National Business

NEW YORK — Those $600 stimulus checks got Americans shopping again. After three months of declines, retail sales soared a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in January from the month before, the U.S. Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Eroding trust in scientists, CEOs and journalists could hamper the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Canada, according to a new survey that links vaccine hesitancy with poor "information hygiene.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A spot on the Atlantic City Boardwalk where movie stars, athletes and rock stars used to party — and a future president honed his instincts for bravado and hype — was reduced to a dusty pile of rubble on Wednesday.

TOKYO — Japan launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign Wednesday, months after other major economies started giving shots and amid questions about whether the drive would would reach enough people quickly enough to save a Summer Olympics already

Companies that shifted their retail efforts online during the pandemic made their first sales with Shopify Inc. software every 28 seconds, the company said as it reported its fourth-quarter revenue nearly doubled compared with a year earlier.

OTTAWA — Canada's national annual inflation rate was 1.0 per cent in January, Statistics Canada says.

BRUSSELS — Amid signs that more infectious coronavirus variants are spreading unchecked across Europe, governments and EU leaders scrambled Wednesday to speed up vaccine efforts that have been hampered by limited supplies and to fund ways to hunt dow

OTTAWA — Canada's national annual inflation rate was 1.0 per cent in January, Statistics Canada says. Here's what happened in the provinces (previous month in brackets): — Newfoundland and Labrador: 1.5 per cent (0.6) — Prince Edward Island: 0.

TOKYO — Japan's first coronavirus shots were given to health workers Wednesday, beginning a vaccination campaign considered crucial to holding the already delayed Tokyo Olympics.

NEW ORLEANS — Music blared from the courtyard of a French Quarter restaurant on Mardi Gras morning but nobody was there to hear it until Tom Gibson and Sheila Wheeler of Philadelphia walked out of their hotel’s nearly empty lobby.