AP National Business

By ALICE FUNG and DAVID RISING Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong residents are becoming increasingly annoyed with the administration’s insistence on sticking to Beijing’s zero-COVID strategy as the city posted another record number of new cases. Schools have switched to online learning and summer holidays are being moved forward so the buildings

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona House has approved a bill that penalizes businesses that refuse to do business with firearms companies by barring them from state contracts. The proposal that passed with only support from majority Republicans on Wednesday drew strong opposition from the banking industry but backing from gun groups. GOP Rep. Frank Carroll’s

By EVENS SANON Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Men wearing Haiti police uniforms have fired into a group of people and killed a journalist at a protest by Haitian factory workers who are demanding higher wages than those the prime minister announced earlier this week. Associated Press journalists observed the men fire from a

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The federal government says it won’t deliver any water to California farmers because of a severe drought. The decision will force many farmers to plant fewer crops in a region that supplies a quarter of the nation’s food. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said a severe

By FRANK BAJAK AP Technology Writer BOSTON (AP) — Ukraine’s parliament and other government and banking websites were hit with another punishing wave of distributed-denial-of-service attacks Wednesday, and cybersecurity researchers said unidentified attackers had also infected hundreds of computers with destructive malware. Some of the infected computers were in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania, the researchers

By ALEX SANZ Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The former head of the National Space Council tells The Associated Press that tensions over eastern Ukraine should not have a significant impact on the International Space Station or U.S.-Russia cooperation in space. Scott Pace served as executive secretary of the space council under President Donald Trump

MIDLAND, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has pleaded guilty to hate-crime charges relating to an attack on an Asian family at a warehouse store. In a statement, federal prosecutors say Jose Gomez III could get life imprisonment for his Wednesday guilty plea to three hate-crime counts from his March 2020 attack at a

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has extended an order preventing the two largest unions at BNSF from going on strike over a new attendance policy the railroad imposed this month. The judge ruled that a strike by the unions that represent 17,000 BNSF workers would violate federal

By COLLEEN BARRY AP Fashion Writer MILAN (AP) — The Italian fashion world has opened a Milan Fashion Week that brought the return of Russian buyers after two years and the easing of pandemic travel restrictions. An agreement with the government brokered by the Italian National Fashion Chamber allowed Russians who were vaccinated with the

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Prosecutors say an armed man who held a hostage for hours in the Apple Store in Amsterdam before he was run over by police as he chased the hostage out of the shop has died. The suspect had demanded a ransom of 200 million euros (more than $226 million) in cryptocurrencies during

By DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer NEW YORK (AP) — NBC will be happy to put the Beijing Winter Olympics in the rear-view mirror, as the event had a record low viewership for an American audience and the Olympics. The games reached an average combined audience of 11.4 million in prime time on NBC, cable

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Driving a rugged Subaru through snowy weather is a rite of passage for some New Englanders, whose region is a top market for the Japanese automaker. So it was a surprise when Massachusetts dealerships started selling Subaru’s line of 2022 vehicles without a key ingredient: in-car wireless technology that

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — The CEO of Ford Motor Co. says the automaker has no plans to spin off its electric vehicle or internal combustion businesses. But Jim Farley says Ford is reinventing itself to remove costs and ramp up for large-scale EV and software sales. Farley told the Wolfe

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Wednesday: Lowe’s Tenneco rise; CoStar Group, TJX fall.

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s losses mounted Wednesday as world leaders waited to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin orders troops deeper into Ukraine. The S&P 500 fell 1.8% to an 8-month low, worsening what is now the benchmark index’s second correction in two

By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Officials from South Florida’s higher-speed railroad, other train lines and local governments are working out plans that they hope will decrease the number of fatal collisions between locomotives, cars and pedestrians. The Federal Railroad Administration called Wednesday’s meeting as Brightline and other Florida railroads have

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The federal government says it won’t deliver any water to California farmers because of a severe drought. The decision will force many farmers to plant fewer crops in a region that supplies a quarter of the nation’s food. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said a severe

By EUGENE GARCIA Associated Press ADELANTO, Calif. (AP) — A convoy of truckers demanding an end to coronavirus mandates has begun a cross-country drive from California to the Washington, D.C., area. Several hundred people rallied Wednesday in the Mojave Desert town of Adelanto before about 20 trucks and a number of other vehicles hit the

By ALEX SANZ Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The former head of the National Space Council tells The Associated Press that tensions in eastern Ukraine – and heightened Western fears of a Russian invasion – should not have a significant impact on the International Space Station or U.S.-Russia cooperation in space. Scott Pace, who served