National Business - The Morning Sun

FILE - Shown is the price of shrimp at a market in Philadelphia, Thursday, June 16, 2022. Battered by surging consumer prices and rising interest rates, the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.6% annual rate from April through June, the government announced Thursday, Sept. 29, unchanged from its previous second-quarter estimate. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

US economy drops at 0.6% annual rate from April through June

Battered by surging consumer prices and rising interest rates, the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.6% annual rate from April through June, the government announced Thursday, unchanged from its previous … more

By PAUL WISEMAN | 9/29/22

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, greets dignitaries from Pacific Island Countries during the U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Biden's Pacific strategy heralds new engagement in region

The White House is unveiling a Pacific strategy designed to bolster U.S. engagement with more than a dozen island nations on issues including climate change and maritime security. The Biden … more

By AAMER MADHANI | 9/29/22

FILE - The Treasury Building is viewed in Washington, May 4, 2021. Tens of millions of small U.S. companies will soon be required to submit details on their owners and others who benefit from them. Under a new regulation finalized Thursday, the Treasury Department will create a database containing personal information on the owners of at least 32 million U.S. businesses. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Treasury moves forward with database on corporate ownership

Tens of millions of small U.S. companies will soon be required to submit details on their owners and others who benefit from them. Under a new regulation finalized Thursday, the Treasury Department … more

By FATIMA HUSSEIN | 9/29/22

FILE - The Russian ship Mikhail Dudin docks at the port of Dunkirk, northern France, Tuesday, Sept.13, 2022. While Europe is cracking down on Russia's oil and gas, it's continuing to import and export nuclear fuel from and to the country, as the sector is not under sanctions prompted by the war in Ukraine _ a uranium trade denounced by Kyiv and environment activists. The Mikhail Dudin ship was navigating Thursday in the North Sea, heading towards the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga after leaving the French port of Dunkirk the previous day.(AP Photo/Michel Spingler, File)

Russia's nuclear trade with Europe flowing amid Ukraine war

European Union nations are continuing to import and export nuclear fuel that is not under EU sanctions on Russia. The Ukrainian government and environmental activists want the ongoing trade to end. A … more

By SYLVIE CORBET | 9/29/22

FILE --German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The German leader has tested positive for the coronavirus. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told dpa that Scholz has mild symptoms and immediately entered isolation. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn,file)

Germany to spend billions to tackle high energy prices

Germany plans to spend up to 200 billion euros helping consumers and businesses cope with the surge in energy prices. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that the government is reactivating an … more

9/29/22

FILE - Latvia's Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, June 23, 2022. Latvians will be voting on Saturday, Oct. 1 in a general election that has been substantially influenced by neighboring Russia’s attack on Ukraine, political disintegration among the Baltic country’s sizable ethnic-Russian minority as well as issues around the economy, including high energy costs. Polls show that Karins’ New Unity party, which heads the current four-party center-right minority coalition is likely to emerge as the top vote-getter, with a projected 13% to 20% of the votes cast by the 1.5 million eligible voters. . (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, file)

Latvian election shadowed by division among ethnic Russians

Latvians will be voting on Saturday in a general election that has been substantially influenced by neighboring Russia’s attack on Ukraine, political disintegration among the Baltic country’s … more

By JARI TANNER | 9/29/22

People walk in central part of Sofia, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. Bulgarians will go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years in a general election overshadowed this time by the war in Ukraine, by rising energy costs and a galloping inflation. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

Bulgarians will go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years in a general election overshadowed this time by the war in Ukraine, rising energy costs and galloping inflation. Pollsters … more

By VESELIN TOSHKOV | 9/29/22

CEO of Porsche car maker Oliver Blume sits in an old Porsche 356 at the start of Porsche's market listing at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Porsche shares rise in one of Europe's largest market debuts

Shares in luxury automaker Porsche have risen on their first day of public trading. The maker of the 911 sports car made its market debut Thursday on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Parent company … more

By DAVID McHUGH | 9/29/22

FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Freedman Bank Forum as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen look on in Washington, Dec. 14, 2021. Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will host Treasury's annual Freedman's Bank Forum, October 6. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Harris, Yellen focus on community finance at Freedman Forum

Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will host a forum to highlight how coronavirus pandemic relief dollars have helped support Black- and minority-owned businesses. The … more

By FATIMA HUSSEIN | 9/29/22

Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States, candidate for secretary general, smiles during the opening session of The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, in Bucharest, Romania, Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2022 will run in the Romanian capital until Oct. 14 and will elect a new Secretary General. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

US candidate to lead UN telecoms agency after US-Russia race

Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States has been elected to head the U.N.’s telecommunications agency. She won a U.S.-Russia face-off for the leadership of a key global agency that sets … more

By STEPHEN McGRATH and JAMEY KEATEN | 9/29/22

British Prime Minister Liz Truss visits Berkeley Modular, in Northfleet, Kent, Britain, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (Dylan Martinez/Pool Photo via AP)

UK's Truss defends economic plan that sent pound tumbling

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has defended her economic plan and says she’s willing to make “difficult decisions” to get the economy growing. In her first public comments since her … more

By JILL LAWLESS and DANICA KIRKA | 9/29/22

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry poses for a photograph during an NBA basketball media day in San Francisco, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Warriors-Wizards games in Japan to woo NBA fans, sponsors

Japanese basketball fans will get to see NBA stars up close when the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors take on the Washington Wizards in two preseason games. Stephen Curry and Japanese star … more

By YURI KAGEYAMA | 9/29/22

In this undated 2021 photo provided by Humane Society International/Europe, chinchillas inside cages where they are bred for fur at an undisclosed location in Romania. An animal welfare charity says an undercover investigation has uncovered cruel and allegedly illegal practices in Romania's chinchilla fur farms. Humane Society International has now appealed to Romania's prime minister to “stop this atrocious suffering in the name of fashion” and completely ban fur farming in the Eastern European country. (Humane Society International/Europe via AP)

Welfare group reports severe breaches on Romanian fur farms

An animal welfare charity says an undercover investigation has uncovered cruel and allegedly illegal practices in Romania's chinchilla fur farms. Humane Society International has now appealed to … more

By STEPHEN McGRATH | 9/29/22

FILE - Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi waits to address judges of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Dec. 11, 2019. A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi in another criminal case Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, and sentenced Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison for violating an official secrets law, a legal official said. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Suu Kyi convicted again, Australian economist gets 3 years

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi in another criminal case along with Australian economist Sean Turnell. They were accused of breaking Myanmar’s … more

By GRANT PECK | 9/29/22

FILE - An Optus phone sign hangs above its store in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. Australia’s federal and state governments on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, called for Optus to pay for replacing identification documents including passports and driver’s licenses to avoid identity fraud after 9.8 million of the telecommunications company’s customers had personal data stolen by computer hackers. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

Australia flags tough new data protection laws this year

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says Australia could have tough new data protection laws in place this year in an urgent response to a cyberattack on a telecommunications company that stole the … more

By ROD McGUIRK | 9/28/22

FILE - An Amazon worker delivers boxes in Los Angeles on Oct. 1, 2020. Amazon said Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, that it is raising its average starting pay for frontline workers from $18 to $19 a hour, a boost that could help it attract more employees in a tight labor market as the holiday season approaches. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Amazon to raise average hourly pay by $1 to $19 in October

Amazon says it’s raising its average starting pay for frontline workers from $18 to $19 a hour. That could help it attract more employees in a tight labor market as the holiday season approaches. … more

By HALELUYA HADERO | 9/28/22

Rohingya seek reparations from Facebook for role in massacre

For years, Facebook, now called Meta, has pushed the narrative that it was a neutral platform in Myanmar that was misused by malicious people and failed to moderate violent and hateful material … more

By BARBARA ORTUTAY | 9/28/22

FILE - A JetBlue Airbus flies over a pair of Southwest Airlines' jets from Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif., bound for New York's JFK airport, July 19, 2005. Senior executives of JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines argued in court Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, over JetBlue's controversial partnership with American Airlines that the Biden administration is seeking the thwart. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

JetBlue, Southwest spar over slots in antitrust trial

Testimony at the antitrust trial involving American Airlines and JetBlue is turning toward access to airports in New York and Boston. The CEO of JetBlue said Wednesday that a partnership with … more

By DAVID KOENIG | 9/28/22

FILE — Marijuana plants for the adult recreational market are loaded on a tractor for planting at Hepworth Farms in Milton, N.Y., July 15, 2022. New York began accepting applications, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, to open its first crop of legal recreational pot shops, taking a novel approach by reserving the first licenses for people with past pot convictions or their relatives. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

900 apply for NY's first licenses to sell recreational pot

More than 900 would-be pot shop operators have applied for a chance to open New York state’s first legal dispensaries for recreational marijuana. The state Office of Cannabis Management tweeted the … more

9/28/22

FILE - This Jan. 7, 2021, image taken from Coffee County, Ga., security video, appears to show Cathy Latham (center, long turquoise top), introducing members of a computer forensic team to local election officials. Latham was the county Republican Party chair at the time. The computer forensics team was at the county elections office in Douglas, Ga., to make copies of voting equipment in an effort that documents show was arranged by attorney Sidney Powell and others allied with then-President Donald Trump. (Coffee County, Georgia via AP)

Georgia election officials discuss breach, security measures

The Georgia State Election Board held a meeting Wednesday meant to reassure board members and the general public that the state’s elections remain secure following a breach of voting equipment in … more

By KATE BRUMBACK | 9/28/22