The company said that it would not comment further, but its confirmation Monday follows media reports that the private

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer Activist investor Blackwells Capital is asking Peloton to remove CEO John Foley and consider selling the company just a few days after a media report said the exercise and treadmill company was temporarily halting production of its connected fitness products amid waning consumer demand. Blackwells also said Peloton should

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A spokesman says the Cypriot president has scrapped plans to grant free-of-charge, around-the-clock use of state-financed luxury vehicles to top civil servants amid a public outcry over a perceived waste of taxpayers’ money.  Government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said in a statement on Monday that President Nicos Anastasiades instructed the Finance Ministry

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer BOSTON (AP) — Ron Deibert does digital counterintelligence for the people. The internet watchdog Citizen Lab that he founded and directs  has been remarkably effective in calling to account governments and private sector firms that use information technology to imperil others. Its digital sleuths at the University of Toronto

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News says it is retooling its streaming service to better incorporate programs and personalities from the television network. The service debuts a new evening newscast on Monday, along with a series of prime-time programs that make use of work done on “60 Minutes,” “CBS

By LIZ WESTON of NerdWallet Although most people are happy in retirement, some retirees report feeling symptoms of depression. In retirement, older people can gain newfound time and hobbies, but they can also lose elements of their former life, such as social interaction and a sense of identity. These struggles could be a risk factor

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has won the first stage of his effort to overturn a U.K. ruling that opened the door for his extradition to U.S. to stand trial on espionage charges. The High Court in London gave Assange permission appeal the case to the U.K. Supreme

By ANGELA CHARLTON and SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Top-ranked player Novak Djokovic could be allowed to defend his French Open title under the latest COVID-19 rules adopted Monday by the French government, even if he is still not vaccinated when the clay-court Grand Slam starts in May. Djokovic was barred from playing

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea will expand rapid testing and shorten quarantines as it reshapes its pandemic response to deal with a faster-than-expected surge in coronavirus infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. The number of new infections exceeded 7,000 for a third straight day and was

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Friday will never be the same in Dubai. The Middle East’s financial hub has shifted its weekend this year from Friday and Saturday to the Western-style Saturday and Sunday along with the rest of the United Arab Emirates. That has thrown Dubai’s beloved institution

The Federal Reserve meets on interest-rate policy and announces its decision on Wednesday. The Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation gives its latest monthly update on Friday. Earnings season accelerates with Apple’s latest quarterly results. 

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares have fallen following a volatile day on Wall Street. Inflation-fighting measures from the Federal Reserve and the possibility of conflict between Russia and Ukraine are overhanging markets. Benchmarks fell across the region. A late-day buying spree pushed the benchmark S&P 500 index to a

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The nation’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is poised to emerge from five years of criminal probation amid worries that it remains too dangerous to be trusted. Over the last five years, the utility became an even more destructive force. More than 100 people

By KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities are testing some 2 million residents of Beijing after a series of virus cases prompted concerns two weeks ahead of the opening of the Winter Olympics. The new measures in Beijing came as the city of Xi’an lifted a monthlong lockdown on its 13 million

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has lost control of his Chinese-owned social media platform WeChat account and a lawmaker has accused China’s leaders of political interference. Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday that Morrison’s 76,000 WeChat followers were notified his page had been renamed

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — It was a fashion history-making moment in Paris for Kenzo as it unveiled the debut for its first Japanese designer since house-founder Kenzo Takada. Nigo, 51, is only the second Asian designer at the head of a European high fashion label, alongside Bally’s Filipino-American Rhuigi Villaseñor.

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline is up a penny over the past two weeks, to $3.40 per gallon. Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey says Sunday that prices at the pump could continue to rise because crude oil costs have increased. The average gas price is 95

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) — A record number of visitors flocked to Yellowstone National Park last year despite fewer hotel rooms and campsites being available because of the coronavirus pandemic and construction projects. Just over 4.86 million visits were tallied in 2021, breaking the prior record set in 2016. Known worldwide for its wildlife

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer After spending one weekend in second place, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” proved it still had some fight left. Sony’s superhero juggernaut swung back to first place in its sixth weekend in theaters and became the sixth highest grossing film of all time, globally. Studio estimates on Sunday say the

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has banned the flying of drones in the country for recreation after Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed a fatal drone attack on an oil facility and major airport in the country. As of Saturday, drone hobbyists and other operators of light electric sports aircraft face “legal

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The porn star who catapulted Michael Avenatti to fame four years ago will get a starring role in a New York courtroom when prosecutors try to prove the California lawyer cheated her of $300,000 in book proceeds. Stormy Daniels is the key witness in Manhattan federal

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. taxpayers, brace yourselves because tax filing season starts Monday and you can expect the task to be more cumbersome than usual this year. That’s due to an overloaded and understaffed IRS workforce, as well as complications from pandemic-related programs. White House press secretary Jen Psaki says

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Cabinet has approved the launch of a state investigation into the purchase of submarines and other warships from Germany, a case that has embroiled close confidants of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sunday’s decision opens a top-level probe into a graft scandal surrounding a deal to purchase $2 billion of naval

MADRID (AP) — Farmers, cattle-breeders, hunters and opposition supporters have descended on Spain’s capital of Madrid to protest environmental and economic policies by Spain’s left-of-center government that they say are hurting rural communities. Sunday’s protest was organized by Alma Rural 2021, which represents more than 500 rural organizations from all over Spain. Opposition supporters from

By DAVID KEYTON Associated Press OSLO, Norway (AP) — Three days of talks between a Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Norwegian government and several allied countries have started in Oslo amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The closed-door meetings that began Sunday have reignited a debate over whether

By JIM HEINTZ and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry has rejected a British claim that Russia is seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is being considered as a potential candidate.  Britain’s Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press MAJDAN, Serbia (AP) — Hungary’s nationalist leader is keen to use the threat of migrants at his country’s southern border to give him an advantage in the upcoming general election. But the scale of migration pressure claimed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban is drawn into question by statistics from neighboring

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s plan to favor its own state-owned electrical power plants and limit energy sales by private, foreign-built projects could affect U.S. investment in Mexico, officials said during bilateral talks this week. According to statements issued Friday, the U.S. government has “real concerns with the potential negative impact” on U.S. firms and

By THOMAS ADAMSON AP Fashion Writer PARIS (AP) — Veteran menswear designer Veronique Nichanian delivered an atypical glam rock twist to her luxuriant wares for the Hermes collection shown at Paris Fashion Week. Nichanian has been at the helm of Hermes for an incredible 34 years and is an expert at letting the clothes do

HELSINKI (AP) — Thousands of people have gathered in European capitals to protest vaccine passports and other requirements their governments have imposed in hopes of ending the coronavirus pandemic. Demonstrations took place in Athens, Helsinki, London, Paris and Stockholm on Saturday. In Paris, demonstrators protested the introduction of a new COVID-19 pass starting Monday. The

By DIANE JEANTET Associated Press CABO FRIO, Brazil (AP) — In April, Brazil’s federal police busted two men and a woman loading a chopper with 7 million reais — $1.3 million — in neatly packed bills. The detainees told police they worked for G.A.S. Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former

By DIANE JEANTET Associated Press CABO FRIO, Brazil (AP) — In April, Brazil’s federal police busted two men and a woman loading a chopper with 7 million reais — $1.3 million — in neatly packed bills. The detainees told police they worked for G.A.S. Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former

By JILL LAWLESS and JARI TANNER Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government on Saturday accused Russia of seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration, and said former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is being considered as a potential candidate. Murayev is head of the small pro-Russian party Nashi, which currently has no

NEW YORK (AP) — Weber picked the wrong day to suggest grilling meatloaf. The Illinois-based outdoor grill company apologized on Friday for sending a recipe-of-the-week email earlier that day featuring instructions on how to prepare “BBQ Meat Loaf.” The email coincided with news of the death of Marvin Lee Aday, best known as rock superstar

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An official says the man fatally shot by police officers at the San Francisco International Airport was carrying two toy replica guns. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, who initially took over the investigation because the airport is in his county, told The San Francisco Chronicle Friday that the man

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — New York sportsbooks took more than $600 million worth of bets from phones or computers in the first two weeks of the activity being legal this month. Figures posted Friday by the New York State Gaming Commission show the four currently operating mobile books —

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Friday: Netflix, SunPower fall; Peloton, Bank OZK rise.

The Associated Press Stocks fell for a fourth straight day on Wall Street Friday, and the S&P 500 finished its worst week since March 2020, when the onset of the pandemic in the U.S. sparked a bear market. All of the sectors in the S&P 500 fell except consumer staples. A big drop in Netflix

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

By DAVID EGGERT and TOM KRISHER Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — General Motors is poised to announce next week major electric vehicle investments in Michigan. It plans to spend $6.5 billion and create up to 4,000 new jobs at two plants in the state. According to a meeting agenda, Michigan’s economic development board is

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is blocking some flights by Chinese airlines in retaliation for China canceling more than a dozen flights there by American carriers. The U.S. Transportation Department issued an order Friday to block 44 flights by four different Chinese airlines. The move is a response to China recently canceling flights by

By JAMES ANDERSON Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Colorado, the U.S. government and a gold mining company have agreed to resolve a longstanding dispute over who’s responsible for cleanup at a Superfund site that was established after a massive 2015 spill of hazardous mine waste. The spill in southwestern Colorado fouled rivers with a sickly

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press The Biden administration has announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math. It’s part of the broader effort to make the U.S. economy more competitive. Senior Biden administration officials say the State Department will let eligible visiting students in those fields complete up to

In a story published Dec. 9, 2021, and in prior stories on the same topic, The Associated Press erroneously reported that a Starbucks store in Buffalo was the first to unionize in the company’s history. The United Food and Commercial Workers union represented workers at six stores in the Seattle area for several years in

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida man who helped Rudy Giuliani seek damaging information against Joe Biden in Ukraine has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $10,000 in an unrelated campaign finance case. Igor Fruman pleaded guilty in September to charges that he solicited

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Federal prosecutors in New Jersey say the operator of a failed multi-state nursing home chain failed to pay $29.5 million in payroll and unemployment taxes for his employees at 95 facilities he operated in 11 states. Authorities arrested Joseph Schwartz of Suffern, New York, on Thursday and charged him with willful

By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — “Saturday Night Live” comics Colin Jost and Pete Davidson have purchased a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat with plans to turn it into New York’s hottest club. Jost and Davidson teamed up with comedy club owner Paul Italia on Wednesday’s winning for $280,100 bid for the

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. judge in Texas has issued a nationwide injunction barring the federal government from enforcing President Joe Biden’s requirement that federal workers without qualifying medical or religious exemptions be vaccinated for COVID-19. Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled Friday that opponents of Biden’s vaccination mandate for federal employees were likely to succeed at

By ROB GILLIES and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Haiti’s spiraling insecurity and growing concerns about its ability to hold general elections following the killing of President Jovenel Moïse prompted two dozen international senior officials to meet amid a pressing need to take action. Canada hosted the more than three-hour-long meeting Friday with

By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has taken a new step toward reining in the market dominance of Big Tech. Bipartisan legislation advanced by a Senate panel would bar the dominant online platforms from favoring their own goods and services over those of rivals on the platforms. It could, for example,

By JOVANA GEC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The United States, the U.K. and Germany have rejected allegations that the three countries financed protests that have shaken the Balkan nation’s populist government. The embassies of the allied countries issued a joint statement on Friday that described the accusations as “damaging.” The statement came a

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) — General Motors says it will spend about $154 million to revamp an old factory near Buffalo, New York, so it can make a key part for electric vehicle motors. The automaker says it will add about 230 jobs in Lockport, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Buffalo. The plant will

GENEVA (AP) — Government and business leaders have urged global cooperation on climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic recovery at the World Economic Forum’s virtual gathering this week. Speeches and discussions from the likes of Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres moved online after COVID-19 concerns delayed the group’s annual

By EVA VERGARA Associated Press SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s  leftist President-elect Gabriel Boric has announced his first cabinet, giving a majority of posts to women and several to former student protest leaders. He’s also reassuring markets by naming the Central Bank chief as finance minister — a move that caused Chilean stocks and the

BY DREW COSTLEY AP Science Writer Los Angeles, the second most populous U.S. city, is weighing whether to ban new oil and gas drilling and phase out hundreds of existing wells. The city council is expected to vote on a measure that would shut down oil and gas fields in the city after a decade

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Business Writers Candy maker Mars is giving a makeover to its six M&M’s characters as a way to promote inclusivity. The company said that it will provide a modern take on the appearances of the characters _ which Mars calls “lentils” _ and give them more nuanced personalities.