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The Biden administration’s choice to run the World Bank — former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga — appears to have a lock on the job WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration's choice to run the World Bank — former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga — appears to have a lock on the job. The World Bank said Thursday that Banga was the only candidate nominated in a search that began more than a month ago. The current president of the 189-nation poverty-fighting organization, David Malpass, announced last month that he would step down in June, nearly a year before his five-year term was due to expire in April 2024. The World Bank is under pressure to do more to help poor countries finance projects to combat and prepare for climate change without saddling them with heavy debts. And critics say it needs to do a better job of tackling problems that cross borders such as providing pandemic surveillance and backing broad vaccination programs. Banga, currently vice chairman at private equity firm General Atla...

Howard Schultz faced sharp criticism over Starbucks' response to a union wave. Starbucks' former CEO Howard Schultz on Wednesday denied breaking the law in response to sharp criticism from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who accused the company of "the most aggressive and illegal union busting campaign in the modern history of our country." In response to questions from Sanders during a Senate hearing, Schultz affirmed the right of workers to choose whether to unionize and defended the company's actions. Starbucks "has not broken the law," Schultz said. "Let me set the tone for this very early on." Schultz, who served as Starbucks CEO for over 20 years across three stints and stepped down from the position last week, said Starbucks has negotiated in "good faith" with employees as they've sought to union ize and obtain collective benefits. More than a dozen decisions from federal officials have found that the company violated labor ...

Shares are mixed in Asia after a post-holiday retreat on Wall Street, as markets count down to the end of a painful year for investors BANGKOK -- Shares were mixed in Asia on Wednesday after a post-holiday retreat on Wall Street, as markets count down to the end of a painful year for investors. Shares fell in Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul but rose in Hong Kong as the Chinese government took further steps to reopen to foreign Travel after relaxing its stringent “zero-COVID” policies. Oil prices rose and U.S. futures inched higher. The Chinese government announced it will start issuing new passports in another major step away from anti-virus travel barriers. That sets up a potential flood of tourists out of China for next month’s Lunar New Year holiday, taking free-spending Chinese visitors to Asia, Europe and other destinations during what usually is the country’s busiest travel season. But governments in India and Japan have said they will impose extra precautions on those arrivi...

Shares of Tesla tumbled more than 12% Tuesday, the first full day of trading since the company announced 2022 delivery numbers that fell short of targets DETROIT -- Shares of Tesla tumbled more than 12% Tuesday on the first full day of trading since the company announced 2022 delivery numbers that fell short of target s. The electric vehicle and solar panel maker's stock closed at $108.10, and it's down just under 70% since the start of last year. The stock hit its lowest point since August of 2020, and Tesla's market value, according to FactSet, slid to $341 billion, down from over $1 trillion as recently as April. Tesla said Monday that it sold a record 1.3 million vehicles last year, but the number fell short of CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to grow deliveries by 50% nearly every year. The 2022 figure topped the prior record of 936,000 vehicles delivered in 2021, but it was shy of the 1.4 million needed to reach the company’s 50% growth target. Sales grew 40% year o...

Federal regulators have ordered Union Pacific railroad to make sure a livestock producer gets the grain it needs in California to prevent millions of chickens and hundreds of thousands of cattle from starving OMAHA, Neb. -- Federal regulators have ordered Union Pacific railroad to make sure a livestock producer gets the grain it needs in California to prevent millions of chickens and hundreds of thousands of cattle from starving. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board told the railroad it must improve service to Foster Farms to keep it from running out of feed for livestock it raises. It's is the second time in the past year regulators issued an emergency order related to delivery problems at Foster Farms, which is based in Livingston, California, as the railroad struggled with a shortage of crews. This time, however, Union Pacific blamed the weather for its problems. Spokesman Mike Jaixen said last month's extreme cold and blizzard conditions slowed deliveries in 20 of...

New York has announced a $100 million settlement with Coinbase over what state officials called significant failures in the cryptocurrency trading platform’s systems for spotting potential criminal activity NEW YORK -- New York announced a $100 million settlement with Coinbase on Wednesday over what state officials called significant failures in the cryptocurrency trading platform's systems for spotting potential criminal activity. According to the state Department of Financial Services, Coi NBA se's anti-money-laundering program and its system for monitoring transactions for suspicious activity were inadequate for a company of Coi NBA se's size and complexity. The department said that the volume of alerts generated by Coi NBA se's transaction monitoring system grew so fast that reports of suspicious activity were sometimes filed months after the suspicious activity was first known to Coi NBA se. “It is critical that all financial institutions safeguard their systems...

The European Union has “strongly encouraged” its member states to impose pre-departure COVID-19 testing of passengers from China, in a move that is likely to upset Beijing and has already been criticized by the global airline industry BRUSSELS -- The European Union on Wednesday “strongly encouraged” its member states to impose pre-departure COVID-19 testing of passengers from China, in a move that is likely to upset Beijing and has already been criticized by the global airline industry. Following a week of talks between EU health experts, the bloc stopped short of agreeing that all 27 member states impose such a travel restriction that members like Italy, France and Spain had already implemented at a national level. Instead, it only urged nations to do so. China has already vehemently rejected such actions, warning of “countermeasures” if such policies were to be imposed across the bloc. Even though the EU presidency said in a statement that the member states “agreed on a coordinated ...

A huge opioid settlement dragged Walgreens to a $3.7 billion loss in its fiscal first quarter, but the drugstore chain still beat Wall Street forecasts A huge opioid settlement dragged Walgreens to a $3.7 billion loss in its fiscal first quarter, but the drugstore chain still beat Wall Street forecasts. The company also reaffirmed its earnings forecast for the new year. Walgreens said Thursday that it recorded a $5.2 billion, after-tax charge in the quarter that ended Nov. 30 for opioid-related litigation. Walgreens and rival CVS Health Corp. finalized last month a settlement with state and local governments to resolve lawsuits related to opioid abuse. Opioids have been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. in the past two decades. Drugstores were subject to claims that they should have realized they were filling too many opioid prescriptions. Not counting that charge, Walgreens adjusted earnings totaled $1.16 per share in the quarter. Sales slipped less than 2% to $33.4 bil...

Federal Reserve officials suggested at their most recent meeting that a continuing streak of robust hiring could keep inflation elevated and was a key reason why they expected to raise interest rates this year more than they had previously forecast WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve officials suggested at their most recent meeting that a continuing streak of robust hiring could keep inflation elevated and was a key reason why they expected to raise interest rates this year more than they had previously forecast. In the minutes of their mid-December meeting released Wednesday, the officials also underscored that a slowdown in their rate hikes — from four three-quarter point hikes in a row to a half-point increase — “was not an indication of any weakening” in their resolve to bring inflation back down to their 2% target. Nor did the smaller increase signal “a judgment that inflation was already on a persistent downward path," the minutes said. Instead, the risks remained that inflati...

Asian shares are mostly higher after Wall Street benchmarks fell on worries that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates TOKYO -- Asian shares were mostly higher Friday after Wall Street benchmarks fell on worries that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates. Markets rose in Japan, Australia, South Korea and China in muted trading . Oil prices rose. Hot readings on the U.S. jobs market Thursday got traders thinking the Fed will need to keep inflicting pain on the economy to fight surging prices. Inflation has been easing from a peak of 9.1% in June to 7.1% in November and investors have been hoping for signs that could prompt the Fed to ease up on applying the brakes to the economy with high interest rates. Those hopes have been dashed so far. The strong labor market reports set the stage for the release on Friday of the Labor Department’s snapshot of hiring in December. “Overall risk sentiments could lean more toward a wait-and-see in the lead-up ...

When Scott Steffes leaves Michigan’s Parnall Correctional Facility this month he expects to walk into a new life with a new career that will take him upward of 25 feet above ground JACKSON, Mich. -- When Scott Steffes leaves Michigan's Parnall Correctional Facility this month he anticipates entering a new career that will take him upward of 25 feet (7.6 meters) above ground. Steffes, 37, is one of more than a dozen prisoners learning how to climb trees and trim branches around power lines as part of DTE Energy's $70 million plan to improve the utility's electric infrastructure. “This has helped my situation in getting prepared for the outside world,” Steffes said, minutes after lowering himself by rope from wooden posts in one of the yards outside Parnall’s Vocational Village, 78 miles (125 kilometers) west of Detroit. Prisoners who participate in the tree-trimming program at Vocational Village receive a daily stipend of between 94 cents and $1.31. Steffes has served four...

Southwest Airlines canceled more than 16,000 flights over 11 days, a government filing said. The holiday meltdown at Southwest Airlines last month cost the company as much as $825 million in lost revenue and added expenses, the company said in a government filing on Friday. Southwest Airlines, the largest domestic airline in the U.S., canceled more than 16,000 flights over an 11-day period at the end of December, the filing said. The disarray amid a massive snowstorm stranded droves of customers during a peak travel season, prompting the company to apologize and offer reimbursement for inconvenienced travelers. "The cost is definitely a significant amount," Ross Feinstein, industry veteran and former director of operations communications at American Airlines, told ABC News. "I'm not surprised that this is the hit they will ultimately take, in terms of the sheer number of passengers affected and the number of flights canceled," added Feinstein. MORE: 'Disrup...

China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government's policies on the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country moves to further open up BEIJING -- China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s policies on the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country moves to further open up. The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers and issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts. The ruling Communist Party had largely relied on the medical community to justify its harsh lockdowns, quarantine measures and mass testing, almost all of which it abruptly abandoned last month, leading to a surge in new cases that have stretched medical resources to their limits. The party allows no direct criticism and imposes strict limits on free speech. The company “will continue to increase the investigation and clea...