AP National Business

The Associated Press The United Nations chief will convene a ministerial meeting in Geneva on Sept. 13 to seek a swift scale-up in funding to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where nearly half the country’s 38 million people need assistance. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also appeal “for full

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Americans have become obsessed with collectibles, bidding up prices for trading cards, video games and other mementos of their youth. These include copies of trading cards such as Pokemon’s Charizard and Magic: The Gathering’s Black Lotus as well as Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. game cartridges.

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — E-commerce giant Alibaba Group says it will spend $15.5 billion to support President Xi Jinping’s campaign to spread China’s prosperity more evenly. Its announcement adds to pledges by tech companies that are under pressure to pay for the ruling Communist Party’s political initiatives. Alibaba said it

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Americans have become obsessed with collectibles, bidding up prices for trading cards, video games and other mementos of their youth. These include copies of trading cards such as Pokemon’s Charizard and Magic: The Gathering’s Black Lotus as well as Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. game cartridges.

By FARAI MUTSAKA and ANDREW MELDRUM Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Young people across Africa are battling an economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey of 18 to 24-year-olds in 15 African countries found that many have lost jobs or seen their educations disrupted. Preliminary findings of the second annual Africa Youth

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Britain is rushing 4 million Pfizer doses to Australia, where authorities are scrambling to bolster supplies of that COVID-19 vaccine and protect the population against a rapidly spreading outbreak of the delta variant. The swap deal announced Friday follows Australian deals with Singapore and Poland to

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer Stocks closed mostly lower on Wall Street Friday following a weak jobs report, but gains for a handful of Big Tech companies allowed the Nasdaq composite to sneak in another record high. The benchmark S&P 500 ended down less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2% and

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Intensive care beds are full of unvaccinated coronavirus patients at a hospital in Boise, Idaho. Doctors now are bracing to have to conserve scarce resources for those most likely to survive. At St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center, the view in every direction is heartbreaking. In one

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writers Apple has recently eased some longstanding restrictions that helped make its App Store into a big moneymaker for the company. The company has long required app developers to pay high commissions on the sales of paid apps as well as purchases of subscriptions or digital items

By HALELUYA HADERO and GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writers Following Hurricane Ida, mutual aid networks sprang into action to supplement the more established relief services from federal and local governments, and charities. The networks, where community members pool their resources and distribute donations to take care of one another, exploded in popularity during the COVID-19

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a modest gain after two months of robust hiring at a time when the delta variant’s spread has discouraged some people from flying, shopping and eating out. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% from 5.4% in July. The

DALLAS (AP) — Dallas school district officials say a data breach exposed personal student, parent, teacher and staff information dating to 2010. In statements posted to its website Thursday, the Dallas Independent School District said it learned of the breach the Aug. 8. Since then, the district says it has been investigating and working to

By JOE McDONALD Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s government has banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters to promote “revolutionary culture,” broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality. The measure adds to official limits this week on children’s access to online games and a campaign to

NEW YORK (AP) — Published reports say executives at a New York hedge fund have agreed to pay as much as $7 billion to settle a long-running dispute with the U.S. tax authorities. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that insiders at Renaissance Technologies agreed to the deal that could be

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Los Angeles man pleaded guilty Wednesday to participating in what prosecutors called a “textbook Ponzi scheme” that defrauded cryptocurrency investors worldwide of more than $2 billion. Prosecutors say Glenn Arcaro sat atop the North American branch of the pyramid investment scheme BitConnect. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Arcaro admitted in

By MELINDA DESLATTE and DAVID KOENIG Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A critical port that serves as the primary support hub for the Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater offshore oil and gas industry sustained less damage from Hurricane Ida’s direct hit than initially feared and should be able to return to working operations “in

By JOSH FUNK Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two of the industry’s biggest poultry companies have agreed to pay nearly $35 million to settle a lawsuit that accused them and several other firms of conspiring to dominate the industry and fix the prices paid to farmers who raise the chickens. Tyson Foods and Perdue

The Associated Press Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities, and foreign exchange levels.

By JOHN RABY Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A hundred years have passed in West Virginia since a mine industry conflict sparked the largest U.S. uprising since the Civil War. Fed up with poor wages and living conditions, thousands of coal miners marched to unionize in 1921. At least 16 men died in the