AP National Business

By KELVIN CHAN and MATT O’BRIEN Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Facebook says it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform. The company said in a blog post Sunday that those high-skilled workers will help build “the metaverse,” a futuristic notion

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s total number of coronavirus infections has topped 8 million and the daily infection toll hit a new record. The national coronavirus task force said Monday that 34,325 new infections over the past day raised the pandemic-long total to 8,027,012. That figure represents more than 5% of

LONDON (AP) — Ford Motor Co. plans to spend up to 230 million pounds to turn a transmission factory in northwest England into a plant that will make electric power units for cars and trucks sold throughout Europe. The carmaker said Monday that the Halewood plant would begin producing the power units, which replace the

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer World shares are mostly lower after China reported its economy grew at a meager 4.9% annual pace in July-September. Benchmarks declined in Paris, Frankfurt, Shanghai and Tokyo but rose in Hong Kong and Sydney. U.S. futures edged lower. On Friday, Wall Street added to its recent gains, with the

By TAIJING WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Taiwanese company that manufactures smartphones for Apple Inc. and other global brands says it plans to make electric cars for auto brands under a similar contract model. The chairman of Foxconn Technology Group said it will produce cars and buses for brands in China, North

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government has begun its legal challenge to a judge’s landmark decision that the administration has a duty of care to prevent future climate change. The Federal Court battle over a proposed coal mine expansion comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison battles to persuade his

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer A college basketball player hatched the idea after seeing a discrimination case nearly implode his own team, then wondering why it took so long to get to the facts. Ten years later, that player’s idea provides a key tool for fixing a sports landscape teeming with cases of sexual

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Queensland state plans to open to vaccinated travelers, ending the status it has enjoyed throughout the pandemic of being virtually free of COVID-19. Tight border controls helped make Queensland and Western Australia among the most successful states in keeping out COVID-19. They’ve been reluctant to

The Associated Press Tesla reports its third-quarter results Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors issues its September tally of U.S. home sales Thursday. American Express serves up its latest quarterly results Friday.

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer Asian shares are mostly lower after China reported its economy grew at a meager 4.9% annual pace in July-September. Benchmarks declined in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo but rose in Sydney and Seoul. On Friday, Wall Street added to its recent gains, with the benchmark S&P 500 posting its

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is on a mission to save American jobs — one computer chip at a time. As President Joe Biden’s de facto tech minister, Raimondo is tasked with ensuring the United States will be the world leader in computer chips. The Democratic president’s political

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Almost overnight, Japan has become a stunning, and somewhat mysterious, coronavirus success story. Daily new COVID-19 cases have plummeted after a mid-August peak that nearly reached 6,000 in Tokyo, with caseloads in the densely populated capital now below 100, an 11-month low. Possible factors include, after a

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — China’s economic growth sank in the last quarter as a slowdown in construction and curbs on energy use weighed on its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Government data show the world’s second-largest economy grew by 4.9% over a year earlier in July-September, down from the previous

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook says it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform. The company said in a blog post Sunday that those high-skilled workers will help build “the metaverse,” a futuristic notion for connecting people online that encompasses

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Celebrities have joined Prince William in London for the inaugural awards ceremony of his Earthshot Prize. The ambitious environmental program aims to find new ideas and technologies around the world to tackle climate change and Earth’s most pressing challenges. Actors Emma Thompson, Emma Watson and David Oyelowo

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press Investigators believe a massive cargo ship dragging anchor in rough seas caught an underwater oil pipeline and pulled it across the seafloor, months before a leak from the line fouled the Southern California coastline. A team of federal investigators trying to chase down the cause of the spill boarded the

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Farmers and Deere & Co. suppliers are worried about what the strike at the tractor maker’s factories will mean for their livelihoods. More than 10,000 Deere employees went on strike last week at 14 Deere factories in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia after the United Auto Workers union rejected a

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer “Halloween Kills” may be available to watch at home, but the latest installment in the Michael Myers saga is making a killing at the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters. Studio estimates Sunday show the David Gordon Green-directed horror scared up $50.4 million from 3,705

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press Some cities are urging President Joe Biden’s administration to loosen its rules for spending $350 billion of coronavirus relief money directed toward state and local governments. The American Rescue Plan already provides significant leeway on spending decisions. But local governments that can show revenue losses have even greater flexibility

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Once-endangered alligators are thriving in the wild, so Louisiana authorities are proposing another cut in the percentage that farmers must return to marshes where their eggs were laid. The big armored reptiles don’t breed well in captivity, so farmers are allowed to collect eggs from wild