AP National News

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Top U.K. and European Union officials are meeting Friday to try to resolve their intractable Northern Ireland trade spat. David Frost for Britain and Maros Sefcovic for the EU are meeting in London after four weeks of negotiations failed to bridge gaps over Northern Ireland trade. Alarm

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Embattled Japanese technology conglomerate Toshiba is restructuring to improve its competitiveness, spinning off its energy infrastructure and computer devices businesses. Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. said Friday it is separating its nuclear power business, including the decommissioning of the nuclear plant in Fukushima that suffered meltdowns in 2011,

By LAETITIA BEZAIN Associated Press ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — International agencies warn that more than 1.1 million people in southern Madagascar urgently need food aid. The World Food Program says that about 700,000 people are already receiving food aid and increased emergency assistance is needed. WFP is working with the Malagasy government and other humanitarian

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark has reintroduced its digital pass and is once again considering COVID-19 to be “a socially critical disease” because the Scandinavian country is seeing an increase in cases. The pass must be used for a month to enter nightclubs, cafes, party buses and to be seated indoors in restaurants. It was

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch government is widely expected to announce a partial lockdown amid soaring COVID-19 cases that are putting the country’s health care sector under renewed strain. The move comes amid a surge in coronavirus infections across Europe in recent weeks. Dutch broadcaster NOS, citing unnamed

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — A former German environment minister has announced his second run for the leadership of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party as the race to lead it in opposition starts to take shape. The Christian Democratic Union has decided to hold a ballot of its entire roughly 400,000-strong

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Lisa Murkowski has announced that she will run for reelection. The U.S. senator for Alaska who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump made the announcement Friday. Trump has focused his political efforts on punishing his political opponents and in June endorsed a leading opponent of Murkowski. Kelly Tshibaka was commissioner

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping emerges from a party conclave this week not only more firmly ensconced in power than ever, but also with a stronger ideological and theoretical grasp on the ruling Communist Party’s past, present and future. That lays the groundwork for him to take a third five-year term as party

By SAM MAGDY and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Libyan leaders have reaffirmed in Paris their commitment to ensure the success of the country’s political process through long-awaited elections next month. Regional and world powers hope the vote will pull oil-rich Libya out of its decade-old chaos. France hosted an international conference on

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Shares have advanced in Europe and Asia after Wall Street benchmarks managed to close mostly higher. Stocks gained in Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo. In China, a major Communist Party meeting ended, as expected, with a resolution setting the stage for President Xi Jinping to remain top leader for life.

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand says it would delay the reopening of nightlife entertainment venues to Jan. 15 despite pleas from the industry to make it sooner. A spokesman for the government’s COVID-19 administration cited concerns about ventilation and inefficient prevention measures in pubs, bars and karaoke joints. Starting in November, Thailand began reopening to fully

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A jury has recommended up to 28 years in prison for a Missouri man found guilty of killing his wife. The jury returned the recommendation early Friday only hours after Joseph Elledge was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Mengqi Ji. The judge will make the official sentence Dec.

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL AP Science Writer GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — No country will see energy needs grow faster in coming decades than India, and even under the most optimistic projections part of that demand will have to be met with dirty coal power — a key source of heat-trapping carbon emissions. The fundamental question for

By GEIR MOULSON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s disease control center is calling for people to cancel or avoid large events and to reduce their contacts as the country’s coronavirus infection rate hits the latest in a string of new highs. The center said Friday that Germany’s infection rate climbed to 263.7 new cases

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Negotiators at this year’s U.N. climate talks in Glasgow appeared to be backing away from a call to end all use of coal and phase out fossil fuel subsidies completely. The latest draft proposals from the meeting’s chair released Friday call on countries to accelerate “the

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s preparations for the next coronavirus surge include adding thousands more hospital beds to avoid a situation like last summer when many COVID-19 patients were forced to stay home, even when they needed supplemental oxygen. Japan has the most hospital beds per capita in the world, but

BEIJING (AP) — Beijing Olympic officials say two foreign athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 in ongoing test events for February’s Winter Games, Officials also expressed sympathy for a Polish luge competitor who cracked a kneecap at the Olympics sliding center this week in a crash that has been blamed on human error. The two

By DREW COSTLEY and SETH BORENSTEIN Associated Press ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — In some parts of the U.S., the risks from climate change have intensified enough to raise a startling question: Should some populated places simply be abandoned to nature? One strategy that is gaining traction is so-called managed retreat, which is the

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Nearly two years into a global health crisis that has killed more than 5 million people, infections are again sweeping across parts of Western Europe. That’s in a region with relatively high vaccination rates and good health care systems but where lockdown measures are largely

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The outgoing Honduran president is due to start a three-day surprise visit to Taiwan amid worries by the self-ruled island that the next president of the Central American nation may break off relations and switch to diplomatic ties with Beijing. President Juan Orlando Hernández and his wife will meet Taiwan’s President