AP National Business

LONDON (AP) — British officials say about 30,000 people in the north of England and in Scotland have been without electricity for the better part of a week after a storm brought snow, ice and wind gusts of almost 100 miles per hour. Storm Arwen disrupted transportation, and caused residential power outages starting Friday. Officials

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer Exxon Mobil says it is boosting its spending on greenhouse gas emission-reduction projects to $15 billion over the next six years and anticipates meeting its 2025 greenhouse gas emission-reduction plans by the end of this year. The energy giant said the $15 billion will go toward projects focused at

HAYDEN, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama sheriff says a FedEx driver dumped packages into a ravine in the woods at least six times. Now the company and investigators are sorting through the mess. Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon says they’ve now identified about 450 victims whose packages were discovered dumped last month in a ravine

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer ExxonMobil says it is boosting its spending on greenhouse gas emission-reduction projects to $15 billion over the next six years and anticipates meeting its 2025 greenhouse gas emission-reduction plans by the end of this year. The energy giant said the $15 billion will go toward projects focused at reducing

By RAF CASERT and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The coronavirus’s omicron variant kept the world off balance Wednesday as reports of infections linked to the mutant strain cropped up in more parts of the globe, and one official said that the wait for more information on its dangers felt like “an eternity.”

By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. lawmakers are putting forward proposals to curb social media giants by limiting their free-speech protections against legal liability. Their efforts are coming after a former Facebook product manager presented a case that the company’s systems amplify online hate and extremism and fail to protect young

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s troubled jail system is facing the suspension of hundreds of corrections officers for failing to meet a Tuesday deadline to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The city’s Department of Correction reported 77% of its uniformed staff had gotten at

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow would seek Western guarantees that would preclude any further NATO expansion and the deployment of its weapons near Russia’s borders. Putin’s statement Wednesday came amid Ukrainian and Western worries about a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian diplomats have countered by

By CHANELLE BESSETTE of NerdWallet Cash management accounts are offered by brokerages and provide many banking-like services, such as checking and savings. CMAs tend to have above-average interest rates, and they can make money management and investing easy. But interest rates aren’t as high as they used to be, and these accounts are usually online-only,

By DAVID KOENIG and YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press Tourism businesses that were just finding their footing after nearly two years of devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic are being rattled again as countries throw up new barriers to travel in an effort to contain the omicron variant. Meanwhile, travelers eager to get out there have

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has expressed concern about Ukraine’s military buildup near the area of the separatist conflict in the country’s east, a statement that comes amid Ukrainian and Western worries about an alleged plan by Moscow to invade its neighbor. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that the

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and FOSTER KLUG Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan has asked international airlines to stop taking new reservations for all flights arriving in the country until the end of December in a further tightening of already strict border controls. The transportation ministry says the request is an emergency precaution. The move by

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. migration agency says the coronavirus pandemic has “radically altered” mobility around the world, projecting in a new report that the growth in the number of international migrants is likely to remain weaker as long as travel and other restrictions remain. The International Organization for Migration

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and FOSTER KLUG Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan has asked international airlines to stop taking new reservations for all flights arriving in the country until the end of December in a further tightening of already strict border controls. The transportation ministry says the request is an emergency precaution. The move by

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Global shares are mostly higher amid nervous trading due to worries over the newest coronavirus variant. Shares rose in Paris, Frankfurt and London after most markets in Asia also finished higher. The detection of the omicron variant in Japan and other countries is raising fears that

By RAF CASESRT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — A European Union official says the bloc has decided against holding a special remote summit of EU leaders on the omicron coronavirus variant for the time being. The official said Wednesday that the EU’s 27 health ministers will first assess the situation  next Tuesday before it will

By LORNE COOK and DAVID KEYTON Associated Press RIGA, Latvia (AP) — NATO foreign ministers are debating a report on the lessons to learn from the military organization’s 18-year presence in conflict-ravaged Afghanistan. The security effort is estimated to have cost the United States alone $2.3 trillion. The price in lives includes 2,324 American troops

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s lockdown has officially been extended until Dec. 11 as planned amid signs that the measures are helping to bring down a sky-high coronavirus infection rate. A parliamentary committee signed off Tuesday on the extension of the country’s fourth national lockdown of the pandemic that started on Nov. 22. That was necessary

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares are mostly higher amid nervous trading due to worries over the newest coronavirus variant. Benchmarks rose in Japan, South Korea and China, but fell slightly in Australia. Wall Street’s losses deepened Tuesday after the head of the Federal Reserve said it will consider shutting