President Joe Biden on Friday announced his intent to nominate former Obama Treasury official Michael Barr as the vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve, a move that would install a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 as the nation’s top banking regulator.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The board of another big public pension system in Pennsylvania voted Friday to sell off its Russia-related investments, amid bipartisan calls from lawmakers and top state officials to respond to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The International Energy Agency’s 31 member countries agreed Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves — half of that from the United States — “to send a strong message to oil markets” that supplies won’t fall short after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

CHICAGO (AP) — More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant.

Two new British studies provide some early hints that the omicron variant of the coronavirus may be milder than the delta version.

They both carved out sterling reputations as military and political leaders over years of public service. But both also saw their legacies tarnished by their actions in the long, bloody war in Iraq.

BEIJING (AP) — To help make China a self-reliant “technology superpower,” the ruling Communist Party is pushing the world’s biggest e-commerce company to take on the tricky, expensive business of designing its own processor chips — a business unlike anything Alibaba Group has done before.

Stocks edged mostly higher on Wall Street in afternoon trading Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 within striking distance of another all-time high.

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of flights were cancelled Wednesday as the omicron variant creates havoc both for travelers and for airlines that are having to cobble together flight crews as pilots, flight attendants and ground crews become infected or are exposed to others who have been.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — At least one food court vendor has announced that it is pulling out of the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show citing concerns about the health of farmers and volunteers amid a rise in COVID-19 infection rates.