AP National Business

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Zipline, an American company that specializes in using autonomously flying drones to deliver medical supplies, has taken off in Japan. They’re flying across the tiny Goto Islands, off the western coast of Kyushu, in southwestern Japan, delivering to pharmacies and hospitals. Zipline, founded six years ago,

BERLIN (AP) — The World Health Organization says that the number of reported new COVID-19 cases worldwide decreased by nearly a quarter last week. That means there’s been a decline in reported infections since the end of March. The Geneva-based U.N. health agency said in a weekly report that nearly 5.59 million cases were reported

BEIJING (AP) — A Russian news outlet says China’s credit card processor has refused to work with banks in Russia for fear of being targeted by sanctions over its attack on Ukraine. That cuts off a possible alternative after Visa and Mastercard stopped serving them. RBC reported UnionPay’s decision affects Sberbank, Russia’s biggest commercial bank,

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar officials say the military-led government will exempt approved foreign investors, embassies, United Nations agencies and non-government organizations from its rules requiring conversion of foreign exchange into the local currency. Aung Naing Oo, the army-installed government’s minister for Investment and Foreign Economic Relations, said details of

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is trying to set aside his political troubles and focus on economic ties and the war in Ukraine during an official trip to India. Johnson landed in the western state of Gujarat on Thursday, kicking off a two-day visit that will see

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The first and most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, launched more than a decade ago. Yet for all the relentless buzz around cryptocurrencies, relatively few are well versed in them. A 2021 poll by Pew Research Center found that just 16% of Americans said they have ever invested

By HUIZHONG WU and DAKE KANG Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — In Shanghai, a city of 25 million people with hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 cases, Chinese health authorities have reported only 25 coronavirus deaths. An Associated Press examination of the death toll sheds light on how the figures have been obscured by the

By AMY BETH HANSON Associated Press HELENA, Mont. (AP) — For the past year a company that “mines” cryptocurrency had what seemed the ideal location for its thousands of power-thirsty computers working around the clock to verify bitcoin transactions: the grounds of a coal-fired power plant in rural Montana. But with the cryptocurrency industry under

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — The Yoshinoya beef bowl chain has fired an executive who talked about a marketing strategy to get young women “hooked” on its food as though turning “virgins into drug addicts.” Masaaki Ito was a managing director at the popular Japanese chain known for its “gyudon” beef-over-rice dish.

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge in California has rejected a request from shareholders in a lawsuit to force Elon Musk stop talking about his 2018 tweets in which he said he had the funding to make Tesla a private company. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. rolled out new sanctions on Wednesday against more than 40 individuals and entities accused of evading the ongoing wave of penalties imposed on Russia as punishment for invading Ukraine. The sanctions include the first set of penalties against a cryptocurrency mining firm in relation to

By JOHN LEICESTER and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has torn into his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in a television debate for her ties to Russia and for wanting to strip Muslim women of their right to cover their heads in public, as he seeks the votes he

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a former New York state judge to a year and three months in prison after her conviction for obstructing a probe into financial conduct at the Municipal Credit Union. Ex-State Supreme Court Justice Sylvia Ash was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Lewis

By JOHN LEICESTER and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that challenger Marine Le Pen’s proposed measure to ban Muslim headscarves in French public spaces would create “civil war” if implemented. In a televised debate Wednesday ahead of Sunday’s presidential election, the far-right presidential candidate said she is

By JOSH FUNK AP Business Writer OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — CSX railroad struggled to keep up with demand in the first three months of the year. But it still managed to deliver 22% more profit thanks to higher shipping rates offsetting a slight decline in the number of shipments it handled. The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer A new federal report finds that record-keeping failures by the Education Department may have left thousands of Americans stuck with student debt that should have been forgiven. A study released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office revealed flaws in the management of income-driven repayment plans, which offer reduced monthly

CHICAGO (AP) — United Airlines says it lost $1.38 billion in the first quarter of 2022 but it expects to return to profitability in the current three-month period as post-pandemic travel ramps back up. The Chicago-based airline said Wednesday it had operating revenues of $7.57 billion in the quarter, which was down 21% from the

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press Michigan’s Democratic governor wants a nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan to stay open and she’s asking the federal government to pay for it. But the owner of the Palisades Power Plant says it’s too late and that the plant will shut down in May as scheduled. The Biden administration

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writers SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Streaming service Netflix is dealing with a sharp drop in subscribers by considering changes to its service that it has long resisted. Netflix suffered its first loss of subscribers in years, an unwelcome surprise that drove its stock down 35% Wednesday. The