AP National Business

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Protesters in Hungary’s capital have blocked main traffic arteries for the second day in a row in opposition to a tax overhaul pushed through this week by lawmakers from the country’s right-wing governing party. Several thousand demonstrators, many of them independent entrepreneurs affected by the new

The Associated Press Stocks ended another shaky day lower on Wall Street Wednesday after a highly anticipated report on inflation turned out to be even worse than expected. The S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq fell. Stocks took a few U-turns through the day, as has become the norm on Wall

NEW YORK Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Wednesday: Delta, Fastenal fall; Twitter, Devon Energy rise.

The Associated Press Benchmark U.S. crude oil for August delivery rose 46 cents to $96.30 a barrel Wednesday. Brent crude for September delivery rose 8 cents to $99.57 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline for August delivery fell 3 cents to $3.23 a gallon. August heating oil rose 1 cent to $3.67 a gallon. August natural gas

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation’s relentless surge didn’t merely persist in June. It accelerated. For the 12 months ending in June, the government’s consumer price index rocketed 9.1%, the fastest year-over-year jump since 1981. And that was nothing next to what energy prices did: Fueled by heavy demand and by

By The Associated Press The euro has hit parity with the dollar, falling to its lowest level in 20 years and even skirting just below a one-to-one exchange rate with the U.S. currency this week. That’s the market’s verdict on Europe’s economic prospects. The euro is falling as fears of a recession grow due to

BERLIN (AP) — Russian energy company Gazprom appeared to cast doubt on the prospects of quickly restoring the flow of natural gas to full capacity through a major pipeline to Western Europe. The state-owned gas company reduced the flow through Nord Stream 1 to Germany by 60% last month. It cited technical problems involving a

By JUSTIN SPIKE Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s government has declared an “energy emergency” in response to supply disruptions and skyrocketing energy prices in Europe. A government official told a news conference in Budapest that there is “unlikely to be enough gas in Europe for the autumn and winter heating season.” The official

By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration and Democrats are warning of dire consequences if Congress fails to act on computer chips legislation. They say Congress needs to pass a bill by the end of July that’s designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. Advocates say the plan is

By GLENN GAMBOA AP Business Writer Bill Gates, concerned about the “significant suffering” caused by global setbacks including the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Wednesday that he will donate $20 billion to his foundation so it can increase its annual spending. The donation, combined with longtime board member Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett’s $3.1 billion gift last

LONDON (AP) — British rail workers will go on strike on July 27 over an ongoing pay dispute, a month after the country’s most disruptive railway strike in three decades paralyzed train networks across the U.K. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said Wednesday its members will walk out for 24 hours,

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian investigators have raided an Indian subsidiary of Chinese smartphone maker Oppo, accusing it of evading customs duties totaling $551 million. The Enforcement Directorate, India’s financial crime investigation agency, says it sent a notice to the company seeking recovery of the money. Oppo India is the

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency on Wednesday celebrated the first flight of its Vega-C rocket, which is designed to provide more bang for customers’ buck in the increasingly competitive business of launching satellites into orbit. Vega-C is an upgrade to the Vega rocket that made its debut in 2012 as a launcher specializing

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s central bank is raising its target interest rate by a full percentage point in an effort to fight inflation. And it warns more rate hikes are likely to follow. The Bank of Canada on Wednesday raised the overnight rate to 2.5% in the biggest increase since

MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid is driving away from a partnership of nearly two decades with Audi and switching to BMW as one of its main sponsors. The new deal means all Madrid soccer and basketball players will get BMW vehicles beginning this season. BMW Spain says it will provide fully electric cars to the

By RAF CASERT Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive has decried the rule of law situation in Poland and Hungary and centered on perceived breaches in their judiciary and media in its annual report. The European Commission said that it was all the more important for the 27 nations to be a

ROME (AP) — Hundreds of taxi drivers in Italy are protesting for a second day against the government’s plans to allow more competition. Since Tuesday, a handful of drivers have been chained together in protest in the square outside Premier Mario Draghi’s office in Rome. Nearby in the main street, hundreds of drivers from Rome

By HELENA ALVES and JOSEPH WILSON Associated Press LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A spate of wildfires is scorching parts of Europe, with firefighters battling blazes in Portugal, Spain, Croatia and southern France on Wednesday amid an unusual heat wave that authorities are linking to climate change. In Portugal, Civil Protection commander André Fernandes said multiple

BERLIN (AP) — The German government has unveiled a new package of climate measures to close the emissions gap in the transport and housing sectors as part of the country’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2045. The transport minister said his department would boost the installation of electric vehicle charging stations, expand public transport

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok are failing to stop hate and threats against LGBTQ users, a report issued Wednesday from advocacy group GLAAD found. Those are some of the internet’s most vulnerable users, with a majority of LGBTQ people saying they’ve faced menacing posts or

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer Days ahead of a shareholder vote at Spirit Airlines over a proposed buyout by rival budget carrier Frontier, the vote was postponed for a fourth time in a signal that the deal still lacks support from investors. Spirit said Wednesday that the vote on the Frontier Airlines offer would

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Tokyo court has ordered four former executives of the utility operating the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant to pay 13 trillion yen ($94 billion) to the company, holding them liable for the 2011 disaster. In the closely watched ruling, the Tokyo District Court said the former

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s far-right Freedom Party has chosen former lawmaker Walter Rosenkranz as its candidate to challenge liberal incumbent Alexander Van der Bellen in the country’s presidential election in October. The party said its leadership nominated Rosenkranz unanimously on Tuesday evening. Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer lost to Van der Bellen in a runoff

By SAM KEMMIS of NerdWallet Travel to Europe might be an attractive option to travelers looking for a budget vacation in 2022. In May 2022, airfare prices to Europe jumped 13% year-over-year compared with 38% for domestic airfare in the U.S. The dollar is strong this year, meaning your cash can go further on the

By DAVID KOENIG AP Airlines Writer The summer is off to a profitable start for Delta Air Lines. The airline said Wednesday that it earned $735 million in the second quarter, as planes were packed with vacation travelers. Still, the earnings per share fell short of Wall Street expectations. Delta blames that on high fuel

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) — Two candidates have been knocked out of the race to replace British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. That leaves six lawmakers battling to lead the Conservative Party and the country. Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi failed to reach the threshold of 30

By MICHAEL CANTU Edmunds If you’re in the market for a pickup truck, you might be considering a hybrid model with today’s sky-high gas prices. These trucks have a gasoline-powered engine that’s augmented with electric motors and a battery to help improve fuel economy. But there are nuances to each automaker’s hybrid systems. The experts

By OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI, HANNA ARHIROVA and MARIA GRAZIA MURRU Associated Press Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian foreign minister says grain exports from his country’s ports won’t resume without security guarantees for ship owners, cargo owners and Ukraine as an independent nation. Military officials from Russia and Ukraine held their governments’ first face-to-face talks in