NEW YORK (AP) — Small businesses that depend on outdoor crowds and free-spending tourists aren’t sure what to expect this summer. Consumers likely have a lot of pent-up demand after more than two years of the pandemic. But they’re also facing some significant financial headwinds because of the highest inflation in decades. And COVID-19 remains…
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police have detained several dozen truckers for blocking traffic and disrupting the movement of goods near factories as a nationwide strike extended into a fourth day. The truckers are urging the government to provide a minimum wage in the face of soaring fuel prices that are squeezing their…
REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric on Thursday pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges it faces after its equipment sparked a wildfire that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Northern California two years ago, prosecutors announced. PG&E was arraigned at a court in Redding on 31 criminal…
IRWINDALE, Calif. (AP) — Bottles of the popular Sriracha hot sauce could be hard to find on store shelves this summer. Southern California-based Huy Fong Inc., told customers in an email earlier this year that it would suspend sales of its famous spicy sauce over the summer due to a shortage of chili peppers. The…
TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Friday eased its borders for foreign tourists and began accepting visa applications, but only for those on guided package tours who are willing to follow mask-wearing and other antivirus measures as the country cautiously tries to balance business and infection worries. Friday is the first day to start procedures needed…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The prices of gas, food and most other goods and services jumped in May, raising inflation to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from rising costs. Consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from a year earlier, faster than April’s year-over-year increase of 8.3%, the Labor Department said Friday….
WASHINGTON (AP) — The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.” White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are…
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s shuddering realization that inflation got worse last month, not better as hoped, sent markets reeling on Friday. The S&P 500 sank 2.9% to lock in its ninth losing week in the last 10, and tumbling bond prices sent Treasury yields to their highest levels in years. The Dow Jones…
A federal labor board has denied Amazon’s request to bar the public from a hearing on the company’s bid to overturn a historic union win at one of its Staten Island, New York, warehouses. Hearings by the National Labor Relations Board are typically held in person and open to the public. But the Seattle-based company…
NEW YORK (AP) — An explosion at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Texas has left nearby residents rattled and is taking a substantial amount of the fuel off the market at a time when global demand is soaring. Freeport LNG will be offline for at least three weeks, the company said Thursday, following a…
