National Business

LONDON — Britain's medical regulator warned Wednesday that people with a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn’t get the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, and investigators looked into whether two reactions on the first day of the U.

TORONTO — Canopy Growth Corp. will cease operations at five facilities across the country and lay off more than 200 workers — the latest in a series of dramatic cuts the cannabis company and several others have made this year. Smiths Falls, Ont.

Calgary-based Whitecap Resources Inc. is cementing its position as a consolidator of conventional oil and gas producers in Western Canada with a friendly $550-million all-stock deal to buy rival TORC Oil & Gas Ltd.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Commercial flights with Boeing 737 Max jetliners resumed Wednesday for the first time since they were grounded worldwide following two deadly accidents nearly two years ago.

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers advertised slightly more job openings in October, but hiring slipped as a resurgence of COVID-19 threatens the economic recovery. And the number of Americans fired or laid off rose for the first time since June.

MONTREAL — Hydro-Quebec has launched a new energy storage business aimed at power producers, transmission providers and distributors, as well as commercial and industrial markets. The utility says EVLO Energy Storage Inc.

TORONTO — Clothing retailer Roots reported its third-quarter profit rose compared with a year ago as the company cut costs. Roots says it earned $10.3 million or 24 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Oct.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — An explosion damaged a Polish supermarket in a Dutch town near Amsterdam early Wednesday morning, the third such blast in two days.

GRASS VALLEY, Calif. — Retired Air Force Brig. Gen.

NEW YORK — Since the presidential election, CNN has been on one of its best competitive rolls in almost two decades, enough that it is taking out newspaper ads touting its success. Between Nov. 4 and Sunday, CNN has averaged 1.