WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House says President Joe Biden is awaiting an infrastructure counteroffer from Senate Republicans. However, talks stalled before the Remembrance Day deadline. A core group of GOP negotiators rejected Biden's latest $ 1.7 trillion proposal as being too big. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday the president was “eager to deal with Republicans.” No new discussions are planned. Psaki said Republicans “had a lot of work to do” to find common ground with the government. Biden lost $ 500 billion from its original $ 2.3 trillion bid. Psaki said Republicans had increased their offer by about $ 50 billion from $ 568 billion.
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Biden's solar ambitions collide with work complaints in China
BEIJING (AP) – The Biden government's ambitions for solar energy clash with complaints that global industry depends on Chinese raw materials that may be produced through forced labor. One major hurdle is polysilicon, which is used to make solar panels. Global industry sources 45% of its supply from Xinjiang, the northwest region, where the ruling Communist Party is accused of mass minority incarceration and other abuses. Other parts of China provide 35%. Only 20% are from US and other manufacturers. Biden's climate officer John Kerry says Washington is deciding whether to block solar products from Xinjiang. This would run counter to President Joe Biden's plans to reduce US climate change-related carbon emissions by promoting solar energy.
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Stocks rise on Wall Street as an appetite for risk returns
NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street as investors regained risk appetites after two straight weeks of losing major indices. The S&P 500 rose 1% on Monday, with technology stocks leading gains. Microsoft and Google's parent company both gained more than 2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.4%. Safe play sectors such as utilities lagged the rest of the market. Virgin Galactic rose nearly 28% after making its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the edge of space on a manned shuttle over the weekend. The return on the 10-year treasury fell to 1.60%.
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Mexico buys Shell's stake in the Texas refinery for $ 600 million
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico will announce that it will purchase Shell's 50% stake in the joint Deer Park refinery near Houston. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday that Mexico will pay about $ 600 million for the facility, which is already processing a lot of Mexican crude. It is part of López Obrador's central policy to build, buy or renovate oil refineries as most countries try to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. The Mexican president recently complained that Deer Park had provided no benefits to Mexico under the current system. But he admitted that 340,000 barrels of crude oil are processed every day.
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Judge will deal with the Apple App Store guidelines when the Epic trial ends
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) – The judge setting up a case questioning Apple's stranglehold on the iPhone app store has announced that she wants to encourage more competition. However, it seems they also agree that this should be done without slashing a commission system that is raising billions of dollars for the tech powerhouse. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers opened a window on her thinking during a three-hour session with lawyers from Apple and its opponent Epic Games on the final day of a three-week trial. The judge appeared to be on Apple's side in defense of the commissions charged for in-app purchases on iPhones, but also openly wondered whether apps should alert consumers to other payment options.
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Russian is said to be deported after a failed Tesla ransomware plot
RENO, Nevada (AP) – A Russian man has been sentenced to a serving time and is deported for attempting to pay a Tesla employee $ 500,000 to install computer malware to steal company secrets as a ransom . Egor Kriuchkov apologized to a federal judge in Reno, Nevada Monday. The judge admitted that the attempted hack was unsuccessful and the corporate network was not affected. Kriuchkov, 27, has been in detention in Los Angeles since his arrest last August and will remain in custody until he leaves the country. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, previously admitted that his company was the target of the program.
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Peloton plans to build its first US factory in Ohio and create 2,000 jobs
NEW YORK (AP) – Peloton plans to spend approximately $ 400 million to build its first U.S. factory in Ohio. The manufacturer of training equipment announced on Monday that the Peloton Output Park will produce the Peloton Bike, Bike + and Peloton Tread from 2023. It will have more than 200 acres and more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing, office and equipment space. The site will eventually employ more than 2,000 people. The exercise equipment maker has been working to keep up with increasing demand during the pandemic.
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The new concourse for Los Angeles International Airport, valued at $ 1.7 billion, opens
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A huge new concourse with 15 gates valued at $ 1.73 billion has opened at Los Angeles International Airport. The West Gates extension went live on Monday after a ceremony marking more than four years of work on a $ 14.5 billion airport modernization project. The hall will serve international and domestic flights. The five-story, 750,000-square-foot West Gates concourse is located west of the Tom Bradley International Terminal and is 1,700 feet long. Officials say it is a digital travel experience. It includes biometric gates, thousands of electrical outlets, wireless internet, and touchscreen kiosks.
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The S&P 500 rose 41.19 points, or 1%, to 4,197.05. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 186.14 points, or 0.5%, to 34,393.98. The Nasdaq rose 190.18 points, or 1.4%, to 13,661.17. The Russell 2000 Smaller Business Index rose 12.07 points, or 0.5%, to 2,227.34.