AP National Business

By PAUL WISEMAN and DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writers MECKENHEIM, Germany (AP) — Martin Kopf needs natural gas to run his family’s company, Zinkpower GmbH, which rustproofs steel components in western Germany. Zinkpower’s facility outside Bonn uses gas to keep 600 tons of zinc worth 2.5 million euros ($2.5 million) in a molten state every

By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN Associated Press CHONGQING, China (AP) — China says it will try to protect its grain harvest from record-setting drought by using chemicals to generate rain, while factories in the southwest waited Sunday to see whether they would be shut down for another week due to shortages of water to generate hydropower. The

SEATTLE (AP) — Dorli Rainey, a self-described “old lady in combat boots” who became a symbol of the Occupy protest movement when she was photographed after being pepper-sprayed by Seattle police, has died. She was 95. The longtime political activist died on Aug. 12, the Seattle Times reported. Her daughter, Gabriele Rainey, told the newspaper

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Ballots haven’t even been printed yet, but already a group of landlords, apartment managers and real estate agents in Florida want to stop voters from deciding on a measure that would implement rent control for a year in the theme park hub that has been one

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Almost 2,000 workers at the U.K.’s biggest container port will launch an eight-day strike Sunday over a pay dispute. It’s the latest industrial action to hit the U.K. economy, which is struggling with high inflation and soaring prices for food and fuel. Workers including crane drivers and

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The fast-food chain Wendy’s says it is pulling lettuce from sandwiches in its restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania after people eating them there reported falling ill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it is trying to determine whether romaine lettuce is the source of an E. coli

By MARK SCHIEFELBEIN Associated Press LONGQUAN, China (AP) — Hundreds of persimmon trees that should be loaded with yellow fruit lie wilted in Gan Bingdong’s greenhouse in southwestern China, adding to mounting farm losses in a scorching summer that is the country’s driest in six decades. Gan’s farm south of the industrial metropolis of Chongqing

By YURI KAGEYAMA Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese chemical tanker ship crashed into a cargo ship off the coast of southwestern Japan, the coast guard said Saturday. No one was injured among the six Japanese crew members aboard the tanker Ryoshinmaru and 14 Chinese crew members aboard the Belize-registered cargo ship Xin Hai

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund is facing pressure to reevaluate how it imposes fees on loans it disperses to needy countries like war-torn Ukraine — which is one of the fund’s biggest borrowers. The move comes as more countries will need to turn to the IMF, as food

BY ADAM BEAM and MICHAEL R. BLOOD Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to extend the life of the state’s last operating nuclear power plant by up to 10 years is being rebuffed by Democratic legislators. They want more investment in renewable energy, new transmission lines and storage. The

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that traded heavily or had substantial price changes Friday: Wayfair, Ross Stores fall; General Motors, Foot Locker rise.

By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A five-year review by U.S. officials has determined that Endangered Species Act protections for ocean-going salmon and steelhead that reproduce in the Snake River and its Idaho tributaries must stay in effect. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division review released Thursday found that steelhead,

By ADAM BEAM Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in July, the lowest point since 1976 as employers in the the nation’s most populous state continued to defy expectations by adding 84,800 new jobs. Record-high inflation coupled with a cool-down in the housing market have prompted warnings of an

The Associated Press Benchmark U.S. crude oil for September delivery rose 27 cents to $90.77 a barrel Friday. Brent crude for October delivery rose 13 cents to $96.72 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline for September delivery fell 1 cent to $3.02 a gallon. September heating oil rose 5 cents to $3.70 a gallon. September natural gas

BOSTON (AP) — An authenticated Apple-1 Computer prototype from the mid-1970s has sold at auction for nearly $700,000. Boston-based RR Auction says the prototype was used by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1976 to demonstrate the Apple-1 to Paul Terrell, owner of The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, one of the first personal computer

By HALELUYA HADERO AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, is expanding its abortion coverage for employees after staying largely mum on the issue following the Supreme Court ruling that scrapped a nationwide right to abortion. In a memo sent to employees on Friday, the company said its health care

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida utility has been fined $500,000 and placed on three years’ probation for a 2017 deadly explosion at a coal-fired power plant that killed five workers. The U.S. Justice Department said in a news release Friday that Tampa Electric Co. also must adhere to a new safety compliance plan. The

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom says a key pipeline conveying natural gas to Europe will shut down for three days at the end of this month to undergo “routine maintenance.” In a statement Friday, Gazprom said the only operational turbine at a key compressor station along the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which

By MAE ANDERSON and MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writers NEW YORK (AP) — Apple regularly issues updates to the software powering the iPhone, and sometimes it’s OK to dawdle when it comes to installing them. But that’s not the case with its latest — an upgrade that Apple released Wednesday to close a security hole