AP National Business

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks and Wall Street futures have advanced after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said U.S. interest rates might be raised earlier than planned. London and Frankfurt opened higher. Shanghai and Tokyo also advanced. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.9% after Powell said policy

MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakh authorities say they detained 1,678 more people in the past 24 hours over their alleged participation in the unrest that rocked the former Soviet nation last week. It was the worst violence since Kazakhstan gained independence three decades ago. The additional detentions announced Wednesday brought the total number of arrests to

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman says that any European country should have the right to join NATO if it wants to, despite Russia’s insistence that the military organization stop inviting new members in, particularly Ukraine. Sherman says she told NATO partners and Russia Wednesday that

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press MUREHWA, Zimbabwe (AP) — The number of pregnancies among girls and teenagers in Zimbabwe rose dramatically during the pandemic. Zimbabwe has long struggled with such pregnancies and child marriages because of lax enforcement of laws, poverty, and cultural and religious practices. But COVID-19 intensified the situation. The country of 15

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese minister assigned the task of containing COVID-19 while steering the world’s third largest economy toward growth says Japan must learn to coexist with the coronavirus. Daishiro Yamagiwa said Wednesday he is confident he can carry out that precarious “balancing act.” Japan had managed to

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democrats have taken their first step toward creating a universal health care system. A legislative committee in the state Assembly advanced a bill on Tuesday that would replace California’s private insurance market with a plan paid for by the government. But the proposal is still

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street higher after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said U.S. interest rates might be raised earlier than planned. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Oil prices edged higher. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.9% after Powell said

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer China is blocking more than a dozen U.S. airline flights to the country because some passengers on recent flights tested positive for COVID-19. The move is the latest development in a dispute between the two countries over international flights and rules designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

By SOPHIA TAREEN and KATHLEEN FOODY Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago schools will offer more COVID-19 testing and have standards to close school related to infection rates, but the cost of a bitter union battle and five days of missed schools has parents and union members questioning if it was worth it. The Chicago

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A northeast Arkansas site has been chosen for a $3 billion steel mill that’s expected to employ at least 900 people. Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. on Tuesday said it has chosen Osceola for the site of its new facility. Construction is expected to begin early this year and be

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Seven years after purchasing San Diego’s Saint Archer Brewery, Molson Coors has discontinued the brand and sold the brewery and local taprooms to Illinois-based Kings and Convicts Brewing. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the move comes as the craft brewing industry deals with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and changing consumer

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission’s revised antitrust suit against Meta, formerly known as Facebook, can proceed, shutting down the social media company’s request for a dismissal. In a revised complaint filed last August, the FTC argued that the company pursued “buy or bury” strategy

By DEE-ANN DURBIN and PARKER PURIFOY AP Business Writer Shortages at U.S. grocery stores have grown more acute in recent weeks. New problems like the fast-spreading omicron variant and severe weather are piling on to the supply chain struggles and labor shortages that have plagued retailers since the coronavirus pandemic began. The shortages are widespread,

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare says it will limit coverage of a $28,000-a-year Alzheimer’s drug whose benefits have been widely questioned. Tuesday’s decision from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a major development in the nation’s tug-of-war over the fair value of new medicines that offer tantalizing possibilities but

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Tuesday: Big Lots, Aptiv fall; Illumina, Shake Shack rise.

By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writers Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Tuesday as technology companies rebounded after an early loss. The S&P 500 rose 0.9%. The index is coming off five straight losses and hadn’t closed higher since the very first trading day of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial

By SYLVIE CORBET The Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron says people spreading fake news online should be held accountable and possibly brought to justice. The issue is becoming even more significant ahead of the country’s presidential election on April 10. Macron warned against the threat to democracy caused by online misinformation

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that high inflation is a serious threat to the Fed’s goal of helping put more Americans back to work, and said the Fed will raise rates more than it now plans if needed to stem surging prices. “If we

By KATIE OYAN Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Native American communities have seen more robust news coverage in recent years, in part because of an increase in Indigenous affairs reporting positions at U.S. newsrooms and support from foundations. A Media Impact Funders report found journalism-focused philanthropy quadrupled from 2009 to 2019. An increasingly diverse population

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer A federal labor board said that Amazon workers in a facility in Bessemer, Alabama will vote by mail next month in a re-run election to decide whether or not to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board said that the ballots will be mailed out Feb. 4 and must be