FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Florence is famed for its contributions to Italian art, architecture and cuisine. But these days, local leaders in the city regarded as the birthplace of the Renaissance are concerned with more mundane matters: paying the bills. Amid soaring energy costs across Europe, officials at Palazzo Vecchio — the building that serves…
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — One by one, embassies and international offices in Kyiv closed. Flight after flight was canceled when insurance companies balked at covering planes arriving in Ukraine. Hundreds of millions of dollars in investment dried up within weeks. With Russian troops encircling much of the country, Ukrainian businesses large and small no longer…
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets plunged and oil prices surged to nearly $100 a barrel Thursday after President Vladimir Putin announced Russian military action in Ukraine. Market benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul fell 2%. Hong Kong and Sydney lost more than 3%. Oil prices jumped more than $4 on anxiety about possible disruptions of…
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The hedge fund trying to buy newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises returned to court Tuesday in a bid to settle a dispute over how votes for two longtime board members should be counted next month at the company’s annual meeting. Alden Global Capital has already lost one lawsuit in the takeover battle…
NEW YORK (AP) — The worries rocking Wall Street about interest rates, inflation and now Ukraine have sent the S&P 500 index — the most widely followed measure of the U.S. stock market — tumbling more than 10% from its record. It’s a big enough fall that Wall Street has a name for it: a…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is delaying decisions on new oil and gas drilling on federal land and other energy-related actions after a federal court blocked the way officials were calculating the real-world costs of climate change. The administration said in a legal filing that a Feb. 11 ruling by a Louisiana federal judge…
DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk and his lawyers are escalating their fight with U.S. securities regulators, with a lawyer accusing them of leaking investigative information, and the Tesla CEO alleging on Twitter that government corruption is being exposed. Musk’s tweet early Tuesday and a Monday letter from Musk lawyer Alex Spiro to a federal judge…
PARIS (AP) — Foreign ministers from Indo-Pacific nations attended a Paris conference Tuesday aimed at bringing the region, an important partner for trade and exports, squarely into Europe’s focus in a rapidly changing world with rising security challenges. New Zealand, India, South Korea, Japan and a clutch of other Asian nations were represented at the…
MacKenzie Scott’s $50 million gift to the National 4-H Council, which the youth-focused nonprofit called “transformational,” is part of a new batch of the philanthropist’s donations now coming to light. The donation to the organization, which supports the 120-year-old youth development program, is the second largest gift known to have been made by Scott since…
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence declined modestly this month but remains high, even as prices for just about everything continue to rise. The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index — which takes into account consumers’ assessment of current conditions and their outlook for the future…
