AP National Business

By SALLY FRENCH of NerdWallet Travel in the COVID-19 era is anything but predictable. Don’t get caught off guard by flight cancellations, quarantine rules or a positive COVID-19 test. Because of this unpredictability, planning holiday travel in 2021 needs to include a backup plan as well. Ensure you’re booking flights and hotels with flexible cancellation

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top official is exhorting the bloc’s 27 nations to wean themselves off natural gas not only to speed the transition to clean energy but also to make the bloc a more independent player in the world. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — The head of Germany’s central bank has announced that he will step down after a decade at the helm. A statement Wednesday from the Bundesbank says Jens Weidmann will leave office at the end of the year for personal reasons. National central bank governors have a seat

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says there has been a 7% rise in new coronavirus cases across Europe last week. It’s the only region in the world where cases increased. The U.N. health agency said in its weekly assessment of the pandemic released there were about 2.7 million new COVID-19 cases and more

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets are mixed after Wall Street advanced on strong corporate earnings and Japanese exports weakened. London and Shanghai declined while Tokyo and Frankfurt advanced. The future for Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index was off less than 0.1% after five days of gains. Investors

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press ZURICH (AP) — Credit Suisse has announced settlements totaling nearly $700 million with British, Swiss and U.S. authorities over lending to Mozambique state-owned companies that Swiss regulators say violated anti-money-laundering rules. The Zurich-based bank, Switzerland’s second-largest, also was required by the Swiss financial markets authority to improve its risk controls.

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities have detained two former soldiers who are alleged to have tried to form a mercenary group that would have intervened in the military conflict in Yemen. Federal prosecutors said the men were detained early Wednesday in southern Germany. Both are German citizens and former members of the Bundeswehr. Prosecutors said

By COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press VENICE, Italy (AP) — Venice saw a record five exceptional floods over six weeks in late 2019 that triggered fears about the impact of worsening climate change on the Italian lagoon city beloved by tourists. But the repeated invasion of brackish lagoon water into St. Mark’s Basilica this summer serves

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets are mixed after Wall Street rose for a fifth day on strong corporate earnings. Shanghai and Seoul fell while Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.7%, propelled by health care and tech stocks. Johnson & Johnson, the

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A U.N.-backed study has found that the world needs to cut by more than half its production of coal, oil and gas in the coming decade to maintain a chance of keeping global warming from reaching dangerous levels. The report published Wednesday by the U.N. Environment Program

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer Scientists have temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work. The feat is a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Surgeons in New York attached the pig kidney to blood vessels outside

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines is backing away from a plan to put unvaccinated workers on unpaid leave. A Southwest spokeswoman said Tuesday that employees must submit proof of vaccination against COVID-19 — or request an exemption from the shots — by Nov. 24. But she says employees whose

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Thirty top business leaders are seeking to encourage private investment to help the U.N. achieve development goals for 2030, including tackling climate change, preserving the environment, ending poverty, promoting economic growth, and improving health care and education. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that he

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — The Biden administration is threatening to revoke the authority for three Republican-controlled states to handle their own workplace safety regulations because they have refused to adopt rules to protect health care workers from COVID-19. The threats were sent to Arizona, South Carolina and Utah as the

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Canadian National’s CEO is retiring instead of staying to fight against an investor who has been pushing for his ouster. The Montreal-based railroad on Tuesday announced JJ Ruest’s decision to retire at the end of January. It did not mention the pressure Canadian National is

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — CBS won its first week of the still-new television season, this time by dominating non-sports programming. Nielsen company figures show CBS had 14 of the 20 most-watched non-sports shows on network television last week, while NBC had the other five and Fox had one. NBC

By ZEKE MILLER and DAVID KOENIG Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s most aggressive move yet to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is almost ready to see the light of day. The government is close to publishing the details of a new vaccination-or-testing rule covering more than 80 million Americans at companies with 100

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer The David Prize, an annual $1 million award for select New York City residents, has announced its five winners for this year’s awards. They include a former undocumented immigrant and immigration activist, a former inmate turned prison reform advocate and the founder of preschool. The prize is named after

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific and its labor unions are suing each other to determine whether the railroad has the authority to require its employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The unions argue that the Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad should have negotiated with them before announcing it would