AP National Business

By ZEKE MILLER and KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials’ decision to shorten the recommended COVID-19 isolation and quarantine period from 10 days to five is drawing criticism from some medical experts and could create confusion among many Americans. The move has raised questions about how the guidance was crafted and

BRUSSELS (AP) — An advisory body in Belgium has suspended a government-ordered closure of part of the cultural sector. The Council of State said Tuesday that new coronavirus restrictions imposed on theaters are unreasonable. Movie houses, concert halls and art centers were ordered to shut their doors under restrictions that entered force over the weekend.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The leader of Poland’s main opposition party is calling for the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate surveillance after reports that powerful spyware was used against three people associated with the political opposition. Donald Tusk called the surveillance “an unprecedented thing in our history” and said it represented “the biggest

MIAMI (AP) — Federal regulators say the owner of a Miami-based payday loan company bilked hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars and repaid others with money he acquired from a Ponzi scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission says in a complaint filed in September that Efrain Betancourt Jr. and Sky Group USA committed

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The jury weighing fraud charges against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes left the court Tuesday without reaching a verdict after a fifth day of deliberations. Holmes is facing 11 criminal charges alleging that she duped investors and patients by hailing her company’s blood-testing technology

By ARITZ PARRA Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spain’s left-wing ruling coalition is securing its hold on power with the approval of a landmark labor reform and a new national spending plan for next year that includes a hefty disbursement of pandemic recovery funds. An array of left-leaning and regionalist lawmakers have given the final

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices surged again in October as the housing market continues to boom in the wake of last year’s coronavirus recession. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, out Tuesday, climbed 18.4% in October from a year earlier. The gain marked a slight decleration

By KELSEY SHEEHY of NerdWallet Some cities and states are targeting remote workers as a way to boost the local tax base and combat decades of brain drain. To get out-of-staters to relocate and live and work from a new city, these locales are shelling out $10,000 or more — or other benefits. For instance,

BEIJING (AP) — Advertisements featuring some Chinese models have sparked feuding in China over whether their appearance and makeup are perpetuating Asian stereotypes. German automaker Mercedes-Benz and a Chinese snack company are the latest to get caught up in the fray. Some Chinese consumers complained after the local snack brand Three Squirrels featured advertisements on

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s prime minister says talks with the International Monetary Fund are inching closer to a “final formula” for a draft deal before the end of February. The Lebanese government has not been able to meet since mid-October after the militant Hezbollah group and its allies demanded the

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mostly lower amid lingering worries about the omicron coronavirus variant’s potential to damage the regional economy and mixed cues from Wall Street. Benchmarks fell in Japan, South Korea and China, while the index jumped in Australia. Although reported infection cases from the omicron

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Riot Games, the publisher behind esports giant “League of Legends,” agreed to pay $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging pay disparity, gender discrimination and sexual harassment. The suit was filed in November 2018 after gaming website Kotaku published a story detailing a sexist culture at Los Angeles-based Riot Games

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — China’s ruling Communist Party is pressing entrepreneurs to make the country a “technology superpower” that doesn’t need the United States or other foreign suppliers. The aim is to develop Chinese creators of computer, energy, medical and other technologies that can generate wealth and global influence. That

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea says it has opened a key political conference to review past projects and discuss new policies amid the pandemic and a diplomatic deadlock with the United States. The official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that leader Kim Jong Un presided over a

The Associated Press Wall Street made steady gains Monday, enough to mark another record high for the S&P 500 index. Trading was muted as investors returned from the Christmas holiday and several overseas markets remained closed. The S&P 500 climbed 1.4%, led by more gains in big technology companies like Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. Energy

By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials are cutting isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who test positive for the coronavirus and shortening the time that close contacts have to quarantine. People with the virus can leave isolation after five days, down from 10 days. People exposed to the virus

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — The wingtip of a plane loaded with passengers clipped the auxiliary power unit of a parked empty aircraft nearby as it pushed back from the gate at a small Florida airport. Both planes at Punta Gorda Airport are owned by Allegiant Air, which said there were no injuries as the

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Monday: United Airlines, Las Vegas Sands fall, GoDaddy, AMD rise

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

PARIS (AP) — The French government has announced new COVID-19 measures in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. But authorities stopped short Monday of imposing drastic restrictions before New Year’s Eve. Big events will be limited to 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 people outdoors starting from next week. People will be requested

HONOLULU (AP) — Billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has purchased more land in Hawaii, including most of a reservoir that unleashed a deadly flood 15 years ago. Property records show Zuckerberg’s Kaloko LLC bought the parcel on Kauai last month for $17 million. The purchase includes most of a reservoir that flooded in 2006, killing

By COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — A truck driver sentenced to 110 years for an explosive crash that killed four people in suburban Denver has moved a step closer to potentially having his prison term reduced. Judge Bruce Jones on Monday scheduled a hearing for Jan. 13 to reconsider Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence,

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Belarus’ authorities have released a draft document proposing amendments to the country’s constitution that may allow authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to further cement his grip on power after months of mass protests and remain in office until 2035. The proposed amendments are published on the president’s

By TALI ARBEL AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Flight cancellations that disrupted holiday travel stretched into Monday. Staffers calling out sick because of COVID-19 have left airlines short in recent days. Airline tracker FlightAware says airlines have canceled more than 4,000 flights to, from or inside the U.S. since Friday, with over 1,000

By LOUISE DIXON Associated Press LONDON (AP) — English sparkling wine has been winning respect and an audience in recent years. Globally, English sparkling wines still make up a tiny part of the market but sales are growing. English sparkling wine uses the same three grapes as Champagne and the same production method. The vines

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Few people had heard of Engine No. 1 until this year, when it shocked corporate America by pushing Exxon Mobil to revamp its board of directors, in part to focus more on clean energy. Now it’s bringing its approach of active ownership to the world

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — U.S. auto safety regulators have stepped up a series of investigations into multiple engine fires that have plagued Hyundai and Kia vehicles for more than six years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a new engineering analysis investigation covers more than 3 million vehicles from

By HOLDEN LEWIS of NerdWallet IBuyers are one of the few true innovations to hit the real estate industry in recent years. Yet consumers haven’t fully embraced them because of misconceptions about how iBuyers work, and what types of problems they resolve for sellers and buyers. There is little evidence that iBuyers lowball sellers, they

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president says he has decided to veto a media bill that would have forced U.S. company Discovery to give up its controlling share of Polish television network TVN. President Andrzej Duda noted Monday that the bill was unpopular with many Poles and would have dealt

By MEHMET GUZEL Associated Press EDIRNE, Turkey (AP) — Bulgarian shoppers are crossing Turkey’s western border in packed cars and buses, taking advantage of a declining Turkish lira to fuel their own shopping sprees. Their first stop is the currency exchange and then it’s off to the markets and grocery stores in the northwestern city

BEIJING (AP) — Delta Air Lines says new pandemic-related cleaning requirements at a Shanghai airport were behind the turning back of a recent flight from Seattle in midair. The move prompted a protest from the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. An emailed statement from Delta says the new mandates at Shanghai Pudong International Airport require

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The jury weighing fraud charges against former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes completed a fourth day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict. Holmes is facing 11 criminal charges alleging that she duped investors and patients by hailing her company’s blood-testing technology as a medical

The Associated Press S&P issues its latest monthly CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index Tuesday. The Commerce Department reports its November snapshot of U.S. wholesale inventories Wednesday. The Labor Department delivers its weekly tally of applications for unemployment benefits Thursday.

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The metrics are ugly for many television, digital and print news organizations: after record-setting engagement numbers in 2020, many people are cutting back on news consumption. To a large degree, that was predictable with the presidential election, pandemic and racial reckoning providing constant headlines the

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares are mixed at the outset of the last trading week of the year as countries grapple with the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant. Many markets were closed for holidays. Benchmarks rose in Shanghai and Bangkok on Monday but fell in Tokyo and Seoul.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Nancy Keating, matriarch of a large family with deep and philanthropic ties to the Cincinnati area, has died at age 94. Her son Mike Keating said in a email that she died peacefully at her home Friday. Keating was the wife of the late William J. Keating. He served in Congress in

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer Even with some mighty competition from new Matrix and Sing movies and rising concerns over the omicron variant, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” stayed in the No. 1 spot, with $81.5 million according to studio estimates Sunday. It also became 2021’s top-grossing film and crossed the $1 billion mark globally

By BRYAN GALLION and PAUL WISEMAN Associated Press NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The latest COVID-19 variant is upending holiday plans for tens of thousands of travelers — but it didn’t do much damage to holiday shopping. Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Sunday, citing staffing problems tied to COVID-19, as the nation’s travel woes extended beyond

By PAUL WISEMAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Business Writers Holiday sales rose at the fastest pace in 17 years, even as shoppers grappled with higher prices, product shortages and a raging new COVID-19 variant in the last few weeks of the season, according to one spending measure. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks all kinds of payments

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian artists and event organizers have joined together to protest the government’s decision to close down most concerts, cinemas and theaters to stem the spread of the surging omicron variant. The culture industry feels unfairly targeted by the new measures, which were announced Wednesday and took effect on Sunday. Events like Christmas

By STEVE LeBLANC Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 can apply for reimbursement from the federal government for up to $9,000 to cover the cost of funeral expenses. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent nearly $1.5 billion on funeral reimbursements since Jan. 20, 2020, the date of

By TOM MURPHY AP Health Writer Newly infected COVID-19 patients have two new treatment options that can be taken at home. But that convenience comes with a catch: The pills have to be taken as soon as possible once symptoms appear. The challenge is getting tested, getting a prescription and starting the pills within five

By TALI ARBEL AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Saturday because of staffing issues tied to COVID-19, disrupting holiday celebrations during one of the busiest travel times of the year. Flight-tracking website FlightAware notes nearly 1,000 flights entering, leaving or inside the U.S. were canceled Saturday, up from 690

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Thousands of people across England are spending a few minutes of Christmas Day to line up under leaden winter skies to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as the omicron variant fuels a surge in infections across the country. The Good Health Pharmacy in north London is one of

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two servers at an Albuquerque restaurant got a big surprise when a group of business owners left a $5,555 tip. It was the idea of Battle Tested Business, a local entrepreneurship and leadership organization. Founder Ramon Casaus told KOB-TV that he and his colleagues look for ways to invest back into

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Michael Avenatti say there is a strong likelihood that the once high-flying California attorney will testify at a New York trial where he is accused of swindling porn star Stormy Daniels out of a book deal’s proceeds. The lawyers mentioned the subject of his

FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — About 100 homes have been evacuated in the San Francisco Bay Area after a fuel tanker overturned and leaked gasoline. Photos from the scene in Fremont, California, on Friday show the tanker upside-down and appearing to have crashed into a wall along Interstate 680. The Fremont Fire Department says the freeway’s

By ANDREW MELDRUM Associated Press JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African Cabinet minister is urging the cancellation of an upcoming U.S. auction of a key to the Robben Island prison cell where Nelson Mandela, the country’s first Black president, was long jailed for his opposition to apartheid. The key is among Mandela memorabilia being sold

By ALEXANDER VERSHININ Associated Press ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Russia has doubled the purchases of natural gas from Turkmenistan this year amid rising global demand. Ambassador Alexander Blokhin said Friday that Russia this year stands to import about 10 billion cubic meters (353 billion cubic feet) of gas from Turkmenistan, nearly twice the amount imported

By MORGAN LEE Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — An author known as the father of Chicano literature has left behind a bilingual children’s tale after his 2020 death. The book from Rudolfo Anaya about Christmas in the American Southwest is being published posthumously this year, extending a cycle of illustrated children’s books with

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Jan. 7 on whether the Biden administration can order that workers at private companies and health care employees be vaccinated for COVID-19. Until the court rules, millions of workers face a patchwork of requirements depending on where they live. For

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus’ move to open up its power generation market and boost the share of renewable sources in its energy mix will face its first big test next year when the European Union’s executive arm assesses the project. Cypriot lawmakers in October approved a law that aimed to decouple the power grid

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Two antiviral pills are the latest additions to the handful of therapies to treat COVID-19 in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the drugs from Merck and Pfizer as the first treatments that patients can take at home to treat mild-to-moderate symptoms. The drugs

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will lift travel restrictions on eight southern African countries that it imposed to try to blunt the spread of the COVID omicron variant. The White House says the temporary travel bans bought scientists necessary time to study the new virus variant first discovered in South

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey has frozen the assets of 770 Turkish nationals and a Chicago-based foundation it accuses of having links to terror groups. A list published Friday in the country’s official gazette includes 454 people with alleged links to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the United States. The Turkish government accuses Gulen

By ULIANA PAVLOVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court has fined Google nearly $100 million and Facebook’s parent company Meta $27 million over their failure to delete content banned by local law. The Tagansky District Court ruled on Friday that Google repeatedly neglected to remove the banned content, and ordered the company to

By DAVID McHUGH and TALI ARBEL Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Airlines are canceling hundreds of flights as the omicron variant jumbled schedules and drew down staffing levels at some carriers during the busy holiday travel season. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines together canceled more than 600 flights on Friday and Saturday, while

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Central Group and Signa of Austria have confirmed plans to buy luxury British department store chain Selfridges. The deal, reportedly worth 4 billion pounds ($5.4 billion), adds to Central and Signa’s collection of posh retailers that includes Rinascente in Italy, Illum in Denmark, Switzerland’s Globus and The KaDeWe Group in Germany

PARIS (AP) — Protesters angry over virus and vaccine rules have occupied Guadeloupe’s regional legislature because of stalled negotiations over their grievances about management of the French Caribbean island. Officials in Guadeloupe and Paris denounced Thursday’s incursion as unacceptable and a threat to the democratically elected Regional Council. Officials posted images online that showed a

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Cabinet has approved a record 5.4 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget for fiscal 2022 that includes funding for research and development of a new fighter jet and other “game-changing” weapons as Japan bolsters its defense capabilities in response to China’s growing military might and its

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese government has denounced a U.S. law that restricts imports from Xinjiang as a violation of international law and dismissed complaints of abuses against mostly Muslim minorities in the region as lies. President Joe Biden signed the measure amid mounting tension including appeals by activists for a boycott of February’s Winter

By PHILIP MARCELO, ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The surge in coronavirus cases driven by the new omicron variant is the latest blow to hospitals, police departments, supermarkets and other critical operations struggling to maintain staffing levels. COVID-19 absences among workers at London hospitals tripled this month, and nearly

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — As 2021 comes to a close, many people in richer parts of the globe are fretting over the risk of contracting COVID-19 and how rising infections are upending their holiday plans. In Zimbabwe and much of Africa, the virus’s resurgence at a time of year that

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks were mixed in quiet trading on Friday, with many markets closed or ending early in observance of Christmas. Stocks slipped in Paris and Tokyo, inched higher in Seoul and Hong Kong and were nearly unchanged in London. Financial markets took the day off in

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police have fatally shot a 14-year-old girl who was inside a clothing store dressing room as they fired at a suspect who had assaulted a woman earlier. Police also killed the male suspect on Thursday. The woman who had been assaulted was taken to

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has signed a bill into law to block imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove the items were made without using forced labor. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is the latest in a series of intensifying U.S. penalties against China for

By JAMES ANDERSON and MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — The man known as the “Unabomber” has been transferred to a federal prison medical facility in North Carolina after spending the past two decades in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado for a series of bombings that targeted scientists. A U.S. Bureau of Prisons

The Associated Press Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Thursday, leaving major indexes with solid gains in this holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 closed at another record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq rose. Technology companies and retailers did especially well, while safe-play sectors like real estate and utilities lagged behind. 

Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Thursday: Scientific Games, Stitch Fix rise; Crocs, Quidel fall.

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

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — Under pressure from U.S. auto safety regulators, Tesla has agreed to stop allowing video games to be played on center touch screens while its vehicles are moving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the company will send out a software update over the Internet so

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Attorneys for an oil and gas company are asking a federal judge to reinstate a drilling lease on federal land considered sacred to Native American tribes in the U.S. and Canada. The energy lease in the Badger-Two Medicine area near the Blackfeet Reservation in northwestern Montana

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is meeting to consider an emergency order the mayor wants to tackle an opioid epidemic in its troubled Tenderloin district. The emergency order is part of Mayor London Breed’s plan to crack down on drug use and drug dealing in

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The last three months have been very dry in New Mexico and it’s going to get worse. That’s the word from forecasters with the National Weather Service and other climate experts in the state. They said during a meeting this week that New Mexico reservoirs

Associated Press Wall Street delivered another strong year in 2021, as a spike in consumer demand fueled by the reopening of the global economy pumped up corporate profits. Investors faced plenty of challenges, however, most notably a resurgence of inflation and the persistent coronavirus pandemic. Retail investors made their presence felt by boosting GameStop and

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon, under pressure to improve worker rights, has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board to allow its workers to organize freely and without retaliation. According to the agreement, the online behemoth said it would reach out to both current and former warehouse

By JIM MUSTIAN, JEFFREY COLLINS and CANDICE CHOI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden promised to distribute hundreds of millions of free COVID-19 tests and to open more testing sites, but the stepped-up efforts will not come in time for the holidays. Americans have been searching drugstores for scarce home tests or

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Fears about the economic fallout from the omicron variant pushed long-term U.S. mortgage rates lower this week. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark, 30-year home loan dipped to 3.05% this week from 3.12% last week. A year ago, the

Associated Press Wall Street delivered another strong year in 2021, as a spike in consumer demand fueled by the reopening of the global economy pumped up corporate profits. Investors faced plenty of challenges, however, most notably a resurgence of inflation and the persistent coronavirus pandemic. Retail investors made their presence felt by boosting GameStop and

By VANESSA GERA and FRANK BAJAK Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Security researchers say they’ve confirmed that a third Polish opposition figure had his phone hacked with sophisticated spyware from Israeli company NSO Group. The senator was hacked nearly three dozen times using NSO’s Pegasus spyware when he was running the opposition’s campaign against

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Wrkiter WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new single-family homes rose 12.4% in November, the fastest pace in seven months, with low mortgage rates continuing to fuel heightened demand. The November increase pushed the seasonally adjusted annual sales pace to 744,000 last month, the best showing since reaching 796,000 in April.

By MATTHEW PERRONE AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators have authorized a second pill against COVID-19, an antiviral drug from Merck that may help blunt the wave of infections driven by the omicron variant. The Food and Drug Administration granted the drug emergency use Thursday for adults with early COVID-19 who face the

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Wrkter WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices rose 5.7% over the past year, the fastest pace in 39 years as a surge in inflation battered Americans as the holiday shopping season was getting under way. The November increase, reported Thursday by the Commerce Department, followed a 5.1% rise for the

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s prime minister has apologized for a large leak of personal records from a government database of state and private employees, which he said seems more like an inside job than a cyber attack. A file containing the personal identity card numbers, employment and salary data of some 637,000 people became

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s state-run agency says a joint Turkish and Qatari delegation is traveling to Afghanistan to discuss plans for their two countries’ companies to run Kabul’s international airport in a partnership. Anadolu Agency said officials from Turkey and Qatar met in Doha this week to coordinate details of the plan and were

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week, remaining at a historically low level that reflects the job market’s strong recovery from the coronavirus recession last year. Jobless claims were unchanged from the week before at 205,000. The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week ups

By LAURA UNGAR and TALI ARBEL Associated Press For the second year in a row, the ever-morphing coronavirus presents would-be holiday revelers with a difficult choice: cancel their trips and celebrations yet again or figure out how to forge ahead as safely as possible. Many health experts are begging people not to let down their

BAYTOWN, Texas (AP) — Crews have extinguished a large fire at a Houston-area refinery that left four people injured. The fire started at about 1 a.m. Thursday at ExxonMobil’s refinery in Baytown, which is about 25 miles east of Houston. The company says four people were hurt but everyone else on site has been accounted

By HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is announcing more than $241 million in grants to bolster U.S ports. It’s part of President Joe Biden’s near-term plan to address America’s clogged supply chain with infrastructure improvements to speed the flow of goods. The transportation money is being made available immediately

By MATT O’BRIEN and CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Computers have become amazingly precise at translating spoken words to text messages and scouring huge troves of data for answers to complex questions – as long as you speak English or another of the world’s dominant languages. Try talking to your phone in

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Jurors in the fraud trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes returned to the courtroom Thursday to listen to a replay of audio recordings that captured her brash promises about a vaunted blood-testing technology the propelled her meteoric rise and scandalous downfall.  In those

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Intel Corp. has apologized for asking suppliers to avoid sourcing goods from Xinjiang after the chipmaker became the latest foreign brand attacked by state media over the region where authorities are accused of widespread abuses. The company, in a statement on its social media account, said

By MATT O’BRIEN and FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writers Robotic vacuum cleaners wouldn’t start. Doorbell cameras stopped watching for package thieves, though some of those deliveries were canceled anyway. Netflix and Disney movies got interrupted and The Associated Press had trouble publishing the news. A major outage in Amazon’s cloud computing network on Dec. 7

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets have risen after Wall Street hit a new high as fears of the coronavirus’s omicron variant eased. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Shanghai declined. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.6% on Thursday in the last U.S. trading session before Christmas.

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The globalized city-state of Dubai appears to be in the midst of a boom season. It’s a surge in growth spurred on by one of the world’s highest vaccination rates and government moves to de-escalate tensions with regional rivals and lure foreign businesses. Maskless

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, FELICIA FONSECA and BECKY BOHRER Associated Press WARM SPRINGS, Ore. (AP) — The massive infrastructure bill signed earlier this year promises to bring change to Native American tribes that lack clean water or indoor plumbing through the largest single infusion of money into Indian Country. It includes $3.5 billion for the federal

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors say a Chicago banker should spend at least four years in prison after he was convicted of delivering $16 million in loans to Paul Manafort in a bid for power in the administration of ex-President Donald Trump. Stephen Calk is set to be sentenced Feb.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Foxconn Technology Group has qualified for nearly $30 million in Wisconsin tax credits. That marks the first time the Taiwan-based electronics giant has secured state aid since breaking ground on its Wisconsin facility in 2018. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation on Wednesday verified that Foxconn met job creation and investment benchmarks

The Associated Press Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Wednesday, adding to the week’s gains ahead of the Christmas holiday. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose. Technology companies and a mix of retailers led the gains. Major indexes are still on track for weekly gains after a rally on