AP National Business

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel says her party is fighting and was always aware that it wouldn’t “automatically” hold on to Germany’s top job after her 16 years in power. Merkel was downplaying alarming poll ratings as the country’s election nears. Recent polls have shown Merkel’s Union bloc under

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — An International Atomic Energy Agency official says objective, science-based monitoring is the key to safely carrying out the planned release of treated but still radioactive water at Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. A three-member IAEA team is in Japan for preliminary talks and a visit to the

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The leader of Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party says the U.K.’s divorce deal with the European Union could collapse the Belfast government and trigger a new era of violence and instability. Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said Thursday that the agreement known as the Northern

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s Senate voted has rejected a media bill seen as targeting a U.S.-owned television network’s ability to keep broadcasting independent news. However, the Senate has no power to stop it altogether. The bill is to return to parliament’s lower house and if it passes there, it

BY DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank says it is dialing back some of its massive emergency pandemic support for the economy. The move comes amid signs of increasing business activity and consumer readiness to spend as the 19 countries that use the euro rebound from the coronavirus

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government has confirmed it has refused to allow climate change goals to be written into a proposed free trade deal with Britain. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday the trade deal under negotiation with Britain was not the document to include U.N. goals

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister has arrived in Libya to reopen the country’s embassy in Tripoli. Heiko Maas said Thursday upon his arrival in Tripoli that “we want to show with the reopening that Germany is and will remain a committed partner of Libya.” German diplomats left Libya in 2014 because of the country’s

By FRANK JORDANS, SETH BORENSTEIN and DANIEL COLE Associated Press SAINT-PAUL-LES-DURANCE, France (AP) — Teams working on two continents have marked similar milestones in their respective efforts to master nuclear fusion. Scientists at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France took delivery Thursday of the first part of a massive magnet so strong its

By WILLIAM J. KOLE Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Both of the hijacked jetliners that slammed into the World Trade Center towers flew out of Boston. But only subdued remembrances are planned at Boston’s Logan International Airport to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It underscores how Boston has never truly come to

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares are higher in Asia as investors stepped up buying despite another decline on Wall Street that kept the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq on track for their first weekly losses in three weeks. Shares rose in Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major markets, bouncing back from losses earlier

By BOB CHRISTIE and JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s first sports betting operations are now open in time for the start of the NFL season with live wagers allowed on college and professional sports. Betting began Thursday online and at the FanDuel Sportsbook at the downtown Phoenix arena where the Phoenix

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer In pre-COVID times, business events like conferences and trade shows routinely attracted more than 1 billion participants and $1 trillion in direct spending each year. The pandemic brought those gatherings to a sudden halt. More than a year later, in-person meetings are on the rebound from Las Vegas to

JOHNSON LAI Associated Press SU’AO, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s president has overseen the commissioning of a new domestically made navy warship as part of the island’s plan to boost indigenous defense capacity amid heightened tensions with China. President Tsai Ing-wen spoke Thursday at a naval base on the island’s east coast, saying the ship “proves

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan has extended a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and 18 other areas until the end of September as health care systems remain under severe strain, although new infections have slowed slightly. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga says serious cases remain high and are still overwhelming many

By JACQUES BILLEAUD Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Lawyers defending the founders of Backpage.com against allegations they knowingly ran ads for prostitution say the adult service ads published by their clients were controversial but ultimately protected by the First Amendment. Attorneys for Michael Lacey and James Larkin said the site ran legally allowable ads for

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer United Airlines says more than half its workers who weren’t vaccinated last month have gotten the shots since the airline announced that it will require proof of vaccination. The airline is detailing rules around its requirement that employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 by late September. United officials said Wednesday

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — California’s interior is hot and dry and the forecast calls for a risk of fire-starting dry lightning as thousands of firefighters already have their hands full with wildland blazes. A heat advisory for Wednesday stretches down the Central Valley and through inland Southern California, with an excessive heat warning

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a Suffolk County employee secretly installed dozens of machines in his workplace in a cryptocurrency scheme and cost the county at least $6,000 in electricity bills. Christopher Naples faces charges including public corruption, grand larceny, and computer trespass. He is accused of using the devices to mine Bitcoin and

By MARCOS ALEMÁN Associated Press SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Salvadorans trying to pay for a cup of coffee or receive money sent from relatives in the United States using the cryptocurrency bitcoin continued struggling to perform transactions, a day after El Salvador made it legal tender. Problems still plagued the digital wallet Chivo

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Television viewers are ready for some football. Three college games from the opening weekend of the season were among the four most popular programs on TV last week, led by Georgia handing third-ranked Clemson a loss. Only NBCs “America’s Got Talent,” with the summer winding