National Business

WASHINGTON — U.S. manufacturing posted a strong gain in October to the highest level in two years even as coronavirus cases have begun to surge again in many parts of the country.

TORONTO — Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. announced a deal Monday to buy Friendly Stranger Holdings Corp., the longtime cannabis advocate. Under the agreement, Fire & Flower will issue 31.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — U.S. construction spending rose 0.3% in September, the fourth straight monthly gain after a coronavirus-caused spring swoon. The Commerce Department reported Monday that the September gain followed followed a revised gain of 1.

TORONTO — Yamana Gold Inc. says it has signed a deal to buy Monarch Gold Corp.

OMAHA, Neb. — Five of the six states with the nation’s lowest unemployment rates are in the Midwest, have Republican governors and have almost no restrictions intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

BERLIN — A shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste arrived Monday at a port in northern Germany, and authorities were braced for likely protests as it is transported across the country to a storage site.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Thousands of workers in Indonesia on Monday continued their protests against the country’s new jobs law that critics say will erode labour rights and weaken environmental protections.

BERLIN — A four-week partial shutdown has started in Germany, with restaurants, bars, theatres , cinemas and other leisure facilities closing down until the end of the month in a drive to flatten a rapid rise in coronavirus infections.

SAO PAULO — Protesters have gathered in Brazil’s two biggest cities to demonstrate against any mandate for the taking of a coronavirus vaccine, supporting a rejection campaign encouraged by President Jair Bolsonaro in opposition to the advice of most

DELTA, B.C. — A prominent Canadian cannabis producer says a fire in Delta, B.C. has broken out at one of its disused greenhouses. Canopy Growth says the blaze in delta, B.C. is located at a facility that has not been in operation for several months.